I guess we all knew it was too good to be true. It had to end eventually, and this weekend, it did. J.D. Drew's consecutive games played without an injury is over at 41. He sat out both Saturday and Sunday's games with a sore shoulder, the same one he had surgery on this past offseason. The Dodgers are being overly cautious, but my bet is that this ends up being a chronic thing that eventually sidelines Drew for the rest of the season. Do we really expect anything more at this point? This guy would go on the DL with a papercut. Even worse, Jeff Kent sat out today's game with a sore wrist, meaning the Dodgers had to bring up Matt Kemp from AA-Jacksonville or risk only having 3 outfielders on today's roster. At least Gagne's expected back in less than a week.

The Dodgers dropped 2 out of 3 to the Nats this weekend, promptly halting their 7 game winning streak and bringing Brett Tomko and Jae Seo back down to earth. We all knew Tomko couldn't possibly be this good for the whole season, so his mediocrity was pretty much expected. Seo on the other hand, has been borderline shitty the whole season. He stays afloat with quality starts here and there, but he gets rocked way too often. At least Odalis Perez isn't still pitching. Now the Dodgers go off to face the Braves, probably without the heart of our lineup. In other words, we're screwed.

Clips lose, they're done, great season. Dodgers win, on a roll, whoopee. I didn't really see either because Jack Bauer got put on a FUCKING BOAT!!!

WHAT THE EFFF!?!?!? I will never forgive network execs for scheduling all three events at the same time. My sad poor tivo-less nervous fingers were quickly switching back and forth during commercials, trying to absorb as much Clippers as possible without missing the downfall of President Logan. This is absolute cruelty. This better not happen next year, or there will be hell to pay. And hell's name is Jack Bauer.

What a great cliff-hanging ending to this season of 24, btw. Jack Bauer beaten to a bloody pulp and put on a boat headed for Shanghai, something I honestly saw coming but great nonetheless. I mean, seriously, do you really think Jack Bauer could go romping around LA, suddenly alive and well, wreaking havoc for a day without the Chinese finding out about it? They just had to come back into play at some point in the season. They had to.

My early prediction for next season: Taking place a week after the kidnapping of Jack Bauer, a team of former CTU field ops consisting of Curtis Manning, Bill Buchanon, Chloe O'Brien, Audrey Raines, and a new skinny white haired fellow named Raiden arrive in Shanghai as civilians. Newly appointed President Hal Gardner has given the go-ahead to this team to infiltrate a Chinese military facility where satellite photos say Jack Bauer is currently being held. Knowledge of this group has been officially disavowed by the United States government, allowing it to act as a free independent body without restraint. The name of the group? Foxhound of course. With Bill Buchanon as the Col. Roy Campbell role, Curtis Manning as Black Snake, Audrey Raines as the Naomi Hunter role (without the betrayal, hopefully, you never know with this show), Chloe O'Brien as the white Mei-Ling (with a lot more frowning), and Raiden as ... Raiden, the fruity guy who manages to make the whole thing seem a little gayer. Their mission: Infiltrate this facility, find Jack Bauer, bring him back alive, and secure the plans for a mobile nuclear missile launcher codenamed "Metal Gear". No ... wait ... scratch that last part. Just get Bauer back to America alive. Can they do it? Find out next season on: 24!

Another thing I forgot to mention the other day: With all the hoopla people give to "Whatever Phone Company is Paying Us Now" Park in San Fran, you'd think it would be heaven on earth. It is a beautiful park, on the water and all, but there are a couple glaring eyesores/problems I have with it.

The first is the giant coke slide in left field. Now, I love coke. It's the best drink in the world. But a slide? At a ballpark? Shouldn't the kids be watching the game? I've never been a big fan of other distractions at the ballpark. Some stadiums have playgrounds and theme park rides and other attractions which make you wonder why people didn't just buy a ticket to Six Flags instead of going to the ballpark. Arizona's pool is the worst of these. Who goes swimming at the ballpark in center field??? Stupidest thing in a baseball stadium. This is why Dodger Stadium is so great. All there is is baseball and great scenery, and no stupid side distractions. Maybe I'm just biased.

The second thing, I can't believe nobody mentions. It's glaringly obvious and a huge annoyance, and that is the seagulls that hover above the park. A couple years ago my buddies Rem, Jon and I went to SF for spring break. We caught the annual preseason Bay Series between the Giants and A's at the then titled SBC Park (I think). We were having a great time eating seeds and rooting for the Giants to lose until around the end of the 7th when the seagulls migrated to our section. Two people in our section got pooed on before we decided to get ourselves outa there. It was not a pleasant experience having to vacate our seats. Being shat on is not something you should have to think about when you go to the ballpark. Note to the Giants: Please do something about this. Put some bird repellant on the park or a net or something. Else I'll just have to bring a shotgun nextime and make sure no birds come near me.

