Readers Revolt in Las Vegas, Get Box Scores Back

By T.J. Simers

Three days after the Las Vegas Review-Journal removed box scores from the newspaper, the newspaper has been overwhelmed by upset readers.

As a result, the box scores will return Friday.

“All, a heads up that our print readers have spoken up,” wrote the executive editor of the Review-Journal to its employees in a memo. “They were not happy about losing their baseball box scores, so they’re coming back, effective in tomorrow’s edition.”

That means one of two things for the LA Times: The Times does not give a hoot what its readers want, or Times’ baseball readers have given up on the Times and didn’t think it was worth fighting for the return of box scores.

Either way, it’s damning, and a clearer sign of the Times’ demise.

Kudos to sports editor Bill Eichenberger of the Review-Journal who listened to the newspaper’s readers and opted to satisfy the newspaper’s readership.

I’m sure the LA Times’ sport editor Iliana Romero will just order up another soccer story.

Keep in mind the Times did not have to get rid of box scores; the newspaper will be going to new presses in February. The Times’ sports editor said she just wanted to get Times’ readers used to (being deprived).

At the very least, you can bet she will run another piece of Associated Press file art and a flowery feature—today a lot of different color LA baseball caps rather than a recap of how the Dodgers have dominated in recent weeks.

In short, the newspaper does not care if you are unhappy and apparently you have done little to make the LA Times feel what it means to disregard the paying customers.

Dodgers Trade for Race Car Driver

By T.J. Simers

One more thing.

I know Frank McCourt still owns the Dodgers’ parking lots, but any chance he’s advising the front office this year on how to assemble a team?

How do you swing a trade for a guy who has it writing he doesn’t want to play for your organization? The Dodgers traded for a pitcher from Detroit and he informed them the Dodgers were one of 10 teams he had already decided not to join.

How much work went into vetting that trade? That’s the way the Dodgers I knew more than a decade ago behaved. They were a joke.

If a guy picks Detroit over LA, do you really want him?

Now I could have sworn LA Times columnist Bill Plaschke insisted in a column the Dodgers trade for a starting pitcher. They got Yarbrough; I thought he was a race car driver.

Plaschke also told the Angels to trade Ohtani; doesn’t anyone listen to this guy? He also wrote LeBron should be traded. The Times got mad at me because I said Arte Moreno might be the problem a decade ago; at least I was right.

The Dodgers didn’t do much in the offseason, taking on the look of a team owned by McCourt, and now went belly up at the trading deadline.

I think about all the words in the LA Times speculating on who the Dodgers might acquire, and I wonder if those boys at the LA Times are talking to the Dodgers’ front office or just guessing?

The Times’ writers were absolutely clueless; did any of them predict the team was going all in on the race car driver?

The conclusion: Trading deadline stories are a waste of time.

Give Arte his Props; He’s Lit

By T.J. Simers

I almost ran out of derogatory words to write about Angry Arte Moreno, waiting until the 3 p.m. MLB trading deadline just to make sure I didn’t have to find new ones.

But Arte remained firm, just as it had been leaked earlier, holding on to the best player in the game in Shohei Ohtani if only for another couple of months.

There was a time when I really liked Arte. We drank beers together beyond the centerfield wall until I criticized him, hurt his feelings and he went into hiding. He banished the media to a right field corner press box, a small-time owner making sure he didn’t bump into any of the scribes while entering or exiting his owner’s box.

But I commend Arte today, congratulate him on getting it right for the fans in Orange County. And when Arte started his journey as team owner he really did care about the fans until it got away from him.

It’s a fact. There are no guarantees with prospects; there is with Ohtani.

Yet some yahoos, some who have even been given a column to write, wanted Arte to trade the best player to ever play the game for prospects.

Arte made it clear at the trade deadline his team was going to try and make the playoffs, and isn’t that what every fan wants?

The Angels are within reach of the playoffs, and have been playing without an injured Mike Trout. And as soon as Arte made the statement in silence that he was in this to win it, his team traded for pitching and some additional hitting.

