Stiffing Vin

The Yard has taken a witness program approach to the blogosphere in recent months. With the apocalypse predicted and then rescheduled, the Bristol Palin Memoir hitting the presses and the Michele Bachmann Sarah Palin beauty pageant heating up for the Republican nomination, we figured it might be best to stay in hiding. The Los Angeles sports scene has smoldered into an acidic bloat of irrelevance during our sabbatical. The Dodgers demise had been predicted by Yard pundits since the first vestiges of the McCourt era. The Lakers championship run was expected to end at some just not this past May. The Bruins were supposed to find their way at some point but that point has long passed. In June of 2011, the axis of Yard myopia had crashed with the Yard hopes, dreams and three solid postings. The ruination came with such surprise, arrogance and anticipation that our staff was as bewildered as much as we were pissed off. The very malaise that has become LA sports and infected the creative juices of our fervor has resurrected our collective rage and keyboards. We had no choice but to get back to the Dell’s.

As the Dodgers swirled in the porcelain flushing our collective baseball history down with the rest of the feces, the bile spewing out of the McCourt’s divorce has grown exponentially in the City of apparently forgotten angels. Being a Dodger fan these days feels like being a plaintiff at a judicial hearing for custody of Dodgers. These unsettling events culminated in Frank McCourt dragging the Dodgers into bankruptcy this week to stave off Bud Selig’s quest to take control of the team. The bankruptcy filing was not a complete surprise as Frank tried to hang onto the one thing he never should have owned in the first place. Most of the creditors who were announced were as big a load as Spank McCourt. Steroid laden Manny Ramirez is owed $21 million. Tub of Goo Andruw Jones is owed $11 million. Marquis Grissom is owed $2 million and he has not been on the team since 2002. A last footnote in the filing was that Vin Scully is owed $153,000.

The biggest victim of this outrage is the most important living icon in all of LA sports history-Vin Scully. It is not the money, it is Vin Scully. He is a local treasure who is nationally revered. Vinnie was there when Jackie Robinson broke into baseball in 1947. He was there when the Boys of Summer won the Dodgers only title in Brooklyn in 1955. He was in the booth calling the games for every championship the Dodgers have ever won. Scully was in the booth for Don Larsen’s perfect game in 1956. He was calling Gibson’s two run shot in the 1988 World Series. He called the catch by Dwight Clark in the 1982 NFL playoffs. He called Jack Nicklaus dramatic victory over a stunned Johnny Miller and Tom Weiskopf in the 1975 Masters. He could have called any sport he wanted from 1975-1989 and he did. But he always was loyal to the Dodgers. He never wavered in his passion to bring the Dodger game into our homes, our cars and our lives.

So the McCourt owned Dodgers file BK and now owe Vin Scully $153,000. Are you kidding me? How low can the Frank stoop to save his unpaid for legacy that he now owes our selfless hero a buck and a half large? This is not some steroid laden overpaid leftfielder. This is not a fat centerfielder who hit ten home runs for his $20 million. This is Vin Scully, national hero, cultural icon and humble voice of the Dodgers. Scully is victim of these proceeding not just financially but because he agreed to return for another year unconditionally. He did not stick around another year for this shit at age 83. None of us did and none of us have as much invested as the godfather of Dodger baseball Vin Scully. Damn you to hell, Frank and that Jamie, and those overpaid kids you spawned and that psychic you paid to find the way and the light. FU, Pay Vin Scully!

Extra Innings: It is tragic that the Dodgers are wasting this time with the McCourt’s while all of their young heralded talent is starting to perform as advertised. Andre Ethier is in the top ten in hitting. Kershaw is leading the majors in strikeouts. Chad Billingsley is performing as the #2 starter should. And Matt Kemp is the MVP of the National League as the All Star break approaches. Kemp is having the kind of monster season that was long predicted after this his season two years ago. Last season he was focused on Rihanna’s whohaa and his performance at the plate suffered. This year while Rihanna is shopping her stuff around to other interested celebrities, Kemp is getting back to the skills that will earn him a contract that can get him any whohaa he wants.

“Good is not good when better is expected”. Vincent Edward Scully