There is some positive news in Rafael Furcal finally succumbing to surgery, the Dodgers are no longer stuck in limbo. Both of Furcal's comeback attempts from his bothersome back were brief and futile, and if he had decided to forsake surgery, and aim for a return around the All-Star break, L.A. would still be stuck in the same hamster wheel, unable to commit to anything impactful as a replacement with the hope that Raffy would be back to secure the black hole that shortstop has become, and the void at the top of the order without him. Ned Coletti and company will now be forced to come up with a suitable substitute, maybe even long term. Face it, Furcal is NOT coming back from back surgery, even with a projected return date around Labor Day. And, he's a free agent. There's a possibility that since he'll be undervalued on the open market because of his back injury, he'll try to come back to prove himself, like Vladimir Guerrero did in landing that huge deal with the Angels after leaving the Expos. But I wouldn't count on it, and even if the Dodgers get a discount, given the Nomar Garciaparaa experience, do they want to risk it again on an aging ,increasingly injury prone middle infielder? I wouldn't. Speaking of Nomar, he continues to work towards a return, possibly as early as this weekend in San Francisco. If Garciaparra couldn't stay healthy as a 3rd, or even first baseman, how long do you expect him to stay upright at shortstop? Inspite of themselves, the Dodgers got within one and a half of the lead last night, and July is the month that decides buyers and sellers. They are forced to step up and contend. I wouldn't bother with the David Ecksteins, or Juan Uribes of the world, unless you got them for a low level prospect. Edgar Renteria, Michael Young, or even a young player with a potential potent bat, Ronny Cedeno of the Cubs would be worth exploring. Let's see what the Blue Crew does.

The Dodgers are heading to Houston, and feeling alot better about themselves. Rafael Furcal, Nomar Garciaparra and Andruw Jones are all scheduled to play for AAA Las Vegas Monday, and the infielders may be back by the time gets to San Francisco this weekend. Saturday's game could include the return of Brad Penny to the rotation, if his simulated game goes well on Tuesday, and right now L.A. expects Hiroki Kuroda to pitch the 3rd game in Houston Wednesday. But aside from a healthy Furcal, what do any of the others actually add to the Dodgers? Nomar has lost all his power, and if he comes back this week, how long before he's out again. Andruw Jones has been an unmitigated disaster, which helps overshadow the disappointment Kuroda has been so far, and the fact Penny got worse with every start in his eight game winless streak.

Maybe the best thing about the impending return of some veteran bats is that it should finally force the Dodgers to make a difficult decision that Mark Sweeney will not make for them. Even the 38-year old must realize its over, but you can appreciate the veteran's grit in making you rip the uniform off of him. It's time. Even after switching to #21 to honor his late teammate and friend Ken Caminiti, if anything, Sweeney's gotten even less productive. He now gets his pinch hit opportunities in the 5th inning, and finally fell below .100 Sunday He's now hitless in his last 15 at bats, a dozen of which Joe Torre sent him up there, hoping to get or keep an inning going. In 47 pinch hit at bats he's driven in 3-runs, and one of those was on a bases loaded walk. When he's not going hitless in his rare starting opportunities, he typically bats with runners on, and he's 4 for 30 with ten strikeouts in those situations. A team this offensively challenged cannot afford to carry a situational bat this useless, no matter how great a guy or clubhouse leader he is. Offer him a coaching job. It's over.

Kevin Love and O.J. Mayo continue to be tied together, even before they play their first pro games. The McDonald's All-Americans were familiar with one another from their high school days, and electrified L.A. in their one season of Pac Ten play, each winning on the other's floor. Love took his team much further, and beat out Mayo for Pac Ten player of the year, even though Mayo led the conference in scoring. Overall, it was a disappointing one and done for both in their only collegiate seasons, Mayo and the Trojans tripped up by his boyhood buddy Michael Beasley in the opening round of the NCAA's, Beasley also taken one slot higher than Mayo in the draft. But Mayo went higher than Love, although ultimately, you could compute that Love got traded up to the team that wanted him more. Dick Vitale had the best commentary of the entire draft night, when he chastised the Sonics for not using one of its original six picks on the night to nab Love instead of Russell Westbrook, especially when they had such a stockpile of picks, and would be getting a seemingly guaranteed long term productive big man, instead of the risk of Westbrook not fulfilling expectations. Imagine how different life would be if Seattle had made the better move? It's doubtful Minnesota could have matched up as well with the Sonics as they did with the Grizzlies, and the course of NBA history could have been dramatically altered. As abysmal as McHale's track record has been running the T'Wolves, he still has the nucleus from the Garnett trade, and adds Love and Mike Miller, who Kobe Bryant and the Lakers can tell you, can light you up on any given night. I see Love as a shorter version of Elton Brand, and almost guaranteed double double, who may never make an all-star team, but is the kind of dependable performer, hard worker, and character guy struggling franchises desperately need. Mayo might turn out to be a multiple all-star, but for his sake, he can only hope he's connected to Love atleast one more time, in getting out of Memphis. I agree with Vitale, Westbrook went too high, but he'll make plenty of highlights, and may even win this year's slam dunk contest.
The best thing about all of it, is they're all in the Western Conference, and between the Lakers and Clippers, we'll get to see them in person or ont T.V. against the local teams as many as a dozen times.

During our Think Blue T.V. Hit and Run Segment earlier tonight on KCAL-9, my partner Eric Karros gave me grief for going off about maple bats for the second time in a week. The problem is, last night we had an umpire knocked unconscious by a splintered bat, to add to the litany of a Pirates coach, and a fan right here at Dodgers Stadium that needed medical treatment or a hospital stay. Commissioner Bud Selig and Major League baseball officials are meeting to address the issue, but you know how long it takes to get anything enacted in the national pastime, especially since it'll need to be collectively bargained with the player's union. So I'm emploring each major league hitter to take action himself, and stop using the bats that are more and more frequently splintering into spears, and flying around ballparks. Karros told me and our Dodger audience, players will never do it on their own, because they get comfortable with their lumber, and aren't going to voluntarily switch to something else, for fear it might effect their hitting. Well, there was plenty of hitting before the advent of maple bats, much of it by many of these players, and what would make it harder to feel strong and confident in the batter's box, some new non-maple wood, or the indelible image of your bat impaling another player, umpire, or fan? Let's not find out.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6uiI58ZDSiQ

     What's most troubling about the Finals isn't losing, or even losing to the hated Celtics, or even blowing all those huge leads.  Doc Rivers said it when Paul Pierce went down in game one, and kept on saying it whenever Boston was briefly threatened in this series, "we're better than they are," and they were.  That's a fact. He was the far more effective coach in this series.  What's toughest to take is how much harder the Celtics played than L.A., how much more they wanted it.  That was obvious, and the real embarrassment, and the biggest margin of any between the two teams.

     I though maybe Kobe was, and he certainly looked like it throughout his MVP season and until this Finals series.  Jordan never underachieved more than once in any series, Kobe has one way or the other in every game.  As good as Boston's defense is, it's not the Pistons of the late 80's and early 90's, or the Knicks of the 90's.   They could not stop Jordan, or keep him from taking over a game when he needed to, and the composition of the rest of Jordan's teams was very similar to what Kobe is playing with.  Kobe Bryant is one of the greatest players of all time, but he's not as good as Jordan.  This series would AT LEAST be tied with M.J., no matter WHOM or how many were guarding him.

     It is still the Celtics, and they do stand in the way of a 15th franchise title, (which would equal Boston,) but individually, it's hard to get any true antagonism against this gang of green.