DJ's Canvas: A Los Angeles Dodgers Fan Blog!

It’s no secret MLB players lead a hectic life. One can say well why not? They get paid big bucks, they should and it goes along with the lavish lifestyles of what most of the top dollar players make. Afterall, nothing in life is free and working hard to achieve your success comes with the territory. This can be said in any job we take seriously. However can this be said or really demanded of the Minor League player? You bet. They too are trying to aquire the same success as those who’ve made the big time scene. In fact, your Minor League player’s routine and lifestyle is far more grueling and hectic than those big stars at the MLB level.

Keep in mind, with each tier you move up in the Minors, the work becomes tougher and the daily grind is more demanding. You’re constantly trying to improve your game. There comes setback after setback, accompanied with injuries from pushing yourself too hard and too fast. Muscles and routines your body is getting used to, and it better if you’re planning on moving up. There comes failures, loss of self confidence in “Will I ever get better?” “Will I ever make it?” Then you get lifers. Lifers are full career Minor players who love the sport but just can’t make it up that ladder. They spend the rest of their careers just playing the game they enjoy but staying put in their respective level. You can also discover during your Minor stint, that you’ve either pushed yourself as far as you can go and whatever success you’ve achieved maybe the best you’ll see. Or you can see players just pack it in and give up all hope. While other players improve with each move up.

Reaching the top of that ladder is not easy for most players in A-AAA. In fact a study done years ago puts those who make it and stay at the MLB level, at 28%. Not a great percentage is it? But it just shows it’s like a diamond in the rough.

The mindset of a Minor Leaguer can take other major blows. Your MLB club calls you up for a short stint only to send you back down. This can happen many times for various reasons, and that alone can play on ones ego. Not to mention being sent back down the ladder to work harder on skills you’ve lost or are lacking. For some the ladder is nothing but an up and down yoyo as they continue their development.

And to think this is only tough on the players, it’s equally or more so for the families of those youngsters trying to move up that ladder. Relationships become more strained at the lower levels as traveling doesn’t follow the same accomadations as at the MLB level. Sure, there’s flights like MLB, but you won’t see lavish or nice seating at lower levels. The costs to operate Minor League affiliates are not the same as the MLB. Even bus rides are of the lower end scale. And hotel stays? Same, nothing to write home about. You’ll see more bus travel than any other form of transportation at the lower level. Can you imagine busing back n forth for hours and days?

Now some organizations try an encourage wives of players to travel with their spouses to ease the lonileness, while others let the players decide if it’s best to subject their families to the same lifestyles.

All in all your Minor League player follows the same routine: Eat, sleep, workout, games and travel.

So who pays for their up and down expenses from Minors to MLB levels when called up and called down? The player’s expenses are covered by his MLB affiliate. This includes travel, hotel, food etc. Example: DeWitt was called up and down of the most. The Dodgers covered those expenses.

Don’t get me started on the payscale for a Minor Leaguer. While some would say, “That’s not bad money.” Others or most would be quick to respond, “Not for what we go through.” Based on a more recent data survey taken on payscale for AAA, we get the following: For a AAA player who is consdered good to very good in his league, a player makes on the average of $35,000 to 75,000 including bonuses. As you move down the Minor League ladder those totals drop. More on what a Minor Leaguer gets as benefit would be medical plans. Most if not all players on the lower end of the Minors recieve on average; Medical 88%, Dental 38%, and vision 38% coverage.

Time in the minors is broken down as follows: 1-4 years service 44%, 5-9 years service 22% and 10-19 years service 22%

From a wives perspective it can be daunting or it can be “Go with the flow.” Minor Leaguer Mike O’Connor’s wife takes a different approach…

My name is Courtney O’Connor, and I am both a career woman and a baseball wife. With that being said, I have never been a full-time baseball wife and traveled with my husband. I struggle with this weird dichotomy every day.

I visit my husband every few weeks, and I rarely fit in with the other baseball wives. I can’t completely relate because I have never been a full-time baseball wife. At the same time, the full-time baseball wives can’t completely relate to me either. Sometimes I am questioned as to why I work or why I don’t support my husband full-time, and I tend to get defensive because I take pride in the sacrifices I’ve made to be both a baseball wife and a career woman. I want it all.

