All Star Game 1: West Long Beach Vaporized 18-0 (6-29-10)

The 11/12's came together beautifully tonight against the West Long Beach squad. Ian Konek, Matthew Fields, and Mondesi Blanchard combined to strike out 8, and allowed only one baserunner in four innings. The team had 17 hits in the game--all but one player scored a run--and were led by Matthew Fields, who hit two home runs, and Mondesi Blanchard and Tiger Jablonski, who hit one home run apiece. The LVLL Little League All Stars will take on Long Beach this Thursday at 7:30 pm at Stearns Park.

The majority of the players for the all stars made it out to Stearns Park, home of Long Beach Little League, by 3:45pm today. Our opponents arrived at about 4:15-4:30, which demonstrates the commitment the boys have. It was also apparent that the young chaps had their minds on one thing today: winning. I hit fly balls for about 20-30 minutes and the boys lined up and took ball after ball with maximal effort. Additionally, one coach threw batting practice and another did bunting practice off to the side. It was a sight to see, and they were indeed a sight to see: Christian making it to third on a triple that barely made it to the wall, with his blazing speed; Matthew (Ripper) continuing his hot streak with 3 strikeouts in one inning plus three hits and two home runs, both absolutely stung; Tiger's first home run in about a month, which was crushed to right center field, a ball not too high and not too low, majestic in arc. It was splendid seeing the Dodgers' rivals from this year join up forces with us, brothers in arms.

As for the next game, it figures to be Mondesi pitching against a lad from Long Beach by the name of Jay, who stands in at a mean 6'2" (remember: 12 years old). And with Long Beach Little League's mound being a miniature version of Mount Everest, Jay will look more like 7 feet tall. Are we daunted? Nope!

The night before all stars begins...

This truly feels like the night before Christmas! This group of kids has won the last two district tournaments, which was a lot of fun. Of course, that was then, this is now, and there are no guarantees. Nor would we want them. We can only hope that the guys will play as well as they are capable of. Of course!

The Lakewood Village 11/12 year old all stars will face West Long Beach tomorrow at Stearns Park at 5pm.

There are a few additions to the all star-laden Dodgers (Mondesi, Doctor, Fisch, Ripper, Justin (tips), Tiger, and Nate are our all stars):

Albert--he is speedy and was on the Dodgers two years ago in Minor A. He is a very enthusiastic, hustling boy.

TC--a slugger; he bats left and throws right. He hit one of the strangest home runs this year, which should've been a HR but ended up technically a triple because the runner in front of him missed home plate. A football player.

Christian--another rabbit who tore up district all stars last year with a .700+ average. He has toiled away on the bottom team this year and is itching to play amidst the big boys again.

Ian--from the Angels, the one great pitcher who was not on our team this year. He is tall and athletic, and was the runner up in the HR derby to Mondesi this year.

Jake--a lefty, he slaps the ball to left field a lot and has a good glove. He hit his first home run in the post season all-district team tournament.

Play ball!

Dodgers vanquish the LB Padres (6-25-10)

And the Dodgers make four! The Majors Dodgers beat the Long Beach Padres 5-1 to secure Lakewood Village's fourth team championship of the year. Before a spirited group of fans, the Dodgers were inspired to greatness this night. Matthew Fields hit two home runs and Mondesi Blanchard threw a no-hitter to lead the Dodgers to the crown. Tiger Jablonski made several good plays at first base and David Rivera turned a tough bouncer into an out in the fourth inning that ultimately won the day for the Dodgers. It should be noted that the Padres were extremely classy in defeat and this is commendable. They were worthy foes and gave the Dodgers a run for their money. The Dodgers organization would also like to thank the entire Lakewood Village team for their unwavering support this fine year--we truly have a superlative league.

And thus, the culmination of three years of planning, cajoling, and trying. When coach Johnny and I decided to team up three years ago after the 9 year old all stars, we knew we shared a common love of baseball, the "Dodgers" brand, kids, effort, and competition. It should be noted that it is not "winning" that we share a love for. Winning is something that is nebulous and hard to grasp. It is a faith-based operation. All one tries to do is put up their best effort every single day and one believes success will be the after-effect of that effort. This will not necessarily be the case, but that is why the truly satisfying thing during these three years has been the efforting. It was a noble experiment, and we, and the kids, and the parents all did their level best.

There are many memories, beginning with the Minor A year three years ago, and we instituted the "Dodger way" for a bunch of 9, 10, and 11 year olds. This involved proper execution of fundamentals, conditioning, and learning to play the game the right way. We had six of our present Dodgers on that team, and they have been a strong core. We made it to the TOC that year after a much more challenging regular season and lost a heartbreaking game to the Long Beach team that year, and the boys did not recover that time to win.

