Major news has surrounded Dodgertown over the past two weeks.

While Manny Ramirez has vacated his home in Mannywood heading to the Windy City, so ends his controversy-filled two-year roller-coaster ride with the Dodgers.

On Monday, the Dodgers’ much-publicized version of “War of the Roses” divorce trial got underway in downtown Los Angeles where Frank and Jamie McCourt, with the help of their high-priced attorneys, began slugging it out over who owns the team.

On a brighter note, legendary Dodgers broadcaster Vin Scully will return to the booth for the 2011 season, and that will be his 62nd with the club.  Scully will continue to call all games at Dodger Stadium and all National League West road games. He will not be traveling, however, east of Denver.

Nestled between all this Dodgers news is another question, ‘Will Joe Torre return as manager next season?’

Torre, whose three-year, $13 million contract expires at the end of this season, recently stated he would decide on a return sometime around Labor Day but said he wouldn’t announce that decision until the team’s playoff fate is sealed.  With the way the Dodgers have been playing of late, expect that decision to come sooner rather than later.

Talk around the Dodger Stadium clubhouse have indicated that Torre won’t be back in 2011 but who can blame him.  The negative atmosphere around this McCourt owned team has made working for the late George Steinbrenner look like a party.

While Dodgers hitting coach Don Mattingly has been thought to be the likely successor to Torre, this no longer seems to be the case. We say that because in an interesting twist, SI.com’s Jon Heyman told Fox Sports Radio’s “The Petros and Money Show” yesterday that Mattingly is off the list because he was a favorite of Jamie. Heyman also mentioned that former Dodger and manager of the Dodgers’ AAA affiliate in Albuquerque, Tim Wallach, is a leading candidate to succeed Torre.

So the circus at Chavez Ravine gets even more interesting.  Stay tuned…

Used with permission of the author.

Chris Lardieri covers the Los Angeles Dodgers for Examiner.com and has written about Major League Baseball for Inside Edge, a scouting company that provides content to ESPN Insider and Yahoo Sports. He previously wrote for 1766, the Rutgers Alumni Magazine, and popular blog, ‘The Outer Loop’.  Be sure to follow Chris on Twitter for more MLB and sports observations.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

Bark in the Park will make its debut at Dodger Stadium and for those of you who have not heard of it, it has nothing to do with the performance of the players on the field.

In conjunction with their sponsor Natural Balance Pet Foods, Inc. the Los Angeles Dodgers are selling seats for pet owners and their dogs. Canines will gallop through the turnstiles after their owners have plunked down an additional $25.00 for a pet ticket with a portion of the proceeds going to the Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals, Los Angeles branch.

The Dodgers’ Bark in the Park Day on August 21, 2010 is one of three for the month of August in the MLB. The Dodgers are joined by the Atlanta Braves and San Francisco Giants who have theirs scheduled for August 29, 2010. The Cincinnati Reds are closing out the event with the final one of the season scheduled for September 14.

In L.A. there will be a rally where ticket holders will be invited to join in the Pup Parade. All pets and owners will be given the opportunity to stroll along the warning track inside the stadium prior to game time.

Some rules for attendees: All dog owners must bring a copy of a current vaccination documents from a licensed veterinarian. Pet must wear an identification tag to gain entrance to Dodger Stadium. Each dog must be accompanied by an adult 18 years of age or older. Attendees must bring a signed copy of the Bark in the Park release waiver to gain admittance to the ballpark.

If any of the fans situated in the designated Right Field Pavilion where the animals will sit aren’t happy about sharing the space with dogs and their owners, they will be moved to another section.

Concerned about stepping in a doggie accident?

These stadiums have made plans for that as well. Natural Balance has experience in staging these events and will provide clean-up service.

For more information on the Dodgers’ event, to view a copy of the release waiver and check out details on “Bark in the Park,” check out the Dodgers website, here.

Fans of the Chicago White Sox, Florida Marlins, Houston Astros, NY Mets and Oakland A’s will have to wait for next season since those event dates have passed but details for the other remaining dates throughout the league can be found below.

Atlanta Braves – Bark in the Park: August 29 vs. Florida

San Francisco Giants – Dog Days of Summer: August 29 vs. Arizona Diamondbacks

Cincinnati Reds – Bark in the Park: September 14 vs. the Diamondbacks

Used with permission of the author.