Mike and I met at George Washington University in Washington DC in 2000 when we were both 20 years old. We started dating our senior year of college right before September 11, 2001. We spent the entire day of September 11th together glued to the TV. We literally watched smoke pour out of the Pentagon from the window of our dorm. As our senior year of college came to a close, Mike mentioned that he might get drafted. I was completely blindsided because we were both finance majors and had both been interviewing for “real jobs.”

Mike got drafted in the 7th round of the 2002 draft by the Montreal Expos. Not too shabby considering he was never a highly touted college player nor did he go to a big baseball school. He played A ball from 2002 to 2005. By 2005, everyone was asking me when he was going to give up baseball and get a real job. Fast forward to 2006, he skipped AA, started the year in AAA, and three weeks later got called up to the big leagues with the Washington Nationals. He was playing in the city where we met, went to school, and lived. It was great having him “home.” Mike subsequently had a couple of injuries, but he spent about a year in big leagues from 2006 to 2008. This past year Mike played for the Buffalo Bisons (AAA for the Mets). He had a fantastic year, but he didn’t get the call despite his 2.67 ERA. Regardless, I had a fabulous summer watching Mike pitch online (via Gameday) and touring the International league a few weekends a month. Mike is headed to the Dominican Republican next week for winter ball. Ironically, I am headed to Los Angeles for business.

I love my husband dearly and have been extremely supportive over the years, but I have never been able to pull the plug on my career, education, dreams, or my own independence for baseball. I have a great job that I got by working hard and putting in a lot of time and effort. I carefully plotted out my college years and had an internship almost every semester, including one on Capitol Hill for Senator Joe Biden (now Vice President Biden). I studied abroad in Florence, Italy for a semester to take a break from my business courses. I learned Italian, took Art History classes, and traveled throughout Europe. Upon graduation, I worked as a Financial Analyst for America Online (AOL). For the past 6 years, I’ve worked for Marriott International at their corporate headquarters. I currently work in the Development, Planning & Feasibility group evaluating new hotel developments and potential hotel acquisitions, as well as asset management of existing hotels. I like the stability of working for a Fortune 500 company given the instability and uncertainty of baseball.

There are days that I really want to throw in the towel on my job and career, but I figure we’ve made it through 9 seasons already. What’s a few more? I really love my husband and my career. Our unique situation has made us a stronger couple, and as a result, we have a very solid marriage. After more than 9 years together (and apart due to baseball), we are more madly in love today than ever. Distance truly does make the heart grow fonder.

In closing, the next time we look at Minor League players grind it out on the field, hear of setbacks, hear of why a player isn’t at the MLB level, we can stop. Remind ourselves their life is a lot different, a lot more demanding and grueling than we ever had imagined. We will continue the hope they make it, we can cheer them on, but knowing only a mere handful ever make it to the top, we can only wish them the best.

There are some articles which are more dificult to write than others, and this is one of them.

It’s been 9 years since that fateful day and it still stands out to me as if it were yesterday. I remember being on the computer in a gaming IRC room chatting away with felow gamers. Moments before launching our game and having some fun, a user from Canada types, “Hey you’re under attack!” I thought immediately he was talking about our impending game or some reference to it. I said, “What?” He responded, “Turn on the *** tv!” I quickly turned on the set and sat in shock. The first Trade Tower had been hit. I sat there thinking at first, was this an accident? Minutes go by and yet another plane nails the second tower. I closed IRC and signed off, “I gotta go!” I spent that whole vacation day sitting in front of the set watching as events unfolded. My shock turned quickly to anger as I followed every channel I could, trying to get more and more information.

Earlier in the morning I had checked the Dodger schedule for the time of game. However, thoughts of waiting for the Dodgers to play later in the day, went completely out of my head. Games, whether it was myself playing with friends over the net, or my favorite team going head to head was not important anymore. Reality had set in and this was not a game. I spent the next few days melancholy and numb, trying to make sense of what had taken place.

Into the second day I started thinking how the players around the league were handling this. I mean some tend to think of movie stars and professional athletes as unaffected or uncaring by anything not related to baseball. This couldn’t be furthest from the truth.

Mo Vaugh: “When it happened, I was crazy,” said Vaughn, who learned of the tragedy as he was preparing to go the airport in Columbus, Ohio. He was there at his off-season home, rehabbing from arm surgery and readying for a trip to Boston. “All I thought was that this was unbelievable. It’s always going to be in your mind. You’ll never be able to forget.”

