Get Over It

BY KEVIN KERNAN

Cry harder.

Hail to the Dodgers. As for all those teams, fans, and media who complain the Dodgers are not being fair to the rest of baseball by loading up on all their immense talent, too bad.

When I was young and would get up early in the morning on a late-summer day to drive to the Jersey Shore – with my old man who was a World War II Navy veteran, a sailor who loved to rent a small crabbing boat and scoot along Barnegat Bay – and by late morning, after I ate my two bologna sandwiches and had a can of Hires root beer we would have caught a couple of bushels of crabs.

Those crabs would eventually try to climb out of the baskets, only to be pulled back down by the other crabs.

That’s what all this crying about the Dodgers loading up on talent reminds me of, that is the picture in my mind. Other teams want to pull the Dodgers down to their level. They don’t want to make the all-out commitment the Dodgers have made, and they have their gullible sycophants cry foul.

Instead of criticizing the Dodgers, try to be more like them.

This past week the Dodgers landed 23-year-old future ace Roki Sasaki for a mere $6.5 million signing bonus and now have him under control for six seasons – and they also signed lefty reliever Tanner Scott to a four-year $72 million deal on Sunday. Anyone could have signed Sasaki because the cost was low for the international free agent, but Sasaki chose the Dodgers over the other two finalists, the Padres and Blue Jays. The last-place Blue Jays don’t win at anything, and the Padres are currently involved in an ownership squabble – so my question is why in the world would Sasaki NOT sign with the World Champion Dodgers, who are looking for the first back-to-back World Series titles in their history.

Fix your own house and float your own boat before you say the Dodgers have rigged the game.

Get over it, baseball.

Get over it, baseball fans.

Get over it, baseball media.

Opponents, find a way to beat the Dodgers on the field. Don’t commit Little League errors in the World Series like the Yankees did. Don’t run out of pitching like the Mets did in the NLCS. Don’t forget your bats at the bat rack like the Padres did in the last two games of the NLDS.

Fix your own house and float your own boat before you say the Dodgers have rigged the game.

The Yankees were once known as U.S. Steel for their dominance. These Dodgers are now Saudi Aramco, the Saudi Arabian oil company that was the most profitable company in the world in 2024, even bigger than Microsoft, Apple and Amazon.

And for those calling for a salary cap, you are forgetting that the players will not agree to a salary cap. They are too greedy to accept one. And for those who demand a salary floor, cheap owners in baseball will always exist so stop giving those teams your money. That is the only way they will get the message to spend more.

The Dodgers are just smarter and better organized than other teams right now and their players, including superstar Shohei Ohtani and his deferred money (10 years at $700 million) are all in on the Dodgers way of doing business.

They enjoy being the superstar show of shows.

They want to win another World Series no matter how many pitchers it will take. These Dodgers are living proof you can’t have too much pitching. In some ways, the Yankees have tried to emulate the Dodgers by signing free agent pitcher Max Fried but they have not gone to the lengths the Dodgers have gone to succeed – and let’s face it, the Dodgers were simply better at playing baseball than the Yankees were last October.

When Dodgers baseball boss Andrew Friedman locked up Ohtani a year ago, he gave the rest of baseball a warning proclaiming, “One of our goals is to have baseball fans in Japan convert to Dodger Blue.’’

Consider that goal carried out with the signing of Sasaki. Last week I told you that Orestes Destrade – who starred in Japan and was a home run hero, and knows the Japanese player landscape better than anyone – said Sasaki could be the best Japanese pitcher to ever come to MLB.

Because Dodgers Dominance is the biggest story in baseball, I questioned Destrade on the subject more deeply this week. The fact that the Dodgers already have Shohei and Yoshinobu Yamamoto, and now Roki, makes this three-headed monster even more powerful. Because of the Dodgers depth of pitching, that also takes the pressure off Sasaki.

Destrade pointed out that Sasaki pitched only 111 innings in Japan last season.

