Doing the Family Proud
It was Father's Day last Saturday when I last went to Dodger Stadium (see last post). Before I left, my dad wondered if I could get him a Hong-Chih Kuo jersey as a present. I actually considered this for a moment. After all, Kuo was coming off his first win of the season where he hit a home run (and did the infamous bat-flip). Plus, it matches the family name so what the heck, right?

But then I came to my senses and realized that a $90 impulse buy based on one good start probably wasn't such a good idea. Kuo had a history of either being hurt or ineffective. His flashes of brilliance did make it enticing though. If only he could face the Mets every time.

So I didn't buy the jersey. Took my dad out to the Universal Hilton for dinner instead. If you've never eaten at the Universal Hilton, let me paint the picture for you. Imagine a nice hotel cafe and bar converted into a buffet. There are multiple large rooms with tables and the food stations are so numerous that they spill into the hallway leading to the elevator. For your enjoyment, there's also a wandering acapella quartet and a lounge piano player who looks like an 80 year old version of Elton John. Now imagine the place is packed with Asian people, and one poor old white man waiting in the shark-fin soup line. That's the Universal Hilton's Cafe Sierra. For $50 a person you get a loud, uncomfortable environment, but a wide variety of good food and it's all you can eat. We come here about once a year. And this has nothing to do with this post.

That was five days ago. Yesterday, I remembered it was Hong-Chih Kuo's turn in the rotation and flipped to KCAL 9 expecting to see him continue his greatness. It was the third inning and ... Brett Tomko was pitching? The Dodgers were down 10-0 already. Turns out the pride of the family went one and two-thirds innings and gave up 8 runs. Thank goodness I didn't buy that jersey. My dad would have walked around with "KUO" written on his back and shame written on his face. Damn you, Hong-Chih Kuo. Damn you.

A Schmidty End To a Schmidty Season
In other Dodger news, Jason Schmidt had season ending surgery yesterday. Turns out he had a torn labrum, a frayed biceps tendon, and an inflamed bursa (whatever the hell that means). My question is, how the hell did we not know about this before we gave him $47 million? Where the hell was former Giants trainer turned current Dodger trainer Stan Conte? He's been working with Schmidt forever and shoulda known his injuries from last season. It's as if this were a move put on by the evil Giants to purposely sabotage the Dodgers franchise. I smell conspiracy...

The lesson, as always: Never trust a former Giant. I'm watching you, Jeff Kent.