The next year, through the machinations of trades and savvy drafting, the Dodgers put together a team that was built for clear success this year, but experienced great victories THAT year also. After winning only one game in the first half, we came in second place in the second half of the season, and all of the kids improved so much. Our man-child Joel won the home run derby, which was very gratifying for us, actually.

And then this year... check the blogs. It has been a slog, and I am assured that every year has a different personality. This year was all about dealing with excellence, and I hope the boys (and the coaches) have learned a lot. There were instances of crying and kvetching in the dugout as players came out of the game that didn't want to. There were yawns evident as we won yet another 10 run game over our hapless foes. But, ultimately, the boys got better this year: our attendance at practice must have been 85-90% and there were only a smattering of missed games. By being there (nearly) every time, the boys had the opportunity to get better, and hopefully we will carry that forward forever.

GO BLUE!

TOC rematch #2--Dodgers vs. LB Padres 6-23-10

...let's play 2! The Majors Dodgers came up huge today in an elimination game of the Tournament of Champions and beat the Long Beach Padres 2-0, behind a seven strikeout three hitter from Matthew Fields, and sparkling defense from the entire Dodger team, particularly a diving catch from centerfielder Justin Boyd. Mondesi Blanchard had two doubles and scored both runs and hustlin' David Rivera (the good doctor) had three hits and moved Mondesi around for both runs. The Dodgers and Padres will saddle up again on Friday June 25th at 5pm at Lakewood Village for the championship game, a likely pitching rematch from last Saturday's thriller.

Matthew (Ripper) was absolutely nails today. He made his pitches when he needed them, where he needed them. His skinny self was sight to see, brimming with confidence in himself and his team.

Additionally, it was gratifying to see all the hard work the outfielders have done for 4 months finally pay off, as every play was made in the outfield, including a fly ball to brick caught with perfect fundamentals, Justin's great catch, and Jose picking off a fly in right field, and calling off the centefielder, just like he was taught and practiced.

This was a perfect game, and thanks are in order for the big Dodger in the sky was providing a beautiful canvas on which to play this TOC.

TOC rematch #1--Dodgers take on the Plaza Mariners (6-21-10)

The summer solstice was today and the Dodgers game was a hot one. After the letdown against Long Beach, the boys probably took the Plaza Mariners too lightly and they nearly paid dearly. Justin Boyd, an 11-year-old, pitched valiantly into the fifth inning, keeping the Dodgers in the game, but the defense had a few lapses behind him and permitted Plaza a couple more runs than they should have had. Meanwhile, the Dodgers offense spun its wheels quite a bit and failed to capitalize on the three runs they scored in the first inning, and fell prey to a pop up double play where Tiger Jablonski was thrown out at home in the third and a line drive double play where Matthew Fields was caught off of first in the fourth.

Still, when Mondesi Blanchard hit a two-run bomb in the fourth inning to give the Dodgers a 6-3 lead, it looked like the Dodgers would escape. However, it turned out Plaza was non-plussed and took full advantage of an error in the top of the fifth inning and hit a game-tying three run home run, and later in the inning pushed across two go ahead runs (although another run was prevented when the Dodgers executed a perfect double steal defense and Mondesi threw out a runner at home).

So, in the sixth, the Dodgers trailed by two, and Nate Polar singled and Tiger scored him with a hard hit ball to the right side which found its way to the wall. Then, on the next play, Tiger was called out at home for not sliding on a ball hit by Josh Fischer. Nick Munoz followed with a bunt single, but the Dodgers had another run cut down at the plate when Matthew bunted too hard to the pitcher and Josh was caught off base. So, with runners on 2nd and 3rd, Jose Hernandez stepped to the plate, down by one run. And, Jose came through, lashing a double to the right center wall to give the Dodgers a slim one run lead. Nate Polar, who took the tough loss on Saturday, came on to close it out, and danced around a couple of errors and a bases loaded jam, to earn the save. Dodgers 9, Plaza Mariners 8. Next up will be a rematch against the Long Beach Padres Wednesday at 5pm.

And a note on Tiger's baserunning adventures. In the last two games, Tiger has evinced a seeming reluctance to slide properly (i.e., feet first) and has been called out once and actually ejected from a game for these misdeeds. These meted punishments are well within the rules of Little League, and these rules are in place in an effort to protect kids from injuries. Nonetheless, there is a line we walk in life and in our microcosm of baseball, between being "dirty" and "aggressive". And, anybody who has seen Tiger play for any amount of time knows which category he belongs in (not dirty) and, frankly it takes quite a leap to assume that a 12-year-old is actually willfully inflicting damage on the members of another team on plays that are commonplace in other venues of baseball. It is absolutely our jobs as coaches to correct this behavior and admonish young Tiger, and let me continue my little foray out of the land of narration into editorializing and state without equivocation that true fans of baseball at any level should not delight when another team makes errors to give you a win or a big gain, at least not any more than a sigh of relief at your good fortune. I believe it to be beyond the pale to seemingly wish to ride a kid out on a rail for executing a good, hard baseball play, letter of the law or not. The sort of partisan rabblerousing that was apparent when Tiger was adventuring around the bases in the last two games really chapped my hide. For MY side, we are beholden to the rules of the game, and we want to "fix" the problem. For THEIR side, people need to quickly accept that a very athletic kid made a couple of boneheaded plays, forgive with great alacrity this lapse in judgment by a 12 YEAR OLD CHILD and get on with it. Seriously, people, let's have some dignity or clear the durn field.