With the Clippers finally shedding the loser label (for now anyway), the bandwagon has gotten so full that even Jack has hitched on for a ride. This got me thinking. Nobody made a big deal about Jack being at Clips/Suns Game 5 the other night. Sure the TV's interviewed him, asked him if the Lakers were still his team, to which he gave a Kobe-Barkeley related response. Come to think of it, has Jack ever talked openly to the public about his love for the Lakers? Maybe he's not as hardcore a fan as we think he is. Would the public respond so nonchalantly if Rudy Giuliani was spotted at a Met's game? I think not. Only in LA. Remember last year when John Cusack tried to get tickets to a White Sox playoff game, but got the stiff hand from owner Jerry Reinsdorf? No way sir are the White Sox going to give tickets to an open follower of the church of Cubs. A problem back east is but a mere sidenote here in LA. Only in LA. The rest of the nation says we don't care about our sports out here. They're half right. We do care about our sports. We just don't care about them as much as the East does. And why would we? There's so much more out here to do. We've got the beach, Hollywood, a high amusment park concentration, great weather, first class shopping and dining, and did I mention the beach? Yeah, it's true not as many of us are die hards about our local teams, but would I trade that for everything else LA has to offer? Not a chance. This is the best place in the world to live. Only in LA can you openly root only for the hot team of the moment and get away with it. And who cares? We're all laid back here.

So what happens, when, the Dodgers start winning again and go on a pennant run, creating a bandwagon with even greater immensity than the Angels had in '02 (PLEASE GOD, LET THIS HAPPEN SOON)? All you on the east coast can frown upon us and call us unloyal, but why should any of us care? As far as I'm concerned, any Dodger supporter should be welcomed with open arms, no matter how fleeting his/her interest is. To me, there are only three golden rules, Blue Rules rather, that all Dodger fans must follow and embrace.

1) You must have, at some point in life, lived in the Los Angeles area.
This must be in the Los Angeles area, not just anywhere in Southern California. Orange County doesn't count (more on this later). San Diego doesn't count. You have your own teams there. This goes for anywhere you are. You should support the local teams. No "I root for this team cuz the local team stinks" or "I root for them cuz I like their uniforms" allowed. Local teams are there for a reason. You are only allowed to root for an out of town team if a) You had to move out of the area of that team because of work or family related reasons, b) The area where you live doesn't have a team so you just picked one, or c) Your team used to be where you lived, but they moved. (This is what all LA football fans have been doing for too long)

2) Complete and utter disdain for all things Angels.
This is the exception for LA in rooting for all the local teams. If you're a Clipper fan, you can root for the Lakers and vice-versa. Same goes for the Kings and Ducks. Angels and Dodgers? In no way can you root for both. You used to be able to root for both, but the whole "Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim" thing changed all that. We were all happy and good when the Dodgers were happy in LA and the Angels were happy in Anaheim. Then, the Angels had to go and try to take over our turf. This is absolutely unacceptable. Most Dodger fans still refuse to acknowledge the Angels as representing Los Angeles, and rightly so. They play in Anaheim. They should be proud of the city of Anaheim and give the OC a sense of identity by representing them. The whole market share thing is a greedy and unforgivable move by Arte Moreno. You don't see Frank McCourt (as cheap as he is) trying to take the OC market share by changing the Dodgers to the Southern California Dodgers of Los Angeles. Hell, why don't they just make it the Earth Angels? Then they'd be able to represent everybody! It's stupid. The Angels must pay.

3) Complete and utter disdain for all things Giants.
Now I have nothing against the city of San Fransisco. It's a beautiful city. The people are nice and the BART makes LA's subway look like the kiddy train at the mall. If it weren't for the hippies and the Giants I might even want to live there someday. But alas, hippies are real, and so are the Giants. It's absolutely required that Dodger fans hate the Giants. Everything from the rivalry in old New York, the Shot Heard 'round the World, moving to the west coast in the same season, to the whole Bonds thing has made Dodger fans abhor everything about the Giants. This rivalry is so heated a Giants fan got shot in the parking lot of Dodger Stadium after a game in 2004. Sometimes I see Dodgers-Giants couples at the stadium. This is acceptible only if a) No allegiance to the teams is ever wavered, b) The girl is incredibly beautiful, and c) It is agreed upon before hand that all potential children will become Dodger fans.

Follow these rules, and anyone can be a Dodger fan. Arent sports in LA great?

