The Padres, who never fail to disappoint

This past weekend series was more than just a little disappointing.

Sure, it's only May 2nd, but I really thought the Dodgers were better than this.

The Padres had only won 9 games going into last Friday's opener, and the sight of the Dodgers hovering around second and the Padres in the cellar was a little disarming.

The Padres' problem seemed to be lack of offense.  They have catalysts (Cameron Maybin comes to mind), but don't really have that knockout punch.  

How Do I Loathe Thee? Let me count the ways...

Over the last 7 years, I’ve had a love/hate relationship with the team’s owner, Frank McCourt.

On one hand, I loved his rhetoric, all the grand plans he had for the franchise, telling us that, after 7 years of corporate FOX ownership, the Dodgers have come back into the hands of family ownership.

On the other hand, I hated his actual actions. He raised ticket prices at an astronomical rate, but slashed the payroll of the team. He loved photo-ops, and put himself in the limelight in such a way that, on a whole, concern set in as to whether this man was committed to continuing the Dodgers’ half-century-old winning tradition. The fans shelled out more money, but the pizzazz that money brought eluded the playing field, instead sparkling around L.A.’s newest power couple, their many houses, chartered jets and the like. Fernando buys his own plane ticket, but Jamie gets her Olympic-sized swimming pool.

This two-faced agenda of saying the right thing to milk out the money to use for one’s own personal gain is one of the main reasons I can’t wait to see Frank McCourt gone. His inability to commit to the pipe dreams he comes up with to placate fans is only hastening his downfall.

A New Beginning

Hello Internet.

My name is John, and I post as NorthStateBlues.

I am a Dodgers fan, and have decided to start a blog on Blogger because I feel like I can write freely here, as opposed to the constraints applied on the MLBlogs Network.  Don't get me wrong, I love MLBlogs, and will probably still post there at points, but wanted to try something new.

I started DodgerBlogging as somewhat of a joke.  I was bored, and was drawing a picture of a Dodger during a game where they were losing in '08, and then they came back and won.  So I kept drawing, and they kept winning (for a while).  My Blog was well received, even garnering a link from Alyssa Milano's baseball blog, but I tapered off my posts.  Why?  Well, I was trying to finish up college, and I tend to be a better writer than a drawer.  Plus, my drawing's weren't Picassos, so I focused on other things.

My influences are wide and varied, the biggest ones sports-wise being the pessimistic and now semi-defunct Dodger Blues , and the eternally optimistic and always informative Vin Scully is my Homeboy .  I usually comment on the Dodgers' Official Front Office blog as well, Josh Rawitch has always asked for fan feedback, and I usually oblige, for better or worse.

Not wanting to be hypocritical criticizing Baseball from a MLB blog, I decided to take my criticisms away from MLB and into the BloggerSphere, where I am my own moderator.

So I hope everyone enjoys what I hope is the start of a more meaningful blogging experience from me.  One where I can put my writing to task.