“He’s had some minor arm issues the last few years, not major issues, but enough to shut him down a few times the last couple of years and the team over there has babied him,’’ Destrade told BallNine. “But still, when he is not babied and unleashed, he is way better than anyone who has ever come over. I saw him pitch five times last year. The only comparison is Masahiro Tanaka; and Tanaka came over and shortly after nicked his elbow and chose never to have Tommy John surgery – and he kind of fought through it.’’

I was at the game in Cleveland in 2014 when Tanaka got hurt. Even though Tanaka was successful, pitching seven years with the Yankees and compiling a 78-46 record with a 3.74 ERA, he never really reached his potential because of that injury. “He was 80 percent Tanaka, 100 percent Tanaka would have been the greatest Japanese pitcher ever here,’’ Destrade said.

“This guy, Sasaki, when healthy, the best comparison I can make is Roger Clemens in his heyday, man,’’ Destrade added. “His stuff is that good. He is basically Clemens as a three-pitch pitcher. (Sasaki’s) 98 is playing at 105, I am not kidding you. It is ridiculous.’’

Rocket to Rokit, I’d say. Not bad.

“The Dodgers will accommodate a six-man rotation and that will mean he is not putting as much pressure on his arm,’’ Destrade said.

Adding a young Roger Clemens to the Dodger rotation is quite the coup and by adding Tanner Scott that helps the Dodger bullpen so much. There is no sense having all this deep starting pitching and a six-man rotation if you have a bullpen that is giving away games.

While the Dodgers were busy shelling out $72 million to the lefty Scott, the Mets settled on veteran lefty A.J. Minter for two years at $22 million.

The Dodgers, in the infamous words of the Red Sox Tom Werner, are going “full throttle.’’

This is what full throttle looks like and if you can’t handle it, that’s on you. The Dodgers have figured out how to make the most of the CBA, their Japan connection, and their player development. Remember, Sasaki was asking questions of all his suitors about each team’s player development department.

The Dodgers are spending money to make money. Imagine all the money they are going to rake in via the Japanese market. That certainly will offset any luxury tax issues. The Dodgers All-Star team and All-Star rotation will be must-see baseball. Opponents need to lean into it all and sell this as the rest of the baseball world against the Dodgers. The Padres can play the Little Engine that Could. Same for the Diamondbacks in the NL West.

To beat the Dodgers, teams are going to have to get better at all the little baseball things and that is something here at BallNine we have been preaching for years. Make no mistake, payroll is a monster advantage – and in the Dodgers case it is a three-headed Japanese monster, but the Padres were one win away from sending the Dodgers home before their bats quit.

If the Yankees had played solid baseball in that Game 5, they could have won that game and put pressure on the Dodgers. They didn’t do that and that is on them.

I heard a fascinating Bob Wolff interview with Mickey Mantle from the 1950s recently. Wolff, a Washington-based broadcaster who witnessed Mantle’s home run off Chuck Stubbs that went out of Griffith Stadium, was asking The Mick about switch-hitting and besides hitting lefty, what else did Mickey do left-handed?

Mickey laughed that wonderful Mickey laugh and admitted he couldn’t do anything left-handed except hit. He said he did enjoy putting down a drag bunt left-handed to go along with his home runs but added this fascinating nugget.

Mickey said when he played pepper before games in spring training every day, he was so poor at hitting left-handed he would always have to play pepper batting right-handed. Baseball icon Mickey Mantle played pepper back then, yet today’s ballplayer, and all the nerds, have no clue what pepper is all about.

In baseball there are so many ways to get it done, so many ways to climb out of the bushel basket of crabs, if only teams put in the effort and creativity to find various ways to win. Yes, the Dodgers are signing everyone under the LA sun, but don’t whine about it. Find different ways to beat the Dodgers. Use every baseball tool at your disposal to take them on and challenge them.

They are the Boogeyman Dodgers now. That’s fine.

Even the Yankees, who used to act like the Dodgers, can play that card against LA. Every baseball fan not wearing Dodger Blue is united now.

Just find a way to Beat LA!