Paula Duffy is a national sports columnist for Examiner.com and the Huffington Post and regularly comments on sports/legal matters for radio affiliates of ESPN and Fox Sports. She founded the sports information site, Incidental Contact, is the author of a line of audio books designed for sports novices and in her spare time practices law in Los Angeles. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

After the All-Star break the Detroit Tigers were trailing the Chicago White Sox by a half game in the American League Central and at that point didn’t have any gaping holes. They could have used a starting pitcher preferably a left hander, since they didn’t have one in the starting rotation after releasing Dontrelle Willis on May 29th.  

Andy Oliver who they called up wasn’t quite ready yet with his ability to throw strikes.  Ted Lilly seemed like he could have been destined to Detroit in that case.   Their offense had been steady placing the team in the top ten in the majors in hits and batting average. 

Their horse in the middle Miguel Cabrera is putting up Triple Crown numbers, as he sits in the top three in batting average, home runs, and has a substantial lead in RBIs.  He also leads the majors by being a part of 32% of the Tigers runs, 5% ahead of Ryan Howard of the Phillies.

Fast forward and we’ll check in with the present day Tigers.  After suffering injuries to Brandon Inge–broken hand out 4 weeks, Magglio Ordonez–fractured ankle out 8 weeks, and Carlos Guillen who pulled his hamstring, the Tigers are looking like their AAA affiliate Toledo Mudhens. 

The serious injuries actually started earlier in the season when they lost their 8^th inning setup man Joel Zumaya who fractured his elbow during the most productive season of his career. In the starting lineup only four players have not seen any time in the minors this year. Rookie Austin Jackson, Johnny Damon, Miguel Cabrera and Gerald Laird, who is hitting a whopping .187.   

Miguel’s Triple Crown chances may be shot now that he shouldn’t expect anything decent to hit with the lineup surrounding him.  Another scary thought is Brennan Boesch. The Tigers’ rookie slugger was tearing up pitching from the day he was called up but is currently battling a 4-for-37 slump, that’s a .108 average.

The Tigers are now are in 3^rd place three games back from the White Sox, after a 3-7 stretch in their last ten.  The road is not getting any easier for the Tigers either as the next 7 series on their schedule is against teams with a record better then .500.  In that stretch they also face the White Sox twice. 

So what are the Tigers to do after missing the postseason last year in heartbreaking fashion.  We all remember losing in extra innings to the Minnesota Twins in an extra game to decide the AL Central crown.  The Twins last season overcame a seven-game gap in the final month, went 17-4 to pull even on the final weekend. 

Do they give up and pack it in and hope for another next year? I hope not, Detroit needs to make a move to try and keep this team’s playoffs chances alive.  I agree with GM Dave Dombrowski to not give up prospects for a rental player for two months.  The Tigers don’t have the depth for one player to make them a World Series Champion.  What they do have though is a good team with a ton of money coming off the books this year.  On opening day the Tigers posted the 6^th highest salary in Major League Baseball at $122 million and $52 million of that will be coming off the payroll next year.  

Coming off the books are Dontrelle Willis $12 million, Jeremy Bonderman $12.5 million, Nate Robertson $10 million, Gerald Laird $4 million and Magglio Ordonez  $17.5 million. Mags had an option for $15 million for next season but he won’t make enough at bats this year to pick that up so he will be a free agent next season.   With all that cap room I think you make a move for a player and then sign him to an extension.  The only player on the roster for the 2011 season that is being vastly overpaid is Carlos Guillen.  Carlos will bring in around $13 million for two bad hamstrings a .280 batting average and the worst range in baseball at second base.  

The Tigers have three viable options before the trade deadline.  Their first and second  option is to make a play at Corey Hart or Jayson Werth.  The Tigers must give up a first tier pitching prospect plus another position player to land him.  Once you land him you make sure you sign him to a nice 4 year extension that takes the place of Magglio at right field for the remainder of this season plus the next few years.  If that can’t happen you go after Josh Willingham of the Nationals.  He is not as valuable and will come cheaper than Werth and Hart but still has numbers that are decent enough to make an impact .272 15 HR’s and 50 RBI’s. 

