MidValleySports.Com

Joe T., always working hard…

By Joe Torosian

Kick it!

Is it just me, or has Barry Bonds had neck reduction surgery?

There should be a spring training for fantasy baseball…Fantasy baseball is all about the grind, and you need to be prepared.

With Fernando Mendoza coming into the NFL, it may be time to rethink “The Mendoza Line.”

Popularized by George Brett, the phrase was coined by Tom Paciorek and Bruce Bochte about light-hitting Seattle Mariner teammate Mario Mendoza.

Interestingly enough, The Mendoza Line refers to a .200 batting average…But Mendoza was a career .215 hitter.

If the Las Vegas Raiders’ offensive line has a great season, could they be dubbed, The Mendoza Line? (You heard it here first.)

Is the NBA East wide open? I thought I saw a preview of the NBA finals last night when Boston beat OKC…

It was weird to watch because I’ve hated the Celtics since my basketball birth, but I have an obnoxious friend who is a Thunder fan, so I really enjoyed seeing them lose.

Honestly, the pleasure of writing Fanview daily again is that it lets me siphon off the spite that builds up. In the Skywalker family, The Force runs strong; in the Torosian household, we are, and have always been, about spite.

Never been a LeBron fan. I think he’s been the greatest player in an era of horrible basketball and horrible basketball players…The greatest athletes ever, but they haven’t been basketball players.

(And if I could have carried the ball the way it is carried today, my life could have been a lot different—but I digress.)

LeBron has always been in shape and comes to play when on the floor. This Lakers resurgence wouldn’t have happened if he hadn’t, humbly, taken a step back. He’s been fantastic, not being the number one guy. I hope he stays…

But…

He can’t touch Kobe…Forget about Magic—he’s not even in the same conversation as Magic.

Colin Cowherd argued that LeBron is a better clutch player than Kobe ever was, saying there’s more to clutch play than just shooting.

If you’ve ever played ball…it is always easier to play without the ball when it’s crunch time…easier to play defense…easier to go to the glass…but when the game is on the line…the ball gets real heavy, and the elbow gets real tight…when you have to shoot it.

The guy who puts the ball through the net…is the guy who is most clutch…So LeBron is not Kobe…

Why do I hear more these days about the Somali Pirates than the Pittsburgh Pirates?

When I left Dodger fandom behind in 2015… three things made it hard.

I really liked Clayton Kershaw—but I got over it.

I still loved Vin Scully—And I never got over it.

And The Ravine—I’ve been to a lot of stadiums, and whether I despise Dodger management or not, they’ve done a great job in keeping it as the showcase palace of baseball.

But I would think the sellout of the fanbase to Time Warner, the moving target of ticket prices, the cost of beer, and players like Shohei Ohtani taking deferred contracts…would’ve lined their pockets enough–filled their bank vaults sufficiently–to prevent them from having to rename the stadium. 

UNIQLO Field at Dodger Stadium…are you fricken kidding me? Talk about a Frank McCourt-level offense.

It’s like the Devil drove up Stadium Way, got out of the limo with his entourage, walked up to the offices, and said, “I want what’s mine.”

So he’s taken the soul of Chavez Ravine…and renamed it UNIQLO…Which in the original Greek translates to— “You’re mine. I own you.”

Some things have to change…I totally get it…but are Dodger fans good with this prostitutional-abomination of one of the greatest stadiums in the history of a 151-year-old sport?

#15—May the San Francisco Giants rot and lie stinking in the earth.

The Dude abides…
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Ephesians 5: 8-11
jtbank1964@yahoo.com
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