Mark Loretta Makes It All Worth It

Today's contest might have been painful to watch from the sixth inning on, but the reward of seeing Mark Loretta throwing his 76-79 mph "sinkers" on the mound was worth every minute of my time.

"It's been eight years," he said. "I was well rested."

I still think he's worthless to the current roster, but he seems like an awesome guy, sorta like Mark Sweeney last year.

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Anybody else think the media and fans are worried about the wrong unit of the team? People are practically flinging dung about the rotation and bullpen woes, but the offensive production has been the main factor in this mini-slump.

I was disappointed in Chad Billingsley's outing the same as most, but even if he throws 8 shutout innings, so what? The Dodgers still lose because they can't score a single run.

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There's good news and bad news in this Bill Plaschke article. The good news is that Vin Scully will be back next year, but the bad news is that it's only for next year.

"God willing, I will probably come back for one more year," Scully said in a phone interview. "At this moment, my health is excellent, and I'm leaning toward one more year."

And then retire?

"Yes, that makes sense," he said.

This is probably the only time i'm ever going to agree with Plaschke, and even that is mainly because Scully is one of the few to deserve Plaschke's ridiculous reactionary prose.

In all seriousness though, i'm really quite sad about this announcement. Sure, it's better than him retiring after this year, but i'd rather have him not leave at all. I'm greedy like that.

As far as favorite Scully calls go, I think Kirk Gibson is the most obvious one. However, besides that surreal moment, there is another call that I really loved: Nomar Garciaparra's walk-off homer in the 4+1 game. Why? Because after Scully called the homer, he said absolutely nothing for about 30 seconds or so. It was great. In a world where announcers feel the need to yell and scream like morons, Scully recognized that the mania in the stadium that night was more than he ever could have said. And things like that are what made him a legend.