The problem with Willingham is he can’t step into the 3rd spot in your order more like 2nd or 6^th in the American League.  I can’t see us going after Adam Dunn because I feel like he is a rental guy and he is making $15 million this season. To re-sign him to an extension would cost way too much money for his overall worth. 

I hope the Tigers don’t sit and do nothing because the product on the field is going to be tough to watch for the remaining months.  “To my knowledge, we have absolutely nothing going on,” manager Jim Leyland said. If that is the case I feel bad for the skipper because Matt Garza simply overpowered us for a no-hitter yesterday by throwing fast balls in the top of the zone and an occasional curveball for a strike in his historical game yesterday. 

If we don’t make any moves there are a few things that will be certain for the remainder of the year. There will be no playoffs, no Cabrera Triple Crown and a lot less Tigers fans going to the ballpark.  The Detroit Tigers rank 13^th overall in major league baseball with over 30,000 fans on average attending their home games. There will also probably be another no hitter against this Tigers team in the months ahead if nothing is done.   For all us Michiganders, I hope we see something happened soon because football season is still too far away when we were right in the pennant race such a short time ago.

Used with permission of the author.

Mateo Ferda is a Detroit-based sportswriter and contributor to Sports Climax. 

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

For the past two seasons, the AL Central race has gone to the last day of the season. Actually, it’s gone past that, as both the Chicago White Sox (in 2008) and Minnesota Twins (2009) needed an extra game to win the division outright.

 This year, the AL Central will once again likely come down to the wire, with three evenly matched teams fighting for what will likely be, barring a collapse of the Tampa Bay Rays, one playoff spot.

At the time of this article, the White Sox have a 2.5 game lead over the Detroit Tigers and a 3 game lead over the Twins.

Interestingly enough, the Twins actually have the best run differential of the three, and the Tigers seem to be playing above their heads right now with a negative run differential despite a winning record.

Offensively, the Twins have led the way so far. With Justin Morneau and Joe Mauer, they have scored the most runs in the division and have also gotten surprising production from Delmon Young.

On the other side of the ball, the White Sox have allowed the fewest runs, but will be without Jake Peavy for the remainder of the season. The Sox have a terrific bullpen, and have been scoring more runs lately as Gordon Beckham remembers how to hit.

The Tigers would seem to have a great lineup, with the fifth best batting average and seventh best OBP in all of baseball. However, the team is only tied for 16^th in runs scored. Pitching wise, the Tigers rotation is rather thin after Justin Verlander, and even he hasn’t been overly impressive (3.87 ERA) thus far in 2010.

Over the rest of the season, the White Sox may be at a scheduling disadvantage, as they have played six more home games than the Twins and seven more than the Tigers.

But the most important thing to who wins the division will be head-to-head competition.

In September, the White Sox have seven games with Detroit and three with Minnesota. The Tigers and Twins play each other five times that month.

Minnesota seems to have the edge in head-to-head competition, with winning records over both the Tigers and White Sox. The Tigers are at the biggest disadvantage, as they also have a losing record against Chicago.

All in all, if the last two years have proved anything, it’s that anyone could ultimately walk away with the AL Central.

If I had to put my money on one team at this point, it would be the Twins, who have the best run differential to date, winning records against both the White Sox and Tigers, and have been involved in the one game playoff in each of the past two years.  

Used with permission of the author.

 Along with contributing to Sports Climax, Brett Kettyle is the Atlanta Braves Community Leader on Bleacher Report and maintains a Braves column for MTR Media.

Copyright ©2010 Sports Climax, LLC

How do I best describe the atmosphere inside Wrigley Field last night? Electrified. Ted Lilly, in his post game interview said he couldn’t believe the energy inside the park, saying the closest comparison he could make was during the 2001 World Series.

The evening started with a buzz because the Stanley Cup Champion Chicago Blackhawks were going to be at Wrigley for a pre-game ceremony with hockey’s Holy Grail. Security was tight as I watched 10 mounted police go by my bleacher seats on Waveland.

As time grew close to seeing the team and the Cup, anticipation levels rose – even brief rain shower couldn’t dampen the excitement building inside Wrigley Field. And then the Blackhawks appeared in right field to the cheers of more than 40,000 fans.

