The Dodgers failed to beat the Giants last night, and fell back into a tie in the division with those same Giants.
But their biggest fall, and fail, is with their fans and their community.
But the Dodgers cannot be bothered to say anything about what is going on in their city, to their fans. The team that was embraced by so many Mexican Americans when Fernandomania hit is now abandoning those same fans. The team that still profits off of Fernando Valenzuela today.
The Dodgers were on the road, and Friday night’s game was their first home game since the ICE raids have begun in earnest. The National Guard and Marines have become involved amid protests, and DHS Secretary Kristi Noem stated that the government is there to “liberate” Los Angeles and California from their elected officials.
This is not ordinary, or lawful. We are not living in ordinary times.
But yet, just as they apparently chose as an organization not to speak out about the whole disappearing of Jackie Robinson debacle, they seem to be choosing not to speak on this either.
Dylan Hernandez of the L.A. Times has an article out Saturday that calls the team cowardly, and I agree.
“We’re not going to comment,” Dodgers executive vice president and chief marketing officer Lon Rosen said.
Hernandez asks if the Dodgers regret going to the White House, given the current state of things.
“We’re not going to comment on anything”, Rosen said.
In fact, the only words said were by manager Dave Roberts, and they were hardly adequate. Asked prior to Friday’s game if he had any thoughts on the situation, he said (from Dodger Blue):
“No, I don’t. Honestly, I don’t know enough to be quite honest with you. I know that you’re having to bring people in and deport people. And just kind of all the unrest is certainly unsettling for everyone. But I haven’t done enough and I can’t speak intelligently on it”.
The “haven’t done enough” part of that quote speaks the loudest.
I don’t know that I especially blame Roberts in all of this. It seems there is a message coming directly from the head brass not to get involved.
My friend on Bluesky put it incredibly well –
a quote from no-flashlight on Bluesky. Private account, shared with permission
“The Dodgers boast that more than 40% of their fan base is Latino, but they can’t even be bothered to offer the shaken community any words of comfort”, Hernandez says in his column.
It must be nice to be able to ignore what’s going on in the very community that buys your overpriced tickets and beer and shows out en masse to support you every home game. It must be nice to not issue a statement that in some way is empathetic, to seemingly leave Doc out there to flounder without a prepared statement.
The bar was the floor, and the Dodgers organization couldn’t even manage that. Cowardly, indeed.