The Future is Now

Welcome to Proven Veteran Leaders, a Los Angeles Dodgers blog.  While it may seem like a strange time to launch a blog devoted to a team currently fighting for fourth place in a season filled with off the field storylines resembling a Shakespearean tragedy, we think it’s just about perfect . Truly, when better to launch a blog devoted to Dodgers baseball than halfway through one of the worst years in franchise history?  The artsy-fartsy side of us says that in such a tumultuous period, the fans’ voices need to be heard more than ever.  Of course, truth is that we’ve planned on doing this for some time, but we tend to be procrastinators.  Really, there are so many things to talk about right now in Dodgertown that even trying to craft an opening mission statement is overwhelming.

This many things, at least, seem fairly undisputable: We’ve got a Monty Burns-esque owner (minus the massive fortune, just the evil) who’s quickly reaching supervillain level status and a General Manager with a tendency for overpaying wildly on the free agent market and who has bled our farm system dry to feed his obsession with  ‘Proven Veteran Leaders’.  The roster is poorly constructed, and the dead contracts the team is carrying make it impossible to make any big moves.  The farm system has very little immediate help available, and the support staff surrounding the team has to spend as much time worrying if their check will bounce this week as they do on scouting opposing players.  It is a dark run of days for this team, and all signs point to it getting worse before it gets better.  You know it’s bad when the possibility of Steve ‘wife-punching, morally and literally bankrupt, sire of 16 bastard children’ Garvey buying the team represents a shining beacon of hope for Dodgerland. 

Lest you think we’re complete downers though, it’s not all bad.  For instance, there’s a  wildly charismatic Center Fielder putting together one of the most impressive offensive seasons in team history, a young left handed pitcher who is cementing with each start that he belongs in every discussion of the best in baseball, and a few promising and exciting young players on the horizon, some of whom have already made their stamp on the major league team.  Not to mention, for at least the rest of this season, the greatest announcer the game has ever had.  This franchise has an honorable and storied history that few teams in any sport can match and legions of dedicated and passionate fans that are yearning for a championship.

The purpose of any blog (any blog worth its salt, at least) should be to entertain and inform, and that’s certainly the goal here.  We’ll try to back up our opinions with facts and research, avoid one sentence paragraphs, and hopefully not take ourselves too seriously in the process.  We’ll also attempt to remain even and fair and not criticize players for a lack of grit or guts or mental fortitude.  The goal is to even be fair to other teams’ players.  Except Shane Victorino.  Seriously, fuck that guy. 

Hope you enjoy it.