There is a reason to be excited about the Angels.

Isn’t that all you can ask for as a fan beyond cheaper prices for beer and cheap baseball caps for youngsters?

What I don’t get is how anyone could advise Arte to dump Ohtani, and take away the show in Anaheim? He’s worth the price of admission, and Angels’ fans have been supporting their team this season.

When Arte changed his mind about selling the Angels it had nothing to do with developing prospects. He realized the Angels were in position to seize the moment, a chance to win now and rehabilitate his reputation as a loser.

It’s ludicrous to suggest to the Angels’ faithful, “wait until next year,” which is what the Angels would be saying in trading Ohtani. In other words, the Angels would be surrendering, and I would have had to find more derogatory words for Angry Arte.

Now I can use those derogatory words on the Dodgers, who were all about saving money in the lead up to this season and who were outplayed at the trading deadline.

Go Angels!

Kudos to Turner and Magic

By T.J. Simers

I just loved a story in the LA Times newspaper’s sports section Tuesday morning.

It wasn’t on the first page of sports because there was no story there, just some artist showing off with fake art.

Nothing on the second page, and a Dodgers’ farm system story on page 3. I believe it’s the third-straight day of minor league Dodgers’ baseball and one day was too much.

Who cares who the Dodgers might throw into a trade they are not going to make for Ohtani.

It wasn’t on page 4 because that was all soccer with Kevin Baxter writing from Auckland, New Zealand about a pink-haired Angel City player who dyed her hair black to play for Japan in the World Cup. He wrote a second story about what I don’t know after reading it, but it was soccer.

That leaves only page 5 in the 5-page sports section, and there it was, a story I wanted to read: “Johnson stresses weight of new ownership role.”

I might have used “Magic,” in the headline instead of Johnson, but there I go being picky again.

I like/love reading about Los Angeles icons. Not all that crazy about Magic, the puffed-up team owner, but kudos to the Times’ Broderick Turner (a.k.a. Brad) for tracking Magic down on his yacht in Europe for an update.

Turner is the voice of authority when it comes to the NBA for the Times. He did a Q&A with Magic, and while Turner had to do a certain amount of sucking up because otherwise he would lose Magic’s cell access, he asked about Magic’s ownership in the NFL, MLB, NBA, MLS and WNBA.

I’m a horse owner, 1% in Kiddy Up, and I’m not sure beyond the fact it’s just one horse and loose change, that is much different than owning a piece of the Commanders, Lakers, Dodgers, Sparks and the LAFC.

But again, whatever my questions and doubts for Magic and his input in ownership, they are irrelevant. What matters here is Brad Turner giving newspaper readers something to read.

Why the Times buried it inside shows more of a disregard for its readers than Magic.

I used to interview Lasorda, Scully and Wooden every chance I had because they were LA icons. They might say something really interesting and maybe not, but it was Lasorda, Scully and Wooden.

This is Magic. A breath of fresh (hot) air after all the soccer, minor league baseball and boxing we have been force fed in the Times. Finally, a name we know and always want to know more about.

I was once involved in a newspaper survey, asking readers what they wanted to read. Shocking, I know.

Columns graded high, but the highest marks went to any story featuring a well-known sports figure. If it was a story about Fouts or Mickelson or Kobe, the readers couldn’t wait to gobble it up although there was no guarantee of anything new.

People want to know and read more about the people who have brought them so many thrills in their lives.

The Times has been more focused on the obscure lately, but then comes along Brad Turner with his phone call to Magic and Times’ readers are winners.

It should have been the page 1 story rather than buried inside. But congratulations to Turner for not letting that deter him from doing such a great job.

Boo-hoo, Houston cheated six years ago

By T.J. Simers

What did I think about Plaschke’s Friday morning column in the LA Times telling Dodgers’ fans to boo the Astros for cheating six years ago?