That is all, carry on.

6-19-2010--Majors TOC versus LB Padres

A picture perfect late spring day at beautiful LVLL was the setting for a classic game between the Long Beach Little League Major Padres and the LVLL Major Dodgers. Emotions ran high and the play was tight in a game that "we've all been waiting for." From the first batter, it was clear that the Dodgers were not intimidated by the hard-throwing LB righthander, as they scored a run on three hits in the first inning. LB scored three in their half of the first with the help of three Mondesi Blanchard walks and a crucial throwing error. Mondesi settled down after that and set down the next 12 out of 13 Padres, striking out 10 of them. Meanwhile the Dodgers continued to hit away, scoring 1 in the 2nd inning, 3 in the 3rd, and Josh Fischer clouted a colossal jack deep to left center to make the score 6-3, Dodgers. And then, the sixth inning came, and some wackiness ensued. The first batter reached on catcher's interference of all things, and Mondesi retired LB's big slugger for the first out. Nate Polar entered, gave up a single and the next batter crushed one to deep left center... and it bounced off the TOP of the fence and back in the field. This was followed by a walk, a pop out, and with runners on 2nd and 3rd, the Padres flared a single to right field for the win. This was quite an intense game, and the Dodgers are far from defeated--they are itching to play again, and they will get the chance Monday June 21st versus the Plaza Mariners at 5pm.

It is well understood that this was our first game all year where we matched a foe that was in our class. For all of our struggles with the Angels, it was clear that they did not possess the all around hitting that the Dodgers had. And this Dodgers team that had all year been difficult to focus on a twenty four game schedule were ballplayers today. When we went down 3-1 in the first, there was not the sense of deflation that accompanied the Dodgers' first foray into the short side of the ledger lo so many months ago. In this case, every single member of the Dodgers contributed in a way, whether it was on the field or in the dugout. Without question, though, our Brick, who drove in the 3rd and 4th runs of the game and gave the Dodgers the lead with a hard hit double to the wall, was the highlight of the day. His smile could have lit up the dark side of the moon. The fact that it was immediately followed by Nick's slashing single down the right field line to score another run was almost too much to take. Again, we are undaunted, and fear nothing.

The TOC begins--finally! Lakewood Village Dodgers 9 Plaza Mariners 0.

After 2-1/2 weeks of inactivity, the Dodgers, as the entrants from Lakewood Village Little League, took the field to square off against the Plaza LL Mariners at the little field on Carson Boulevard in Long Beach, CA.

Mondesi took the hill on this fine blustery day and showed no ill effects from the long layoff; his pitches were low and well-flung--the hardest ones to hit. He ended up pitching five innings, and struck out 13 Mariners. Nate followed with one inning of two strikeout relief in his best appearance in weeks after he made some pitching mechanical adjustments in the bullpen during the long break.

Meanwhile, on offense, the Dodgers spun their wheels for four innings, including a gaffe by Mondesi in the first inning on the bases where he was thrown out at third. Two or more runners reached base in the 1st, 2nd, and 4th innings, but the Dodgers were unable to come up with the big hit. However, in the fifth inning, perhaps sensing that his team needed a spark, Mondesi drew a leadoff walk, trotted down the first baseline, and without breaking stride rounded first at a sprint, catching the Mariners off guard and sliding into second base. Next, on a short flyball to leftfield, Mondesi tagged quickly and bounded to third base. One pitch in the dirt later, Monde came home without a slide, and the Dodgers were on the board.

Well, that crack in the dam was quickly exploited--Nate singled, Fisch singled, Ripper doubled, and Nick walked, then rounded first and allowed Ripper to score when the Mariners threw down to second to get Nick. In the sixth inning, Brick singled, Tiger singled, Mondesi singled, David hit a sacrifice fly to score a run, Nate hit a booming triple to the wall, Fisch doubled, Ripper singled, and Brick later got his second hit of the game to drive in the ninth run of the game.

After a slow start the long-hibernating Dodgers woke up with a bang and will take on the archrival Long Beach Little League Padres next Saturday at 5pm.