Dodger Decades: Best of the Aughts (to have won a World Series *grumblegumble*)

I went with Milwaukee Brewin’ for the regular season. Tough call for the postseason between Lima/Loney. Have you noticed that the postseason heroics have been paced by unlikely players like Lima, Loney, Padilla, and Loretta? The L’s dominate the postseason.

I had to go with Finley’s walk off slam. My wife’s a Giants fan and was prematurely celebrating. Till the 9th inning came and even He Sop Choi came through (with a walk of course), but as soon as he hit that ball it was over.

Winning the division is nice, but ending the Giants’ season at the same time was epic.

The top moments would be:
Milwaukee Brewin
Finley walk off
Loney Homerun.

Those are the most memorable of three (as in I remember exactly where I was for all of them.) I missed the 4+1 game and it still bums me out that I missed seeing that game.

The Cora homerun was also memorable, if inconsequential. I can’t see Loretta on the same level, if only because I still maintain Belliard was the real hero in that game. He came up with all the pressure and belted a single to tie the game on the first pitch. The game was already tied when Loretta walked to the plate; he was playing with house money. Belliard will be forgotten, which kind of sucks.

I like that there is one vote for “other moment”, but no comment.

1. 4+1
2. Loretta’s single (entire bottom of 9th inning in Game 2 2009 NLDS.
3. BobbleSlam
4. Hudson’s Cycle ends nearly 4 decade drought.

But its no contest, I will go to games for the rest of my life and I won’t see another 4+1 game.

For an individual performance over a series of games/seasons, Gagne’s streak is the most amazing thing I saw, people would boo if the Dodgers happened to score in the 8th inning to remove a save possibility (fortunately the 2002-2004 Dodgers mostly complied by not scoring in those innings).

I recommended to a friend that he should be included in a fantasy trade (I think the outfielder in return was Garrett Anderson). Fortunately my friend did not take that advice.

The case for Loney: regular-season moments are great, but post-season moments really last. That Loney grand slam was the moment we could feel like the Dodgers could compete with and maybe beat the Cubs and finally advance in the playoffs again. Right up there for me with Baker’s slam against the Phillies in the LCS, Jay Johnstone’s big PH HR against the Yankees, Guerrero and Yeager going back-to-back against Guidrey.

My three finalists are, in no particular order, Loney, Green, 4+1. The latter two are obviously rare events.

That felt like a cleanse of all of the bad times in the playoffs (or not getting to the playoffs) that preceded it.

was the most exciting game I’ve seen this decade but that was because I was walking to my car when 4+ 1 occurred.

was also on the first pitch

What about Edwin beating RJ on his 20th birthday?!

Steve Kelley of the Seattle Times give us one of the most backhanded-complimentary apology articles ever, regarding Erik Bedard:

Not only that, but he might have been the most media-unfriendly Mariner since, I don’t know, Phil Bradley?

It was as if he were allergic to reporters. He answered questions in a monotone, often snickered at the questions we asked and never let us see what was behind his icy eyes.

It was that way from his first spring-training start in 2008 in Scottsdale, when he got hit hard by the San Francisco Giants and dismissed every question he was asked.

His personality (or lack of one) should have nothing to do with the way we covered him, but human nature being what it is, Bedard created an adversarial relationship which affected the way we (I) wrote about him

Mark Zuckerman worked for the Washington Times for nine years before the paper disbanded a few months ago. He is asking for donations to pay for him to cover spring training, figuring he can make the six-week trip for about $5,000. He’s about halfway to his goal right now.

Sounds like a better business plan than the Tony Jackson / LA Dodger Talk partnership last year at least.

I really don’t think it’s an exaggeration to say that 4+1 might be one of the greatest regular season games in the history of baseball, not just because of the rarity of the event itself, but how it unfolded, WHEN it unfolded, where the two teams were in the standings at the time, the relief pitcher the Dodgers ultimately ended up against in the 9th, etc. etc..

I must admit that Loney’s grandslam is probably a key reason (though not the only one) why I’m always defending him, but I digress…the best part of Loney’s grandslam, outside of the hit itself, was how those poor Cub fans thought he struck out on that foul tip. That was a particularly cruel touch- making it all the more enjoyable for us! (BTW, your title is great, but I also like “Loney is the Night.” :) )

Was fortunate enough to have been in the stands.
Padre fans sitting in front of us are mocking the Dodger fans as they begin leaving early.
Then boom, boom, boom, and boom.
Then the Padre fans wanted to make nice and went from Dodger insulters to Dodger high fivers.

That was so much fun.

Made me believe that there was a god. Crazy night that night was.

Simply for the emotional rollercoaster of the whole night within that whole month. Every emotion was there, anger at Peavy, redemption when they knocked him out. The up and down of the Furcal and Anderson homeruns with the poor pitching by Penny, Broxton and Saito. And then the homeruns, with Furcal hitting one to the track later in the 9th that I thought was gone. Then the Padres scored again, and you feel hopeless, until Lofton gets on…

I was driving to my friends wedding with three other Dodger fans listening to the game. When all of the sudden “POW” there it goes. The Dodgers win over the Giants. My car went crazy. Horn honking, cheering out loud. Man what a finish. 4+1 was awesome too. Heck, they all tie for the best.

but I was shocked by this picture. He just turned 60, but he looks much older to me in this photo:

The Loney slam, we had arrived, we were to be taken seriously. It was a quiet affirmation before a stunned crowd in Wrigley.

http://www.metacafe.com/watch/621502/four_straight_home_runs/

Here is the video if anyone want to watch again! crazy crazy~

(and many of the ones mentioned here are favorites, hard to choose from)…
But…
4+1.
Finley’s Walkoff.
Loney’s slam.
Gagne’s streak.

And of the favorite moments among games that didn’t mean as much, Cora’s battling at bat was one of my favorite individual at bats.

Great trip down memory lane.

It seemed at the time that it was the height of Mannywood, when in retrospect, it looks like Mannywood’s last hurrah.

“Kids are Alright” seems more geared toward 2006, no? Though Kemp and Loney’s official rookie seasons were in ’07, we were introduced to them, along with Ethier, Martin and Bills the year before. What a great pick-me-up after so many fans (full confession: myself included) figured that a dark, prolonged era had begun after 2005- and little did we know that dreary year, even that misery would be a huge positive, as it managed to spawn Kid K!

I was actually kind of shocked that so many people didn’t vote for it. To me, it’s a slam-dunk, no-doubt-about it pick. Comparing that to other moments of the decade is a little bit like comparing Michael Jordan to Will Perdue and Bill Wennington.

Just to be clear

In the DT comments, our former host raises a moment not mentioned here, but certainly noteworthy: no-hit and win.

Another good one from Dodger Thoughts comments:

SaMo Dodgerfan (2/9/2010 at 10:31 AM)
Personal fave: The 60th anniversary of Jackie’s first game. The Dodgers all wore #42, which is how I wrote them down in my scorecard. This was before the entire league decided to do it, which to my mind cheapened the effect.

but after reading Jon’s old DT post, how could I not vote for Cora’s at-bat? He’s the only sportswriter since Jim Murray that causes me pause after reading to soak in the literature.