Juvenile. Trite. Stupid. Hackneyed. High school quality. Cornball. Desperate. Immature, Get over it. Half-baked. Grow up. Mad, because Lakers didn’t follow your advice? You want credit because Astros get booed wherever they go? Ridiculous. Boo-hoo. Cheap. No real work necessary to write it.

You write: “They’re wearing your rings.” I’m confused. You want the Dodger players to boo? The fans don’t wear World Series rings.

You write “The pain has not abated” after six years. Obviously, you are still in pain and that’s sick because I know you really don’t care who wins. Are you being phony?

You write: “The anger has not softened,” and I guess that’s why we have such an angry society, and thanks for stoking it some more.

You write: “The outrage is still real.” Yeah, Cody Bellinger, Justin Fields, Andre Ethier, Joc Pederson, Corey Seager and Chase Utley can barely get on in their daily lives.

What do I think? I’ve moved on to Yellowstone and what Kevin Costner is doing to my favorite show. Boo. Boo.

I know the Times measures the effectiveness of its writers by counting the number of hits they get from each story, and tapping into the Dodgers’ fans who might live and die with how Brandon Morrow might get revenge tonight….oh, I forgot, he’s no longer with the Dodgers. Make that Yu Darvish…oh. Well Kenley Jansen…

The Astros have two active players remaining from 2017, but Plaschke pretends he is raging mad. You see what happens when the Lakers give him nothing to write.

You write: “This was about you. This was an insult to your city. This was a punch to your passion. This was personal.”

Come on. Get a grip. Really? If the city has to be reminded it was an insult and punch to its passion, it couldn’t smart all that much six years later. So silly. Infantile. Nitwitted. This is what happens when a newspaper lays off 74 copy editors.

I remind you it’s in the Dodgers’ DNA to choke. That seems to be a bigger problem than someone banging on a trash can. Much ado about nothing six years later. Water under the bridge. Been down that road before. Just garbage.

Unless this gives Yasiel Puig one more chance to buy a ticket and really let those Astros have it.

Trump ideal campaign manager for Garvey

By T.J. Simers

I wasn’t surprised when I read former Dodger Steve Garvey was potentially going to run as a Republican for the open Senate seat in California.

Given his track record with women and unpaid bills, Garvey has the perfect choice for campaign manager in Donald Trump.

That’s not a political statement so much as the common ground shared by the well-known popular “do whatever they like and get away with it” duo.

I figure Garvey will ultimately decide not to run, too much baggage to tote in this age of stinging social media and Garvey lacking the ability to shrug it off like his prospective campaign manager.

On the other hand, I could be totally wrong, Garvey offering the voting public one of the great redemption campaigns of our lifetime. And maybe benefitting finally from all those “Honk if you”re carrying Steve Garvey’s love child” bumper stickers, the kiddos all grown up and ready to vote.

For the record I have always enjoyed my encounters with Steve Garvey even after he ruined my night after hitting a walk-off home run for the Padres to beat my Cubs in 1984.

I was there that dramatic night, Jack Murphy Stadum louder than any other ballpark I have ever been in and Garvey running around the bases with his fist flying over his head.

If you have been around Garvey he offers a challenge; is he Mr. Clean or is he a phony? I have always believed he’s just a nice guy.

We have had many, many friendly chats and one outlandish one.

He called me in 2006 to ask me to kill a story running in the Los Angeles Times. The front-page story detailed Garvey’s history of not paying his bills. (April 9, 2006 Former Dodger Great Facing Mound of Debt by Matt Lait, if you care to GOOGLE).

The story said the Garveys had been taken to small claims court by their gardener, a mirror installer and owed attorneys $300,000. His pediatrician reportedly would only accept cash from the Garveys. And the list went on and on.

There were two problems, 1) I couldn’t even consider killing the story because it was already plastered across the front page of the LA Times and 2) I had no idea if the story was true or not.

