Last night, as I was watching the start of the SF-LA game, Vin Scully read a promotion for season tickets. If you buy 2 loge seats, you get two free. Vin said this was the first time the Dodgers ever made such an offer. Why has this happened? The Dodgers were at one time the attendance kings. Every year they would nearly sell out every game, when other teams were happy to 20,000. The Dodgers always drew over 2 million. Now they can't give seats away.

I believe the answer is a poor team. Through the 60's, 70's and 80's, the Dodgers put good teams on the field. They made a number of World Series appearances, and won a good number of them. They were a successful, winning franchise, and their fans supported them. Look at the team now, however. They have scored two runs in three games. The team BA, OBA and Slugging Pct. are all under .200. Barry Bonds has out-homered them 4-0.

Instead of trying to build a winner, they took their best offensive player and traded him for Brian Jordan. I've never heard much negative said about Jordan in the media, but he doesn't get on base very well, and he doesn't hit for that much power. Compare him to Sheffield for their careers:

Career Through 4/4/2002         Jordan      Sheffield
BA                                .286           .295
OBA                               .336           .399
Slugging Pct                      .469           .522
Age                                 35             33

Sure, the batting averages are close, but nothing else is. And despite the fact that Sheffield has been around the majors longer, Jordan is two years older! The Dodgers are supposed to be a large market, rich powerhouse. It's about time they started acting like one and hiring people (like Steinbrenner does) who can make the right moves to build a good team and realize the wealth that can create.