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!