Dodgers Dugout: Note to self — Never catch an important home run ball at Dodger Stadium

Sports Desk

9 months ago

Occasional Digest - a story for you

Hi, and welcome to another edition of Dodgers Dugout. My name is Houston Mitchell and is it too early to end the season, award the division to the Dodgers and start the postseason?

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My apologies for no newsletters last week. I had some sort of bad cold that made my writing more gibberishy than usual, so I thought I’d spare you the more incoherent ramblings than usual from me.

So here we are, 12 games into the season, and the Dodgers already have the biggest division lead in baseball and are the only team in the NL West above .500. They scored at least four runs in every game until Sunday’s loss.

Now that I’ve written that, they will probably go in a slump, go 4-8 and score 16 runs in 12 games.

Before we get too carried away by this offense, keep in mind that it is unlikely that Mookie Betts hits .386 this season or that Will Smith hits .415. Some of these guys are bound to cool off. And when the top part of the lineup cools off, will the bottom half heat up?

Let’s break down the Dodgers lineup by batting order position:

Batting 1-2: .356/.447/.701
Batting 3-5: .337/.418/.509
Batting 6-9: .180/.244/.246

The bottom four in the lineup are hitting like having four pitchers batting.

Some other random thoughts:

—When is it officially time to worry about James Outman? He is four for 32 this season. In his last 34 games, dating to last season, he is hitting .195/.299/.373 with 42 strikeouts in 118 at-bats. Too early to give up, but definitely something to watch.

—And what about Chris Taylor? He is one for 21 this season. He hasn’t looked like Chris Taylor since 2021. That’s not a slump, that’s a new normal.

—Austin Barnes is hitting .500 this season, which shows what people mean when they say don’t judge anyone based on a small sample size. Former Dodger Dave Anderson was a career .242 hitter. But in 1990, he hit .350. Sounds impressive, but it was only in 100 at-bats. Which is why you always have to look deeper into almost every stat.

—Who’s the doofus who wrote that moving Betts to shortstop might be too much for his all-around game? Oh yeah, that was me. Still have concerns it might wear him down at the end of the season, but for now, never mind.

—The infield defense does continue to be a glaring weakness though. Those are the types of things that can kill you in a postseason series.

—For those of you keeping score at home, that’s Miguel Rojas with two home runs, Freddie Freeman and Will Smith with one combined. Early-season baseball stats are so fun.

—It looks like Yoshinobu Yamamoto has adjusted just fine to the majors. In his last 10 innings: Five hits, no runs, two walks, 13 strikeouts. His breaking stuff looks like he’s in a video game.

—And how come Yamamoto’s interpreter gets no press? Shohei Ohtani‘s gets all the notice. Yamamoto’s is named Yoshihiro Sonoda and he won the Dodgers’ buffalo wings eating contest in spring training. He really needs to up his game and get into some sort of scandal though. He’s never going to get noticed at this rate.

—Now it’s time to worry about Gavin Stone. When you are the No. 5 starter, you can’t afford too many poor performances, or you are no longer the No. 5 starter for the Dodgers, you are the No. 1 starter in the minors.

—Did you see Ohtani’s first home run? When he connects with the ball, it sounds different than it did for almost every other Dodger in history. The sound is just perfect. We have a spot online where you will be able to watch every home run Ohtani hits this season. You can see it here.

—Emails still come in wondering when the Dodgers will get a closer. They have one already: Evan Phillips. There are bigger problems to address than Phillips.

—The Dodgers are on pace for 108 wins. But it’s the 11 wins they need after that that count the most.

Another PR blunder

Ohtani hits his first home run, which should lead to a joyous celebration for the team, Ohtani, and the person who caught the ball. But leave it to the Dodgers to foul it up. They just can’t get out of their own way sometimes. For every good thing they do, such as renewing Andrew Toles’ contract, they fumble something else. Here are the basics of what happened (for a full account, read Bill Plaschke’s great column here.)

Ohtani homers into the right-field pavilion. The ball heads right for Ambar Roman and her husband, Alexis Valenzuela.

“We could see it coming right toward us, and everyone around us was rushing for it,” Roman said.

The ball bounced off several hands and landed at their feet. Roman leaned over and picked it up.

“I’m on the ground and I hear my girl screaming and I look up and she has the ball,” Valenzuela said. “It was indescribable.”

Before they even get their bearings, they are surrounded by security guards and brought underneath the stands. The two are separated and Roman is “asked” to surrender the ball for two baseball caps. Her husband is kept about 20 feet away, and security won’t allow him to talk to his wife to discuss the offer. She is told if she decides to keep the ball (which one auction house later said could have been worth $100,000), that the Dodgers won’t authenticate it, making it potentially valueless with no official way to prove it is actually the Ohtani home run ball.

Still separated from her husband, Roman eventually negotiates exchanging the ball for an Ohtani-signed bat, signed ball and two signed caps.

The Dodgers promise to escort them to their car since they now have four signed Ohtani items that could be the target of a thief. However, they end up not escorting them.

Said Valenzuela: “It was such a big moment. What happened kind of stains it.”

Said Roman: “It’s done now, and I’m not mad, I’ll still be the same fan. But they shouldn’t have been so pressuring.”

So, really Dodgers? Using strong arm tactics to pressure two fans who are in the middle of what should have been a great moment? Trying to negotiate a good deal with the fans, sure, I can understand that to a point.

But to separate the two, and not even let them talk to each other? Unforgivable. You’re running a fan-oriented business, you’re not a part of Don Corleone’s family business. And perhaps worst of all was the blackmail threat to not authenticate a ball that was clearly historic. Reprehensible.

Really, really disturbing behavior.

“I’m telling them, ‘I’m with her, that’s my wife, it’s my wife, we’re in this together,’ but they kept like 20 to 30 feet between us,” said Valenzuela. “If I was in there, we could have talked about it.”

Said Roman: “It was just me and my thoughts. I do wish I could have talked to my husband.”

After Plaschke talked to the Dodgers for his column, they suddenly grew a conscience. They talked to the couple and arranged for them to return for another game during which they will receive more valuable authenticated memorabilia. The Dodgers also said they’re going to review their procedures involving fans who catch milestone balls.

“We’re excited to host them again for a special night and give them a special Dodger experience,” said Lon Rosen, the Dodgers’ executive vice president and chief marketing officer. “And we’re going to review the process.”

The other controversy that night is that many interpreted Ohtani’s comments, including our own Dylan Hernández, who is fluent in Japanese, to say that he met with the couple. He didn’t. While most of the Japanese speakers in attendance also thought he meant he had spoken to Roman directly, he never used the word “I,” so perhaps he was talking about the Dodgers’ security team.

Just another bad look for Ohtani, but that was nothing compared to what Roman and Valenzuela went through.

You have to figure that someone near the top of the Dodgers’ food chain has to look at the many miscues the last few years in this area and ask him or herself “What are we doing wrong here?”

Because that couple deserved better. And you have to wonder what will happen to you if ever in a similar situation.

Mike Scioscia speaks

My apologies for the delay. The “Ask Mike Scioscia” questions will be arriving in your inbox Tuesday morning. I think it will be worth the wait. Scioscia was very gracious with his time and answered about a dozen questions, giving thoughtful answers.