Acknowledging the crowd, the Hawks paraded the Cup around the ballpark, and where possible, shook hands with fans. The Cup was placed on the pitcher’s mound and John McDonough, once in marketing with the Cubs, threw out the first pitch. Both the Cubs and White Sox posed with the Hawks and the Cup for photos, and some even got to hold the Cup. This in itself was worth going out to Wrigley last night. Seeing a championship anything inside Wrigley was an extremely rare occurrence.

Cheers turned to boos as Ozzie Guillen was handed the Stanley Cup. Earlier in the day, Guillen said that the White Sox parade after they won the 2005 World Series was bigger than the estimated 2 million that showed up for the Blackhawks parade. Cubs fans commented that when the Cubs win the World Series, our parade would dwarf both.

The place was still buzzing about the Cup when fans realized there was another story breaking. Both White Sox pitcher Gavin Floyd and Cubs pitcher Ted Lilly were throwing no hitters, and it was into the fifth inning.

Fans started turning their attention to the baseball game, but not fully until after the Hawks sang the Seventh Inning Stretch. At the time, both Floyd and Lilly were still throwing no hitters. Then Alfonso Soriano came to the plate in the bottom of the seventh and hit a double with two outs. The Cubs scored their only run soon after, but that was enough.

Lilly, however, took his no hitter into the ninth, as rain began to fall. Fans that would normally have run for shelter, stayed in their seats, transfixed on the game. However, a no hitter was not to happen at Wrigley last night. Juan Pierre came to the plate to pinch hit for Floyd and hit a clean single to break Lilly’s no-no.

Carlos Marmol came in to shut down the side and the Cubs beat the White Sox 1-0 on a one hitter, avoiding the first White Sox sweep at Wrigley since 1999, in what most were saying was the best game they’ve seen at Wrigley this year and maybe in a very long time.

There were some in the crowd who, while happy the Cubs finally won, bemoaned the fact that Lilly was denied his no-no. One fan lamented he would never see a no hitter. Our group placed the blame on one friend who dared to utter the words “no hitter,” while columnist George Castle shouldered the blame, calling himself the no-no jinx.

I know I’m not the jinx. I refused to even try to jinx it for Floyd, thinking perhaps it would work against Lilly and just watched, transfixed. Some of us were lucky enough to see Carlos Zambrano pitch a no hitter in Milwaukee against the Astros after the game was moved from Houston because of Hurricane Ike. That was a pinnacle moment in my personal sports history, but seeing a no-no at Wrigley would top everything except seeng the Cubs win the World Series at home.

The Cubs do need to be careful when they travel to U.S. Cellular Field in a couple of weeks. In two days Cubs pitchers hit five Sox batters. While some expected some retaliation last night, it could come at the hands of the Sox in their own ballpark.

Re-printed with permission of the author.

In addition to contributing to Sports Climax, Miriam Romain maintains a Chicago Cubs column for Examiner.com. The Chicago native has also been published in several Cubs annuals by Maple Street Press and is writing a book with the working title “Summers at Wrigley with my Dad.”

Copyright © 2010 Sports Climax, LLC

After an evening filled with dramatic walk-off wins, MLB has playoff races that are tighter than a gnat’s ass as the teams make a final sprint to the finish.

In the most shocking race, the Tampa Bay Cinderellas and their $43 million payroll still hang onto a two game lead over the Boston Red Sox and their $133 million payroll. The boys from Beantown are creeping up on the Rays but Tampa is still in the driver’s seat. The Rays won the head-to-head series 10-8 this year, giving them the tiebreaker.

In the other American League race, the Minnesota Twins moved ahead of the Chicago White Sox by just ½ game. After scoring two in the bottom of the eighth to send the game into extra innings, a dramatic walk-off single by Alexi Cassilla off Bobby Jenks shocked the Sox 7-6, completing a three-game sweep earning the Twins the Central Division lead.

Not to be outdone by the American League, the National League had a few spectacular finishes last night as well.

The Randolph-free New York Mets won in dramatic fashion, defeating the Chicago Cubs 7-6 with a walk-off hit by Carlos Beltran in the bottom of the ninth, keeping them just one game behind the division leading Phillies.

In Packer country, Ryan Braun hit a walk-off grand slam in the 10th to keep the Milwaukee Brewers tied for the wild-card spot. The Brewers who have won four straight playing under the direction of interim manager Dale Sveum, finish the regular season at home against the Cubs.

Copyright © 2008 – Sports Climax