“I’m still mad and I want revenge. Whoever had any part in that, I want revenge. I get tired of people saying that America gets itself into things that it shouldn’t get itself into. This is the greatest country in the world. Go look and see how people in these Third World countries live. They have the terrorist types of things happen there. We don’t have these terrorist things happen here. It’s horrible.”

Jacob Cruz: “I was playing for Colorado, and we were in Arizona,” Jacob Cruz said. “I was just getting up, and one of my family members called me and told me what was happening. I remember just feeling shock. I still remember that eerie feeling.”

Cruz and the Rockies were stuck in Phoenix for several days.

“We weren’t allowed to fly back,” he remembered. “I think every team in Major League Baseball was kind of stranded.”

Todd Coffey: “I think people have forgotten what happened,” Coffey said. “I think we should show the footage every single day to let people know what al-Qaeda did, and why we’ve got people over there [in Afghanistan and Iraq] to protect people here. The fact that we’re over there is because of what happened on 9/11, so I think they should show it on TV, every single day.”

When the Yankees took the field in Chicago on Sept. 18, 2001, Bernie Williams couldn’t understand why he was about to play a baseball game.

Only one week had passed since the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks brought down the Twin Towers, and with New York City still in the midst of its anguish and mourning in the aftermath of the horrific events, playing the White Sox just didn’t feel right.

Until he took the field.

“When we started playing, I didn’t see the sense of it,” Williams said. “We were playing games and resuming our season, and it seemed ridiculous to me.

“It started making sense when I saw the faces of people who had lost loved ones, people who needed something to take them away for a few minutes and see something else,” he added. “We helped bring some sense of normalcy to the whole thing.”

“It was so surreal,” Williams said. “It seemed like it couldn’t be happening; it was like a bad dream. Unfortunately, it was real. I was home, and by the time I turned the TV on, the first tower was already hit. When the plane hit the second one, I thought I was watching a replay. People were debating whether it was an accident, but once the second one was hit, we knew we were being attacked.”

Baseball stadiums throughout the country went silent. Players were stranded and forced to take buses or trains to get to their destinations. This wasn’t a temporary setback, it lasted for days. Bud Selig, in addition to the FAA banning of flights, ordered all baseball games postponed for a week because of the terror attacks on New York and Washington. The games were postponed not only out of respect and mourning for the victims, but also out of concern for the safety and security of fans and players.

When you think of baseball, one thing comes to mind, America. And after days of discussion when or if the games would continue, the decision was made, the games must go on. Getting back to the fields for not only the players but the fans, would begin the healing process. To void games or continue to cancel events would only give credence to the terrorists success.

On that dreadful day, 2,996 people perished from 90 different countries and of course the 19 hijackers. The deaths were connected to all 3 crash sites. The Towers, Pentagon and the fields in Stonycreek Township, PA.

So many of the victims could not be identified. Some were never recovered, but every one of those who lost their lives or lost loved ones, are remembered to this day and will continue to be remembered.

At the end of the day, this game we love to watch, this game that can break our hearts, or this game that can send us into a frenzy of euphoria when we win… nothing else really matters when our very foundation and security is stripped from us.

Baseball gave us back, if only for the time being, our sense of normalcy.

A day that I will never forget, Baseball will never forget and America will never forget.

It certainly wasn’t what we expected when those stadium gates opened to start the season, now was it? In fact by the time the All Star break commenced, this train heading to the final half of the season, had fans leaping for safety before the imminent wreckage. And the turnstyle count at the stadium has proven just that.

I don’t think it’s fair we put the blame on anyone one person for this disaster. Oh I know many have blamed Torre, Broxton, Manny, Kemp, offense, defense… HELL even the front office has taken heat. AND I am the biggest critic. I have vocally expressed my displeasure on everyone from Kemp to Torre. However, if you take the time to disect this team from top to bottom, look under the twisted metal and mangled bodies, you’ll discover that everyone is at fault!

I wrote an article prior to the start of this season titled, “Grade B.” And a fair assessment indeed. It was based on the same core, minus/plus a couple new pieces, so why wouldn’t we expect similiar results?

If you give me a few moments I’ll break down some key components that contributed to this collapse compared to the previous 2 years. I promise I will insert some positives but give me time.