I knew who wrote the story and knowing the reporter’s reputation I figured it was true down to the last comma and period. And what an embarrassing story, Garvey and his wife coming across as scoundrels, one lawyer who was trying to collect a $235,000 debt, saying, “Once a Dodger always a dodger.”

I have no idea how his bill-paying goes now. So, it could be totally unfair to bring up 2000 to 2006 moments in Garvey’s life, but politics makes it almost a guarantee they will resurface.

That is why I don’t think Garvey will run for office. Too much explanation required.

I liked to ask Tom Lasorda over our breakfasts at the Mini Gourmet in Placentia whether Garvey was real or not? Lasorda said you got what you got from Garvey, and when mentioning the fight between Garvey and Don Sutton, Lasorda made it clear he was pulling for Garvey.

I apparently knew Garvey’s wife before he did, delivering the DuPage County Press to her parent’s home in Wheaton, Il. I had no trouble collecting payment for the newspaper.

When we have had that opportunity over the years to chat she has been great. Yet we have never discussed the thousands and thousands of dollars allegedly unpaid to debtors with claims against them.

Have they all been paid? I really don’t care, but if Garvey runs for office, there will be people who do care. Lots of them.

Take a lesson from the Kissing Lesbians

By. T.J. Simers

Dear Patrick Soon-Shiong,

KUDOS to the Times.

Dylan Hernandez wrote an excellent, strongly-worded, opinioned column for the LA Times recently on the Dodgers decision to cancel an invite to the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence during the team’s upcoming Pride Night game.

He disagreed with the Dodgers and wrote the controversial column before waiting to see how others might react. That took some newspaper courage.

In the last few days Dodger pitcher Clayton Kershaw has said in a measured response that he opposes the Dodgers’ decision to reinstate the nun’s event while urging the team to bring back a Christian-faith night.

You couldn’t find two better spokesmen than each representing their point of view.

But I think they are also both dead wrong.

There is only one reason to honor groups brought to the ballpark, and that is to sell more tickets.

The same goes for the Boy Scouts, Girl Scouts, Little League teams and Rotary Clubs. The Dodgers want to sell more tickets, and that’s business. I guess it’s offensive to some to be in the hot dog line or finding their seats while the LGBTQ+ community parades on the field.

Maybe that’s why Dodgers crowds are so late-arriving.

In 2000, before I think Hernandez was even born, I covered the “Kissing Lesbians” fiasco at Dodger Stadium. Three women were tossed from the stadium for kissing each other after a Dodger home run. As you might imagine, everyone was shocked a Dodger hit a home run, and so there were all kinds of reactions

The Dodgers publicly apologized later for breaking up the smooch-fest. “We felt we wanted to send a strong message that everyone is welcome to Dodger Stadium,” said team president Bob Graziano. “and subject to equal treatment.”

Equal treatment is how it’s gone ever since. I have been to thousands of baseball games and most pregame festivities are ignored, the stadium essentially still empty as honored groups take a bow.

As for Kershaw if he doesn’t want to see the nuns, stay in the training room like so many players do before a game. As you have probably noticed seldom does a player you recognize take part in the pregame festivities.

Kershaw said this has nothing to do with the LGBTQ community, and you know why? That would make it a really big argument. With a ton more controversy.

He confined his criticism to a group of nuns I have never heard of. I was taught by nuns. On first glance this doesn’t seem anything like them unless they suddenly start smacking people with rulers, so I don’t know anyhing about them or care to know. I have no interest in them or Kershaw’s event. If I go to a Dodger game, and bless me Father for even mentioning such a possibility, it would be to watch Kershaw pitch.

To be honest, I attended many of those faith-based events while covering the Dodgers because they held them in the stands after a game while we wrote our stories about the Dodgers. I had no choice. I would have preferred silence, but the media always remained respectful.

That’s the only thing Hernandez and Kershaw should be calling for: respect, and as solid as they are as communicators that’s what they seem to be doing even if they disagree.

If the Dodgers want to be digging deep to sell more seats, why is that a problem? If it is, just don’t go that night.