The Dodgers lost yesterday, bringing them back down to the .500 mark. It seems to be the case the last two years that going above .500 is taboo in the Dodger organization. They had the ultimate welcoming chance yesterday to regain decency against Byung-Hyun Kim and they blew it. Kim was trying his hardest, allowing tree walks, two wild pitches, and a base hit in the first inning, yet the Dodgers managed only to score one run that inning, then went on to lay an egg the rest of the game. How can you not rip Byung-Hyun Kim up in that situation??? This is maybe the only guy in the history of baseball who's given up more clutch home runs than the ultimate homer-giver-upper, fellow Korean Chan-Ho Park. We should have taken his submarine arm, wrapped it around his body, beat him in the face with it, then shoved it up his ass. But it didn't happen. Even worse for the Blue Crew is the fact that Jeff Kent and Kenny Lofton both left the game with injuries. Both are considered day-to-day. With them hurt, that makes Kent, Lofton, Nomar, Werth, Gagne, Izturis, Mueller, Brazoban, Repko, Furcal, Navarro, Ledee, and Penny have all gotten hurt at some point in this short year. One of the few that has managed to stay healthy the whole year? Ironically, J.D. Drew, whos consecutive games played without an injury count is now up to a whopping 35. I'm pretty sure this means pigs will start to fly tomorrow. Yesterday's game also the first time since opening day when we all got to see the Derek Lowe face. It happened with two outs in the fifth inning after Todd Helton doubled and Matt Holiday singled him in to make the score 5-1. If you don't know what the Derek Lowe face is, ESPN's Sports Guy once described it as:
"The Derek Lowe Face is ... anguished and tortured (imagine someone taking a dump and suddenly realizing that there's no toilet paper in the bathroom). And as soon as Lowe starts making that face, the umpires should halt the game and award it to whomever the Red Sox are playing. I have to admit, I'm haunted by The Derek Lowe Face."
This was the first bad start Lowe made since he layed that monster smelly-butt egg on opening day. I'm not angry at him. He's been solid so far this year other than those two starts. I just think the face is funny. Hopefully the Dodgers can rebound in a day game today, go back above .500, and stay there. That is, if Danys Baez doesn't serve the game up on a silver platter again.

Clippers lost yesterday too in a heart wrenching double overtime thriller. I now officially hate Raja Bell. He's moved up on my "Players I Hate the Most in the League" list to # 2, ahead of Stephon Marbury, but still below Chris Webber, who I will never forgive for killing two consecutive fantasy seasons for me in high school (one of which I finished second, by the way, and would have definately won had i not wasted a second round pick on that turd load). Raja "Pancake" Bell irked me when he bulldogged Kobe to the floor in the first round, now with the three he made against the Clippers at the end of the first overtime, I hate him with a passion. This guy flops around more than Rey Misterio in a tag-team match. The worst part? The refs buy it. Sam Cassell gently backs him down on the post, no movement in his upper body whatsoever. Then Sam raises his off hand to pick his nose, Bell flops over, *WHISTLE*, turnover, Suns ball. Damn you Bell. Damn you.

How bad has Danys Baez been lately? Over his last four save opportunities, his stats are as follows: 2-1, 4.0 IP, 11.25 ERA, 8 Hits, 2 K's, 3 BB's, 4 BLOWN SAVES!!! How can you call yourself a closer and blow four saves in a row??? Completely unacceptable. That gives him 5 blown saves on the year out of 13 chances. Maybe Baez is confused and thinks blown save percentage is a stat like batting average, in which case he's got a great-looking .385 clip. I'm sorry Danys, but as far as this one goes, the lower the better. Manager Grady Little has stated that Baez is still his guy, reluctant to hand the ball in the ninth to youngster Jonathan Broxton or the bullpen horse, the already overworked Takashi Saito. Saito was a successful closer in Japan and Broxton is a star stopper in the making, but neither is preferred for the role at the moment. Another blown save by Baez may change that very quickly.

All this creates more pressure for Eric Gagne to come back even more quickly. He's already thrown a bullpen session and says he feels great. He could begin a minor league rehab stint in as soon as a week or two, getting back to the big club by June 1st at the earliest. But that date is very wishful thinking. I'd say they don't rush him back and he returns to the club around mid-June. That gives us all another month of shivering nervousness in the ninth inning hoping that Baez can slam the door on Dodger wins. My bet is he starts performing like we thought he would. I mean, the guy saved 41 games last year for the Devil Rays. That's not an easy thing to do. He just needs to calm down and get his mindset back to dominant-closer form.

Sidenote: Is there a better nickname in the league than Olmedo Saenz "The Killer Tomato"? I think Pronk is pretty funky and El Duque's a classic but I'll take the round Panamanian in this department.

A running diary of today: (Yeah, I stole this idea from Bill Simmons, so what?)

