The Dodgers were unexpectedly short a couple of players on Monday. Eyewitnesses report seeing steam coming out of the manager's ears. Either he was angry or his brain tea was ready. Mmmmm brain tea.

Luckily for the eight remaining Dodgers, their opponents (Hazbeens) took pity and waived the auto-outs after the first two innings. On defense, the players were busting their asses running all over the field, trying to cover all the gaps. It was chaotic, but they did remarkably well. In fact, the only truly head-scratching moment came on offense when Rob decided to delay tagging up at third on a deep fly ball by several seconds before lazily trotting home. His ploy to confuse the Hazbeens as much as he confused his own team failed and he was thrown out at the plate.

The Hazbeens were an ideal team to play under the circumstances and hopefully the Dodgers will get a chance at a rematch in the playoffs with a full roster.

Wednesday's game was winded out and postponed until the 28th.

OT

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The Artful Dodgers played perhaps one of their better all around tournaments ever, but didn't have the results to show for it. They've had tournaments where they went 3-0 on Saturday and they even won Division 2 playoffs in Summer Ball, but this is one of the only tournaments where they played good ball in every single game. All the games were close and all could have gone either way. However, this is slo-pitch and sometimes the bounces just don't go your way. Personally, I think this should give the team a boost, knowing they can hang with just about any team in the league (aside from Finger Monkeys).

I've always said that if you have to lose, as long as you lose to a fun team, it's not so bad. Except for the last game, all of our opponents were at the very least unassuming if not outright fun to play. All I will say is teams should really make sure they have a firstbaseman/woman who knows the rules and doesn't try to shift blame or make excuses when he/she screws up and nearly hurts an opposing player as a result of their incompetence. If you want your claim of protecting the incoming runner from a bad throw, two things need to be true: the throw needs to actually be bad (if you can catch it with your foot still on the bag and you didn't have to stretch at all, the throw was good enough) and you should take a step towards home plate (keeping your body between the ball and runner) and not towards the first base dugout (unless protecting her means tripping her so that the ball flies safely over her as she's falling).

Oh well, they can't all be gems, now can they? Still, it was a great tournament and I look forward to the final two weeks of fall ball.

OT

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Your intrepid reporter is not afraid to admit he's had a few before writing this summary. It's really the only way to stomach what happened this week.

After an impressive first two weeks of fall ball, the Dodgers ran face first into a really hard, ouchy wall. First up was a team that thought it was cool to prolong a beating by intentionally advancing only one base at a time (even on legitimate homeruns) on offense and barely making an effort on defense just to avoid a mercy and get an extra few innings out of the game. They thought incorrectly. In fact, we might as well have been practicing the last few innings instead of playing an actual game. It was embarassing and unneccessary. Better to get the crap thoroughly kicked out of you than to be toyed with. The second game of the week saw a similar result, but against a team that was actually trying the entire game and was entertaining to play. How refreshing!

There was the occasional defensive lapse for the Dodgers, but what truly failed the team this week were the bats. It also didn't help playing with only nine players on Monday and relying heavily on subs with little experience on both nights. Aside from Shawna "You Won't Like Me When I'm Angry" Mackenzie, most Dodgers decided that running the bases was too much work and opted to simply fly out while looking sexy at the plate. Sexy is good enough for Division 2, but not good enough for Division 1.

Oh well, even the best of teams have weeks like this one. Dodgers and Dodger fans across the globe are hoping the slump is short-lived as the mid-season tournament begins this Saturday. A nearly full roster should give the team a big mental boost and this reporter is convinced you can expect a way more awesome Dodger team show up to compete.

OT

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The Dodgers took three of four games this week, scoring 67 runs in the process, but their big off-season signing proved to be a flop. What Lee "Dance Like a Bee, Sting Like a Butterfly" Murray's hits lacked in length (like Rob's ****) they more than made up in height (unlike Rob's ****) as he hit two towering fly balls to the infield. After he finally hit one beyond the infield, he then hurt himself while running the bases. Perhaps it was the pain of embarassment or maybe his little legs just couldn't handle running that far, but, whatever the reason, he's been placed on the DL.

The Dodgers played their opening series against what looks to be one of the tougher squads in the division. The Isotopes seem to have collected several great players from other summer teams, including the white Jose Bautista. Expect them to score in bunches this season......like Steve at Rob's house. After a thorough pounding in the first game (reader participation time: insert your own witty euphamism!), the Dodgers managed to tighten the D and get some key hits to pull off the split.

The second series of the week pitted the Dodgers against No More Shenanigans. Although there are a couple of veterans from other teams, NMS seems largely composed of relatively inexperienced players. Combined with the strong winds and sweltering conditions that made fielding an adventure, NMS was simply overmatched by a more experienced Dodgers team. Even Steve "Asshole" Baria proved more useful than most experts would have predicted. The games were interesting, to say the least. With a few more games under their belt, expect NMS to be tougher opponents later in the season.  

Next week sees a holiday Monday followed by games on Wednesday, Friday, and, possibly, championship playdowns for the summer version of the team.

OT

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