Attention book publishers and book buyers

By T.J. Simers

I wrote a book, beginning with one of my lawyers who made poisoned hamburgers to silence a watch dog so her husband could take some guy out to the desert, cut his manhood off and pour bleach on him.

It was pretty funny when one of the Times’ lawyers tried to bully her.

One of my other lawyers was like the best attorney on the planet, and I know that because that’s what he said about himself in his bio. He had 11 kids, so there were some who believed whatever he said

One of my appeals judges was identified by Erika Jayne from Real Housewives as her husband, Tom Girardi’s mistress. Erika Jayne said Girardi gave my judge $300,000 in misused funds for a beach condo. And my appels judge voted to give me nothing.

The reason I mention all this, I was wondering if any of you could suggest a book publisher. Maybe you have a friend, a former college roommate or some kind of contact in that world. I tried one here in the L.A. area and he said he wasn’t interested in the legal stuff in the book. He wanted a book just on the sports folks I got to know on Page 2.

They are all in the book, of course, a book about Kobe, Phil Jackson, Pete Carroll, John Elway, Junior Seau and Plaschke. I even mentioned F.P. Santangelo, although he hardly figures as a sports figure.

I also wrote about my love affair with the Los Aneles Times, telling a judge, jury and lawyers, “I love the LA Times. Still do.” And while it isn’t much now, it’s still the Los Angeles Times.

But I sued the L.A. Times because the Times hired a managing editor and editor who tried to get rid of me. I won in court three times, and I wrote about that as well as testimony from Tom Lasorda, Joe Torre and Garret Anderson. I had Kobe’s name on a list to testify and our judge said he wasn’t interested in hearing from people who were going to just gush about me. Kobe would have laughed at that.

My judge wasn’t the best, and I write about that. He seemed to have no faith in juries, and how is that for a selling point to get people to serve?

A book agent said he detected no interest in the East Coast about a book featuring notables from the West Coast and a newspaper writer they never read. Ouch! I’d like to see them get close enough to Salma Hayek to be kissed.

My East Coast book agent disappeared faster than Gary Matthews Jr.

Some folks have suggested I go the vanity press route, and I got a feeling that’s a commentary on my ego and coming from my children.

I’m told if a book publisher takes on the book, I would get about 10-14% of what the book costs in royalties, while keeping in mind only 1% to 2% of all the manuscripts submitted to publishers result in a book.

If I self-publish, supposedly I could get 70% of what I sell, but then it would be up to me to find folks to buy the book. If only I had the names of alumni who have cheated when it comes to USC sports, I could print them in the book and it would become a best seller.

They say the average book these days sells only 350 copies; I don’t have that many family members. Probably never had that many readers. Maybe I should just blog the book.

I guess I could start a list of who wants to buy a book, assuring someone like Rob Pelinka anonymity, and convince a publisher there is an audience. But I don’t know how much more disappointment I could take. One more day of reading about the Angels might end me over the edge,

If I were Patrick Soon-Shiong, the owner of the Times, I would buy 350 copies and then burn them.

Maybe I should rewrite the book. and make it more flashy. I don’t know if I could get anyone to read about the lawyer the Times hired who wore a little bell around her ankle so whenever she had to go to the bathroom we would hear her tinkle.

But it’s a thought.

Plaschke is either sick, old or just stinks

By T.J. Simers

We all know Bill Plaschke is only a shell of the columnist he once was.

He’s always been No. 1 columnist in sports at the Times because the newspaper has never had a legit No. 2.

Remember the days of Murray, Downey and Ostler—all in the same newspaper!

Sometimes the nation’s sports editors name Plaschke the best in the country coming to that conclusion by reading five columns that he chooses to submit from the hundred-plus ambulances he chases.

The Times has tried to produce a quality No. 2 columnist with boring failures such as Diane Pucin, J.A. Adande, Helene Elliott and Kurt Streeter. Dylan Hernandez shows promise, but I’d like to see him write more.

