Dodgers win their division!

The Dodgers only needed one more game to clinch their opportunity to go to the post-season. One game, that's it. But they like keeping things to the wire. So they lost 5 straight.

Last night, while we were playing with my brother and his wife (Dominion), we kept half an eye on the game, a scoreless wonder against the Rockies until the seventh inning where we brought in run after run for a 5-0 victory!

The Dodgers are now the National League West Champions for the second year in a row and 3/4.

They will face the Cardinals Wed-Thur for the first of the 5 game play off.

Some random and entirely unnecessary but celebratory statistics: "The Dodgers have back-to-back first-place finishes for the first time since 1977-78 after already qualifying for postseason play three of the four years that Ned Colletti has been general manager. The last time they advanced three times in a four-year span was 1963-66. Their 94 wins are the most for a Dodgers team since 1988, the last time they won the World Series."

Several short posts - 1: Softball

The Stormin' Mormons won the softball championship a week and a half ago. Joy and I haven't been able to be there for most of the games, but we were there for the first ones. ... the ones we lost. I really really hope there isn't a connection.

Joy got a number of hits and scored a run in the 3 games we played. I got an RBI and several hits and did some good in the outfield backing up our center fielder. Mostly, we kept the team alive because those three weeks we didn't actually have 9 people to play. We had 7 or 8, and that was AFTER ringing in one or two more who were just standing around.

Then our team captain came back to town and got the GOOD players back just as our lives got more hectic. They won the championship game 28-6. So we didn't get the glory, but we got t-shirts. Pictures of us in matching t-shirt and caps may be forthcoming. Here are the guys with the right stuff:
Here is the team: top row from left to right: Cy Brigham Young Award Winner Adam Lindsay, Jonathan Jones, Cameron Rognan, Nate and Grace Fredrick, Matt Sweeney, Mark Slavens, Josh Price with McKay
Bottom row: Mike Langenberg, Natalie Fredrick and Jeff Larrimore.
Other key players that were not there for the championship game are Darrell and Amy Sonntag, Hiram and Laura Conley, and yours truly.

Hat tip to Josh Price for photo and names of key players.

Ah, Vinny...

When I was born (during 42 hours of labor), Mom and Dad watched the Dodger game. As they left the hospital, we listened to the Dodger game on the way home. When we got home, the first thing baby Derrill did was finish the Dodger game.

I don't really get the Dodger games out here, though. I decided for a while (while I was single) that I could root for the Mets, since half of their team consisted of aging former Dodger-Rookie-of-the-Years, and I've enjoyed rooting for the Red Sox as the other team whose games I could watch regularly.

Joy and I don't watch television, though, and therefore don't have cable. Most Dodger games are late enough at night that I can't just tune in online and enjoy them in the moment. But tonight we were waiting for Dad to come to town to pick up his wife, who has graciously been visiting us to take the night shift so we can sleep better. And since we are up late, we're watching the second Dodger game of the year.

As long as I can remember, I have loved listening to the game (Dodger Baseball is always The Game) broadcast by Vin Scully. He's been with the Dodgers since they were in Brooklyn, is the longest consecutive broadcaster with any professional sports team ever, and has numerous awards for his true broadcasting excellence. It warms my heart to hear his golden voice. Hyrum is sleeping through his first game - currently tied 2-2 in the 9th, and I'm pre-nostalgic for the fact that Hyrum won't know him as I do.

Now, hopefully someday we'll be back in the west and able to listen to the game regularly. Not that Joy and I will because we do other things, but we could much more often - it could be in the background maybe. And if so he'll be able to get to know someone else's voice, though Rick Monday and sidekick of the year just haven't done for me what Vinny does. But Vin Scully is something special, one of the last broadcasters capable of carrying a show singlehandedly, and doing so while just talking about the game, rather than (as Mom put it) the broadcast being two guys who happen to be at the game, talking about their beer and their work and, oh, by the way, the score changed.

Vinny is a treasure, a treasure that I don't know Hyrum will have the opportunity to prize. And that's sad.

And that's ... Wat's on my mind tonight.

PS - I informed Joy just now that we won. She commented, "I didn't realize you were so close to winning," making clear very delicately how humorous she finds my possessive use of 'we' when speaking of da Bums.