Maddux Returns To The Dodgers....

...Mad Dog gets not only his own SHOW, but his own CHANNEL on Sirius, and Matt La Porta gets plunked by the Chinese in Olympic baseball.

America...what a country!

So Greg Maddux is back with the Dodgers. This is a move which I think will help the Dodgers tremendously down the stretch. He's a buck solid veteran, a stabilizing force on any pitching staff, and his re-acquisition is, in this blogger's humble opinion, as good a move as any team has made down the stretch this year.

And here's something really, reallllllly sweet to contemplate: Joe Torre making the post-season in his first year as Dodger manager, and Joe Girardi & Company watching from the comfort of their homes. Sweeeeeeeeeeeeeeeeet! I meant to mention this the other day, but I guess I forgot. Man, what a lovely comeuppance that would be for Joe, who was treated, again in this blogger's humble opinion, very badly by the Yankees last year, swines that they are.

And oh, yeah, before I forget, the Yankees suck image du jour... heh heh heh....

As for Mad Dog Russo, the Sirius announcement was of course not unexpected. The monster deal he got ($3 million for five years) was rumored last week when he left the Mike & The Mad Dog Show in between the crocodile tears he shed, and frankly, I think the nut job that is Chris Russo will do very well indeed, and will earn every penny of that three million bucks he's getting. And then some.

And I'm thinking that, after yesterday's USA v. China game, Olympic baseball might actually have some oomph and pizzazz, as tempers flared, players got plunked, and the game actually resembled something resembling a real baseball game. Imagine that. Perhaps there's hope for the sport in the Olympics.

Tonight, the Mets begin a three-game series against the hapless Braves. The Braves are in as bad a shape as I've ever seen, and if the other GMs out there aren't paying attention to all the problems the Braves are having because of their (ahem) "veteran" roster, then my name isn't Deb, and yours isn't, either.

If that makes any sense, you're either brighter, dumber, or simply more confused than I.

And one more thing - the Met bullpen. The only way this bullpen has any success, sans Wagner, is if every starter gets at least the ubiquitous 20 outs that Lee Mazzilli says every starter ought to get. And with Pedro on the starting staff, and with Maine looking the way he's been looking, you're not getting 20 outs from either of them, which means 2/5 of the starting staff ain't giving it to ya. So no Wagner = little success, which, in turn = how the fuck are we going to make the postseason, and even if we do, how the fuck are we going to compete once there?

For answers to these and other questions.... look somewhere else; I sure don't have any!