Plaschke is writing less and less as well, and I hope it has nothing to do with his health. If he’s just lazy, OK, he has no one pushing him to write more as ineffective as the Times’ sports editor, Iliana Limon Romero, has proven to be.

She hired a sports columnist in October. He’s written once since then, so maybe Plaschke thinks that’s what the newspaper wants; columnists who don’t write much. Wouldn’t we all like a boss like Iliana?

Apparently, Patrick Soon-Shiong does, the owner paying her to get so little out of the Times’ new columnist.

Plaschke has always been a flowery writer, big words written like some kind of poetry, but sometimes just gobbledygook. But it works for him, in the estimation of some I imagine who never heard of Jim Murray, the greatest sports columnist in Times’ history.

I always said Plaschke could hear an ambulance a 1,000 miles away, dropping everything to write if a punter lost a leg or there was gunfire—real or imagined—-heard at an inner-city football practice.

While standing for the National Anthem at a long ago Super Bowl, Plaschke told me he had just talked to a girl who couldn’t type, using a stick attached to her head to write about baseball. Easy joke there if you have followed the Angels’ coverage in the Times.

But Plaschke was genuinely excited.

I told him he should pack his belongings and leave the Super Bowl to go write about her. I even trolled my colleagues.

He said he would never write about her, and I laughed because it was like seven days later that he did, a sure-fire contest winner.

He’s won a ton of awards getting judges to cry, and God help us, journalism students now think you should write a sentence, repeat it and repeat it again to write effectively., Everything in threes.

There are days when Plaschke is the No. 1 sports columnist in the country, just not as many as there used to be, and yet there are fewer and fewer writers to compete with him. It might be a good idea to re-invent himself on occasion.

There are also days when he’s just horrible, and Thursday comes to mind.

He went to a Dodgers’ day game because there are no deadlines to fret and jumped at the chance to diss Max Scherzer. Plaschke likes to think of himself as the people’s columnist, the people being done wrong he says when Max didn’t pitch the sixth game of the playoffs against the Braves two years ago.

So what—they would have just been beaten by the cheating Astros in the World Series.

It’s silly criticism of Scherzer and off base in its fundamental accuracy. Scherzer came in relief in Game 5 and he threw in front of pitching coach Mark Prior the day before Game 6 and appeared ineffective. Scherzer told Prior his arm was “fried” after Game 5. Prior’s choice to start Game 6 was Walker Buehler.

If Scherzer had taken the ball and demanded to pitch and then lost, Plaschke would have labeled him selfish.

Plaschke often rejects facts, especially if they get in the way of making his point. I remember when he called L.A. a Bruins’ town while USC was starting to reel off a ton of victories. Now he’s locked his lips on USC.

Wednesday’s effort to work up a good temper tantrum was just absurd. Scherzer getting tossed Wednesday and Plaschke linking it to a game he couldn’t pitch in 2021 have nothing to do with each other. There is nobody in town and certainly not at his own newspaper who will challenge Plaschke to be better than that.

We got the three-sentence pitter-pat in paragraph No. 3 of his column: “It was pleadingly loud. It was deeply controversial. It was poetic justice.”

Whatever he was talking about.

I wrote at the same newspaper as Plaschke and never came close to writing as well. But the way he views sports was often beyond me.

Plaschke wrote in his latest column: “There was indeed more than a good chunk of schadenfreude roiling around Chavez Ravine on Wednesday afternoon.”

I’m a little surprised they didn’t evacuate the place with all that schadenfreude roiling around, but then I looked up the big word. It means taking pleasure in the misfortune of others and I guess Plaschke was suggesting Dodger fans are really sick.

As a former columnist, though, I share Plaschke’s love for schadenfreude.

But in this case, it’s one big yawn trying to tie together a pitcher’s sore arm two years ago with sticky rosin on Wednesday. Plaschke should be better than that.

If the columnist they hired six months ago, who has chosen not to write for the paper so far, ever shows up, maybe he’ll put some heat on Plaschke. But some guy writing once every six months is just the kind of non-threat the Times has come to love in partnering with Plaschke.