I’ll take the most mentioned stats from last year to this year and those who have said this is the reason:

2009

Offense:

1068 K’s
116 SB’s
145 Hr’s
83 Errors

Pitching:

584 Walks
76 WP’s

2010 (season not over obviously)

Offense:

896 K’s
76 SB’s
90 HR’s
84 Errors

Pitching:

423 BB’s
49 WP’s

So we can debunk the K factor from the offense as the total is less this year, but not for Kemp who’s on a pace to finish either tied or breaks his career worst in a season of 153. He’s currently at 132. Yes the SB’s are down, we can contribute that to Furcal’s DL stints. HR’s are definately down this can have an impact but again can’t be a sole reason. Errors, while we have thought this season was the worst of all, it’s not. I know there’s more baseball left but it’s darn close. Pitching. The walks are a killer, but hey! Not this year as it’s down over 100. WP’s? Nope that’s also down. Again these are the most talked about reasons of why this years team has tanked. Sorry, numbers don’t show it.

Then what went wrong?!? I’m no expert nor do I claim to have all the answers, and we can go by the “slump” card until the cows come home. But, this goes beyond a slump. Since the numbers don’t really give us a clear answer as to what happened, we’ll have to go deeper in the team’s persona. Has the divorce impacted the team’s pysche? Do they actually feel the desire to compete without having that security blanket of the organizations intentions or commitment? Remember these are professional athletes, and if the real cause was, “I don’t care since they don’t care” garbage, then the entire lot is a bunch of immature and egotistical bafoons. I can tell you that’s not the case here as the same core is still here and moves were made to shore up as best as possible, even with the ugly divorce. We can look at the financials of this mess and blame McCourt for not spending more to get the elite. Can’t buy this one either. Lowered payroll last two years still got this same group to round 2 of the playoffs. Would adding one or two more pieces really have made a difference? Ok, so let’s say they got Lee or Haren, the pitching for the past 2 months hasn’t been the issue, in fact the starters now in place have lead the NL in ERA, etc.

As you can tell I’m trying my best to debunk as much as possible. Work with me, Lord knows where this is going…

The offense and bullpen? BINGO! But this really wasn’t a tough question. If you take the blown games this team has encountered throughout the year from its once stellar BP, I think you’ld be surprised just how many of those blowups, if reversed, could be converted in to wins and a difference in the standings.

I’m not fan of Belisario and I’m not afraid to make that known. I have issues with anyone who screws up and fails to apologize for their 3rd restricted list stint and leaves their team high and dry. Manny did apologize for his suspension. When Torre was approached if Belisario had addressed the team, we get this weeks ago, “From what I know he hasn’t. But I’m leaving that to him.” Having issues, personal or otherwise is par for the course, we’re human, just apologize and move on. Simple. Since his return he’s been everything but good.

I think so far we’ve determined that BP is a great reason for the tanking but not the sole reason.

Offense? A second yes. Since the AS break the offense has average 2.2 runs per game. I don’t know how many teams in history ever took a division title with a number like that, but I’d guess it’s near the “nil” category. Then how is it possible an entire team can just completely fall of the map offensively? Pitching is contagious, defense is contagious all good or bad, thus the same could be said about offense. With that said, up comes that “Slump” card again. I still can’t buy that. Yes Andre has struggled since his injury, Loney, Mr. RBI has even fallen off, Casey extended decline, Kemp reverting back to his old habits in swinging at pitches that require an extention pole to reach, resulting to increased K factor. Martin’s decline and then DL stint. Bad timing? Voodoo? A fluke perhaps? I think this is the one area we just won’t have answers to. A month and a half later and nothing appears to be improving.

The Dodgers, while not mathematically eliminated, can call it a season. Spoiler can be fun, seeing what’s left in the minors for September callups can be fun, off season moves can be thrilling. Finally having ownership determined can relieve our minds, Torre’s fate and who replaces him can be interesting, and the return of Vin, if for only one more year, is wonderful.

The positives, and I mentioned I would insert some…

1) Chad emerged once again as the starter we once knew
2) Kershaw grew both mentally and physically and continues to improve
3) Carroll wasn’t suppose to be this good, but thank God he was
4) Andre and Kemp on a pace to finish 2010 with 25-30 Hr’s
5) I’m sure you can find others to add here

Sometimes reflecting on what went wrong and watching the playoffs from the comfort of your home, may impact this 2011 squad just enough to give us fans back what we enjoyed in 2008-2009. But for that, and any good book, we’ll have to wait and see the ending.

Oh, 5-6 months until pitchers/catchers report for spring training 2011.