Although I am a lifelong Dodger fan and a longtime Dodgers season ticket holder, I am an absolute rookie at this blogging stuff. As such, I’m sure that you can imagine how excited I was to receive approval to participate in the Dodgers blog spot within the Vin Scully Press Box this past season. I was fortunate enough to do so at least once for (almost) every home stand and occasionally twice.

I have to admit that it has been quite overwhelming and very intimidating, to say the least. I mean really now, here I am an absolute nobody, yet I was blessed to meet and hang around with the biggest names in Dodger broadcasting history including Vin Scully, Jaime Jarrín, Pepe Yñiguez (a super guy), Fernando Valenzuela, Kevin Kennedy, David Vassegh, Rick Monday, Charlie Steiner, and even a few broadcasters from visiting teams like Luis Gonzales from the Diamondbacks. And of course, I also got to know quite a few of the written media people (and fellow bloggers) who cover the Dodgers on a daily basis, guys like Dylan Hernandez, Steve Dilbeck, J.P. Hoornstra, Alex Angert, Mark Saxon, Maria Serrao (who is an absolute sweetheart, not to mention my Bluetopia sister), and of course the guy who literally showed me the ropes, Eric Stephen from True Blue LA.

…and then there’s T.J. Simers.

I will be the very first to admit that I am not, nor have I ever been a T.J. Simers fan. His pompous, antagonistic, arrogant and condescending attitude and negativity have always been a turnoff to me, and from what I hear and read, for a lot of other people as well. I certainly understand that most reporters and writers have their own nitch or shtick and I also understand that controversy sells newspapers, but Simers takes this to an entirely new level.

What does any of this have to do with a Dodgers blog site? Quite a bit actually. On more than one occasion, I have personally witnessed T.J. “get into it” with Dodger players, coaches and especially Dodgers manager Don Mattingly, almost daily, in fact. Heck, I even witnessed him get into it with Tommy Lasorda.

Prior to Monday night’s game against the Giants (a huge game, mind you), I watched Simers relentlessly antagonize Dodgers right fielder Andre Ethier in the Dodger clubhouse before BP. Simers was hounding on Ethier about his inability to hit lefties and for being benched by Mattingly in the recent San Diego series. And while I am an absolute nobody and newcomer to all of this player interview stuff, even I know that engaging in a sensitive or controversial conversation or interview with any player with so very much at stake is just plain stupid. (I think the words common sense and common decency would apply here).

I get that T.J. Simers absolutely thrives on being the perpetual antagonist, but come on now, this is completely out of line. And while Simers will undoubtedly say something about his prodding of Ethier leading to Andre’s crucial 2-run home run in Monday night’s game, the bottom line is that T.J. is, simply put, a Total Jerk (pun intended).

After causing Ethier to leave the clubhouse in a huff to take BP, Simers made his way into the Dodgers dugout for the daily Mattingly media conference where, without missing a step, he went right to work on Mattingly, as well:

Simers: I had a chat with Andre Ethier (in the clubhouse) about not hitting lefties and he claimed that it was all media stuff.

Mattingly: Dylan (Hernandez) brought this up the other day and it’s just not the right time for me. Again, we talked about the importance of the game and the situation.

Simers: What happened, all of a sudden this real intensity about the season with two games… three games to play all of a sudden? I mean do you really believe that you’re going to win it… that you’ve got a shot?

Mattingly: Yep. Didn’t we talk about mathematics down in San Diego?

Simers: Ya, we did… ya.

Mattingly: Good, there’s another (topic we’ve already talked about). Did you take your medicine today?

(laughs from the rest of the gathered media)

And a little later:

Simers: You haven’t looked (to Thursday) with your pitching?

Mattingly: Nope… not really.

Simers: Some teams take… like… their clothes on the road like they’re going to go to the next place just to fake out the players like they really mean it.

Mattingly: It’s Monday.

Simers: You’ve already got (the next three) wins down… in your head.

Mattingly: Well, you’ve got to win one before you can win two.

Simers: No, you’ve got to at least win all three across the board.

Mattingly: Well, I can’t win all three today, so we’ll try to win one today.

(more laughs)

Simers: Ok… that’s progress.

Mattingly: And then we’ll move on to number two.

Simers: Ok.

As you can see, Mattingly is clearly on to T.J. Simers, and to his credit, doesn’t fall for it and usually ends up making Simers look like a fool. But exactly as expected, Simers twisted it all around and came out with an article in today’s L.A. Times that paints an entirely different picture of what actually happened to make it sound as though everything is all fine and good between he and Ethier and that he is a fair and impartial (ya right) journalist. And while I do not like Simers’ form of journalism at all, I accept that it’s just “T.J. being T.J.” (I hope you get the connection here). But screwing with the Dodger players at such an extremely critical time is not only unprofessional, it’s just plain sleazy.

Again, I am but a lowly blogger, but I just thought that you should know what really went on yesterday with T.J. Simers – medicine induced or otherwise.