12:05 pm - I wake up. Had a great dream about women and boats. What more could a guy want in a dream? Going to the bathroom, I realize it's Wednesday and the cleaning lady's coming today. This means my suitemate Ben has taken the floormats out of the shower and toilet rooms. Just to let you know, my other suitemate Josh bought these mats at the beginning of the school year and we've yet to wash either of them. Theyre both soaked with dried urine and dirty water, but we still use em, step on em, it's no big deal. Just thought you should know that.

1:30 - I eat a ramen for lunch. It's real good. Let's hope this serves as a reminder to me to buy that brand again. Beef Flavor. Easily one of the best bowls of instant noodle I've ever had.

3:15 - Josh comes back from an alcohol run at Ralphs. Be bought so much beer, I have to bring his giant suitcase down to the car to help him carry it all up. This is one of the biggest suitcases I've ever seen. The little asian guy from Ocean's Eleven could stand up and jump around in this thing. Walking back up to the room, it looks like we're carrying luggage back from a trip around the world.

4:00 - I'm at Boelter Hall taking my Statics midterm. I feel pretty good about this one.

5:30 - Finished with my test a whole half hour early. You know that guy who always finishes his test first and walks out of the room and you just know he's thinking to himself "Fuck I'm smart, I just aced that thing." while you silently think to yourself "I hate you"? That was me today, and man it felt good. Turning out to be a great day. The only thing that could make this a better day is the Dodgers and Clips winning.

8:00 - Clips and Dodger games are both underway. One thing I noticed about the Suns: Why do they play the Big Ben Bell everytime Raja Bell makes a basket? Does he deserve this? I don't think so. As much as Raja flops around the floor on defense, they should ring little pussy jingle bells instead. That's Ben Wallace's gimmick anway. You can't go around stealing another guy's gimmick. That would be like Kurt Angle coming out to Triple H's music. It just shouldn't happen. This came up last year when Curt Schilling tried to become a closer and came out to "Welcome to the Jungle." That's the same song Eric Gagne comes out to with his whole Game Over deal. You can't steal another players music! Especially when he's a superstar. Needless to say, Schilling failed miserably as a closer, so there is good in the world.

8:45 - Watching the games tonight, I again had this thought, one I've had numerous times. LA fans have no idea how spoiled we are in the sports broadcasting department. We've had Vin Scully on the Dodgers, Chick Hearn doing the Lakers, and Ralph Lawler for the Clippers. Game calling doesn't get any better than that, folks. Those three had been here longer than anyone could remember until Chick's unfortunate passing a few years ago. Immediately after, Paul Sunderland replaced Chick for the season and did a pretty good job. I have no idea why they yanked Sunderland in favor of Joel Myers. He's terrible. I could be high on meth and Myers would still put me to sleep with his monotone game calling. The only reason i still watch Laker games is to hear Stu Lantz say "On the Lakers Basketball Network" eighty times a night. With Scully nearing the end of his career, platooning with the Steiner-Lyons duo, we should cherish these games we have left. By the way, Ralph Lawler is still going strong. He and Mike Smith are by far the funniest announcers in the league.

9:30 - Clips and Dodgers both up big. Thank goodness Jeff Kent's coming around. He hit a three run homer last night and went deep for a 3-spot again tonight. His average has been about or below the Mendoza line pretty much all season, but with Nomar crankin' it like the No-MAHHHH of old, and J.D. Drew healthy (knock on wood), the Dodgers have a middle of the lineup that can compete with anyone in the NL. I always secretly liked Jeff Kent, even when he was a Giant. He's one of the only guys left in the league with enough balls to sport the baseball 'stache. Practically no one has a good 'stache nowadays like Eckersley and Rod Beck had back in the day. Even porn stars don't 'stache it up nowadays. Kudos, Jeff.

10:00 - Dodger game's over. Final score: 9-6 Dodgers. The Blue Crew had a 9-0 lead going into the 7th, then Tomko came out and the bullpen nearly blew it again. Seriously, how bad are these guys this year? Saito has been pretty much the only solid one. The rest of em, GET EM OUT! THEY STINK! Even Baez has been shaky (2.50 ERA but 4 blown saves in 12 chances this year). Eric Gagne please come back soon! Hopefully Broxton can mature fast into a steady reliever, cuz we definately need it. On the bright side, the Dodgers have now won 5 straight and are back at .500, meaning they have now clinched the NL West.

10:10 - Clipper game is now also over. Final score: Clippers 122, Suns 97. Utter dominance. This is exactly what expect more of in this series. We will do what the Lakers could not. Clippers in 6. What a great day for LA sports. I will now get drunk and watch my metal casting DVD.