My apologies to Hernandez, who has written some great stuff, but he has to write more to challenge Plaschke.

As for Scherzer, Plaschke finished his much ado about nothing column with a typical overwritten flourish: “It was a choice that will forever resound in the darkest corners of Dodger history.”’

Prior’s decision to go with Buehler, or Sherzer’s decision not to employ his fried-out arm?

I suppose I could read it again to better understand, but why punish myself?

Dodger Parking Lot Attendant Doing Well

By T.J. Simers

I just watched the morning news on TV and learned it will cost $30 to park at Dodger Stadium this season, $27 if I alert the snipers and let the Dodgers know ahead of time I will be coming. Ah, the Parking Lot Attendant is alive and well.

The Screaming Meanie in me tells me the Dodgers are ripping off folks again, and that’s just fine with the folks.

I made a big deal out of the Dodgers raising parking prices to $15 back when Frank and Jamie McCourt owned the Dodgers and it might have cost the Tipper Gore Lady her job. She was the Dodgers top PR fall guy at the time, trying to blunt the criticism directed at the McCourts. She had worked in the White House prior to her fling with Dodger Stadium.

The Tipper Gore Lady really was a good egg, terrific at her job, but how do you defend the McCourts? I attended their divorce confrontation in court and watched a guy representing Jamie, who used to stand before the Supreme Court, flounder.

The price to park at Dodger Stadium has steadily increased, and the media has never told us if that is Frank McCourt’s doing or the Dodgers’ owners.

Dodger preferred parking, which is parking within the inner circle and a less likely place to be mugged, is $40 in advance or $50 at the gate. For a single game. I had free media parking when I attended Dodger Stadium because the LA Times was offering so much free coverage/advertising on the Dodgers.

When Frank McCourt sold the Dodgers he held onto the parking lots because they are such money makers and knowing Dodger fans are such hopeless romantics they would spend whatever to go, park and moon over their heroes.

You can just imagine the calculations going off in the head of Frank McCourt right now, a sellout for opening day and 16,000 parking spaces being grabbed by the faithful at $27, $30, $40 or $50 a piece of asphalt. Enough to keep him in starched white shirts for another season, and that’s just from one game.

The media no longer makes much a fuss about fans getting ripped off because the media isn’t much of anything anymore in Los Angeles. That’s why I get my news on TV.

I have no idea what Dodger tickets cost, a beer, hot dog or whatever. I presume most fans agree to take out a second mortgage if going to a Dodger game.

There’s also Anaheim, of course, and the Angels are charging $20 to park because I guess there isn’t as big of demand to park in Anaheim. I’d be more likely to spend $30 to go see Trout & Ohtani before going to Dodger Stadium to be reminded there is no Scully & Lasorda.

Angry Arte Moreno rode a wave of popularity after lowering beer prices; where are those prices now and my criticism remains the same: He should have lowered the price on water, maybe even sodas.

. I understand the Dodgers didn’t spend a lot of money this offseason, so I wonder if this qualifies as grand larceny. After all, the Dodgers still have to pay Trevor Bauer $22.5 million and who better to pay it than the suckers paying so much to watch a dying sport.

I know your dad used to take you to the ballpark, but come on, he never got ripped off like you are today.

By the way, why are the Dodgers passing out Freddie Freeman bobbleheads on April Fools instead of Trevor Bauer bobbleheads? Or, a bobblehead of the fool who made the decision to sign Bauer?

I would argue baseball is no longer America’s pastime, so slow now and boring, thus the move to the pitch clock to speed up the game for people who no longer have the attention span to watch. For the most part, the game is tedious after being exposed to so many other exciting sports events.

I’d rather watch South Carolina women’s basketball versus Iowa’s Caitlin Clark Friday night than the Dodgers’ second game of the season against the Arizona Diamondbacks. Preferred parking right in front of my TV.