July 22nd, 2013 at 6:00 am 
by Evan Bladh The game is fun again. The Dodgers are playing their best ball of the year. The injuries from earlier weeks are slowly becoming a somewhat distant memory. The bullpen is lights out. There are always at least two hot hitters in the lineup every game and the starting pitching is providing quality start after quality start.
That’s what 20-5 does for your baseball psyche. While we were just hoping to get back to .500 three weeks ago, now we’d be disappointed if the club doesn’t go on a tear and run away with the division.
In their last 25 games, the Dodgers are 20-5. That’s exactly .800 baseball.
(Photo credit – Matt York)
It is no longer Hanley and Puig carrying the offense. Now there are other players as the hitting has become contagious. The ball club is clicking on all cylinders and winning series after series.
So before we get all excited and overconfident let me just say this. 1982.
Yes, you read it right, “1-9-8-2.”
That was the year when the Dodgers came back from a 10-game deficit on the Braves and in a period of twelve days, they passed Atlanta in the standings. On July 30 they were 10 back and on August 9th they were 1/2 game ahead. We were giddy with excitement. We couldn’t believe that they could come back from so far in such a short period of time. It was historic at the time. Now, sweeping Atlanta in eight games during that time frame played a big part in it all, but it showed that leads can disappear real fast in this grand old game. And just as quick as a team can take a division lead, they can also hand it right back.
The 1982 Dodgers were the defending World Champions. They were a confident bunch stacked with a ton of great players like Cey, Garvey, Baker, Yeager, Valenzuela, Reuss, Welch, Howe, Sax and Russell. There was hardly anyone in baseball that thought they’d surrender the division lead that year, especially after streaking to surpass Atlanta in a twelve day period, but that’s exactly what happened.
They played a little over .500 ball the rest of the way, (25-24) and finished the year at 88-74, one game behind the Braves. Worst of all, they were three games ahead in the division lead with ten games to play, and they coughed it up, losing seven of their last ten, including a stretch of six in a row. It was a painful finish to what could have been a marvelous, even historic season. It could have been the first back-to-back World Series titles in the 130-year history of the Dodger franchise, but it was not to be.
We all remember game number 162 when Joe Morgan homered off of Terry Forster at Candlestick and two innings later as the Dodgers walked off the field eliminated from the race, but the season was lost much earlier in the month. That team could have put away the division much earlier and padded their lead, but they failed to do so. They had played as though they thought that the rest of the division had already conceded the title to them, after all, they were the defending World Champions, right? It was their undoing, their coup de grâce.
Next to the Bobby Thompson home run in 1951, Joe Morgan’s 8th inning blast off of Dodger reliever Terry Forster to eliminate the Dodgers from winning the 1982 NL West title is perhaps the second worst in Dodger history. (AP photo)
So I don’t write this to be all doom and gloom. I simply write this to remind everyone that the ball club can’t rest on it’s laurels and get all excited about their resurgence when there is still a lot of baseball to be played. It’s time to pile it on and to step on the accelerator. While they’re hot, they’ve got to keep it up.
Slumps come and winning streaks don’t last forever. While things are going right, you want to prolong it as long as possible. The Dodgers have enough pieces in place that its hard to believe that they could all start faltering at once, but it has happened before.
So please forgive me if I’m not prepared to celebrate the division championship yet. History has told me that premature celebrations can lead to disappointment.
I won’t lie though, it sure is sweet to watch Dodger baseball lately.
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RT @Think_BlueLA: New post – Dodgers need to prevent history from repeating itself
RT @Think_BlueLA: New post – Dodgers need to prevent history from repeating itself
I will never forget that Morgan home run, Evan. It was fortunate that it happened in the last game of the 1982 season because I was so mad that Forester and the Dodgers had blown a golden opportunity to win back-to-back World Series titles that I actually quit being a Dodger fan – which, of course, lasted until opening day 1983.
When Steve Finley hit his grand slam to beat the Giants in the final game of the 2004 season to capture the NL West title, my very first thought was that damn Joe Morgan home run (and the Thompson home run, of course).
Trust me, the thought of the Dodgers blowing this season is always on my mind and it’s not a matter of doom and gloom – it’s a fear of history repeating itself.
There are a couple of factors that could come into play as to why this team could get to the post season. First factor is health. If they stay healthy, they may continue to do well now that they have temporarily taken off the mental yoke of “most expensive team” and have shown that when everyone is healthy they can win consistently. Of course, they are going to have to do more than just win a few games but go into the playoffs and succeed. Even though Kemp twisted an ankle last night (which appears to not be serious), his first game back gave me hope that he is going to come out of this slump along with a good game from Crawford. Second factor, is the weak NL West. I keep looking at the Arizona lineup and wonder how this team wins at all – Gibson managerial magic? SF in disarray, Padres finally showed their true colors, and Colorado doesn’t look like a team that can compete with their pitching staff. I am biased but I think the stars have aligned. Toss in a surprise trade deadline acquisition and this team is good to go.
I agree completely, Robb; but I have to ask you one question – the last time that you sprained an ankle, how long did it take to heal to the point to where you could run put full weight on it and run on it?
The best case scenario (IMHO) is 10 days to two weeks. Can the Dodgers afford to be down a guy for that long? I say no. They should just bite the bullet and DL Kemp for 15 days (which is probably a legitimate recovery time for a sprained ankle) and have SVS available off the bench as a PH and to spell the other OFs.
Just my $.02.
Well considering that Kemp decided to not run full speed on it when the ankle was fine (therefore causing the injury in the first place), I don’t see much of an issue with him continuing to play.
note: that comment was made with sarcasm in mind. Still irked about his bonehead play that caused the injury.
How frustrating! I was very excited because the home run swing in particular was the old Kemp from early 2012. It was the first time in a long time that he look like his old self at the plate.
I agree that he will be out of the lineup. How long in the question. The party line is that it was not a serious strain but it looked a lot worse in the video.
How right you are, Evan. Jim Bowden said the same thing on ‘Inside Pitch’ this morning.
I agree, give that ankle ample time to mend!!!
I just thought that I’d bring up that none of these NL West teams has a “Chief-knock-a homer”. Remember when the Braves decided to retire him just before that Braves’ collapes in ’82 and then they felt that that may’ve been the reason for the collaspe and decided to rehire him and they were right and the Braves regained the lead.
Chief Noc-A-Homa. Man, I forgot about that dude. They took down his tee-pee and said it obstructed the views of too many seats, which was laughable since the Braves would never sell out.
They added a Princess “Win-A-Lotta” which was something the Braves didn’t do of much back then. Both were gone by the mid-80s.
RT @Think_BlueLA: New post – Dodgers need to prevent history from repeating itself – http://t.co/s9ILuTTF3P #Dodgers #Dodgerfam