Money can't buy Yankees championships

The Beatles taught us through song in the 1960s that “Money Can’t Buy Me Love.”

The New York Yankees are teaching us in the 21st century that money can’t buy them love … or championships.

They can have the highest payroll in baseball, as always.

They can have Alex Rodriguez, Derek Jeter, Roger Clemens, et al.

Come October, one thing they won’t have again is something they haven’t possessed since 2000 … a World Series title.

As you know, the Anaheim Angels are lurking in the background. They’ve done it before – and they will do it again – when it comes to knocking the Yankees out of the playoffs in October.

If the season were to end today, the Yankees would not be in the playoffs. But history tells us the Yankees will be there; no matter where they stand on Aug. 9.

They won’t be there long in October. The Angels are just around the corner waiting to eliminate the Yankees.

This will break the hearts of such East Coast transplants as Pat Colabucci who are in San Diego rooting for the Yankees.

The Dodgers is dead!?

How about those Dodgers?

Eight losses in nine games. Fourteen losses in the last 18.

Shutout twice in a row; three times in the last four games.

The Dodgers is dead … or are they?

Remember last season. This is the same team that lost 13 of 14 coming out of the All-Star break, then won 15 of its next 16.

Can the Dodgers do it again? The odds don’t seem likely.

They have fallen into a third-place tie with Colorado, four games behind NL West-leading Arizona. They are three games behind the second-place Padres.

“The good thing is, it's August 7 and ask anybody in here, we haven't played our best baseball all year,” losing pitcher Mark Hendrickson told Dodgers.com last night. “Hopefully, we can turn it around and pick up the morale. Who knows what we can do and what kind of streak we can get on?”

We’ll see.

Wells needs to go, NOW!

Back on May 5, we wrote a blog titled, “Wells needs to produce.”

Here are some excerpts from that article:

Wells, making his sixth start of the season tonight at Florida, is to be paid bonuses for his 11th through 27th starts this year. If all is met, he’ll make an extra $3 million.

This is the same Wells that the Padres let pitch on short rest the final day of 2004 to make a $250,000 bonus. It’s also the same Wells who walked away to the Boston Red Sox in 2005.

David Wells: Worth the investment? Let the next few starts unfold.

Wells has made 22 starts thus far, 17 since we first brought up the topic of his contract.

Now, it’s obvious that it is time for Wells to go.

Not only is his ERA 14.04 over his last four starts, the Padres have paid him $2.1 million in bonus money for starts No.11-22. This is on top of his $3 million base salary.

Wells is a product of Point Loma High School and a well-known figure in the community.

It’s time for him to stick around, but only as a San Diego County resident. His days as a Padre should be over.

ESPN's Gomez remembers roots

It’s always nice when somebody becomes nationally-known and still recognizes his roots.

Take Pedro Gomez of ESPN for example.

He’s been on the Barry Bonds beat for a couple of years now; an experience he can’t wait to get off as soon as Bonds hits another home run to break Hank Aaron’s all-time record.

Gomez still remembers where he once was, though. Over the weekend, he reminisced about covering prep sports for the San Diego Union-Tribune in 1989-90.

Rather than talk about the Bonds beat, he recalled covering the South Bay portion of San Diego.

“Is George Ohnesorgen still the football coach at Chula Vista High School?” he asked.

Actually, Ohnesorgen is now the principal at the South Bay high school.

But it’s nice for Gomez to remember his South Bay days; even while being among the media circus of 300 people following the ultra-moody Bonds.

Padres need starting pitching

In the immediacy, let’s hope the Padres do not allow Barry Bonds to break the Major League Baseball home run record in San Diego this weekend.

But there’s suddenly an even bigger issue with Padres’ pitching.

Jake Peavy is finally back on track, but:

Chris Young is injured.
Greg Maddux can’t go past five or six innings, even when he’s on.
David Wells is getting paid $170,000 (on top of his $3 million base salary) each start to get pummeled.
Justin Germano isn’t fooling anyone any more with his hanging breaking ball.

Enter Clay Hensley. The injury-plagued pitcher has had a terrible 2007 season thus far, but he seems to have regained his form in a pair of three-inning relief stints since being recalled from the minors.

Let’s see how he does in Saturday’s start against the San Francisco Giants.

Luckily for the Padres, the Dodgers and Arizona are not deep in starting pitching either.

So, it may all come down to a battle of attrition in the NL West.

Bonds in town: Dodgers host steroids awareness clinic

Good for the Dodgers!

They have partnered with the Professional Baseball Strength and Conditioning Coaches Society and the Taylor Hooton Foundation to host a steroids awareness clinic for local youth at Dodger Stadium today.

More than 100 kids from local little leagues and RBI (Reviving Baseball in the Inner City) are expected to participate. The children will receive instruction in nutrition, proper strength training, the medical implications of using steroids, and hitting. Also, a representative from the Drug Enforcement Agency will be on hand to discuss the legal repercussions of using steroids.

The Taylor Hooton Foundation was founded by his parents, family and friends. Hooton, a 17-year old high school athlete from Plano, Texas, took his own life on July 15, 2003, as a result of the abuse of anabolic steroids. Hooton was the nephew of former Dodger pitcher Burt “Hoot Owl” Hooton (1975-84).

The foundation serves to combat the illegal use and abuse of anabolic steroids which is a growing problem among high school athletes across the country. Participants of the clinic will range from age 12 to 15.

Oh, by the way, the San Francisco Giants and Barry Bonds just happen to be in town. The Dodgers say it is a “coincidence” they are hosting a steroids awareness clinic while Bonds is on the premises.

Right; and pro wrestling matches are on the up-and-up!

Padres: It's the hitters; not the coach

It’s bad enough that the Padres have turned over 20 percent of their roster in less than a week.

But firing hitting coach Merv Rettenmund on top of it all?

Maybe one day, management will learn it’s the hitters on the team – not the hitting coach – needing to take the blame for the team’s woeful offense.

The Padres fired their last hitting coach, Dave Magadan, 14 months ago. But doesn’t Magadan look like a great hitting coach now that he’s with the Boston Red Sox this year?

As for the Padres’ moves, it sure doesn’t appear as if the roster is any better than it was a week ago.

"It doesn't really serve a purpose, other than there's chaos in the clubhouse, and that's not a good thing, either,'' Trevor Hoffman told the Associated Press.

Chaos, indeed. And it’s not the fault of the hitting coach.