"Eric Garcetti, LA's Prince of Maskless Privilege. Thanks, LA Times!" by Daniel Guss

 @TheGussReport - It is the Monday morning after the L.A. Rams' victory in the NFC Championship Game (played in Inglewood, not L.A.), and the local team punching its ticket to the Super Bowl in two weeks isn't the only headline-grabber.

The other national headline from the game is that L.A.'s Prince of Maskless Privilege, Mayor Eric Garcetti, mugged for photos with unmasked Magic Johnson, S.F. Mayor London Breed, California Governor Gavin Newsom, Leonardo DiCaprio and Jessica Alba to name a few.

Shouldn't this be the end of people considering the L.A. Times' political endorsements with local primaries right around the bend?

I delve in my new Substack.   You can read it here and be sure to subscribe and share.  It's free.

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Keeping Up with the Dodgers

By Daniel Guss

@TheGussReport - Sitting in the pre-dawn hours adjacent to a Jackie Robinson Brooklyn Dodgers treasure I scooped up for 50 cents as a kid, we find the hometown team on the precipice of its season blowing up. They're down 0-2 to the Atlanta Braves in a best of seven series that resumes this afternoon at Dodger Stadium at 2 pm, so there's no better time to dump these random musings before we find out which team advances to the World Series.

Trevor Bauer Might Extend Clayton Kershaw's L.A. Career

Alleged dirtbag girl beater and defending National League Cy Young Award winner Trevor Bauer was supposed to help bring a second consecutive World Series championship to L.A. Whether or not Major League Baseball suspends or permanently bans him in the off-season for allegedly beating the crap out of his date, consensual rough sex or not, his career is most likely over despite plenty of talent remaining in his mega-million-dollar arm.

With that, those who predicted that this would be the final season in a Dodger uniform for good guy, philanthropist and future Hall-of-Famer Clayton Kershaw might now think twice. The $31 million he was paid this season, which essentially compensated him for his underpaid Sandy Koufax-like earlier years between 2011 and 2017, is up for renewal.

Kershaw hasn't been that pitcher in quite a few seasons.  While just 33 years old (Koufax retired in 1966 at just 30), he isn't worth anywhere near that amount moving forward, at least not in L.A.   Note: Both southpaws won three Cy Young Awards and an MVP award.

While Koufax didn't become an all-time great until his final four seasons, Kershaw's best years are long gone. Still, the banishment of Bauer might keep Kershaw, a still-capable but not incredible player, in Dodger blue, but not at the same price tag.

Speaking of Kershaw, How About Matthew Stafford?

ABC-7 recently showed new L.A. Rams' quarterback Matthew Stafford at a Dodger home game that Kershaw started.

Big deal, right?

Except that the two are friends dating back to childhood, and the station also posted a great photo of them from way back.

Pretty awesome.

The Fresh Princes of L.A. and Atlanta

Your hearing is not off if you watch the Dodgers/Braves in Game 3 today and the announcers describe Will Smith batting against Will Smith.

Both teams have players by those names.

Whatever Happened To......

The Dodgers are well-represented in the playoffs, though those doing the best are former Dodgers.

Take, for example, our old friend from the 2020 championship team, Kiké Hernández, who now sports a Boston Red Sox uniform in the American League Championship Series.

Hernandez is batting 18 for 36, a .500 average, with five home runs over the playoffs against the Yankees, Tampa Bay Rays, and Houston Astros, the Red Sox' current opponent. His batting average got progressively better with each series with no end in sight.

And his glove and arm are equally as impressive.

His Red Sox teammate, Alex Verdugo, who the Dodgers coughed up in the Mookie Betts trade, is also doing well in the playoffs after a solid regular season, going 12 for 34, a .353 average.

And lastly, there's former Dodger Joc Pederson, who went to the Atlanta Braves via the Chicago Cubs and returns to Dodger Stadium this afternoon (but not in our dugout). He crushed the longest playoff home run so far this season, estimated at 454 feet, as you might remember, to tie Game 2 against the Dodgers, which ultimately helped his team win. 

Ouchie.

The Dodgers may have the best team on paper, but the Red Sox are playing and looking better than everyone else, thanks especially to Kiké. They need to pull it together, like right now, because only one team in MLB playoff history ever came back from an 0-3 deficit, and it was the guys from Boston back in 2004.

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(Daniel Guss, MBA, was runner-up for the 2020 Los Angeles Press Club journalism award for Best Online Political Commentary and has contributed to CityWatch, KFI AM-640, iHeartMedia, 790-KABC, Cumulus Media, Huffington Post, Los Angeles Daily News, Los Angeles Magazine, Movieline Magazine, Emmy Magazine, Los Angeles Business Journal, Pasadena Star-News, Los Angeles Downtown News, and the Los Angeles Times in its Sports, Opinion and Entertainment sections and Sunday Magazine, among other publishers.)

 

Presently using mi amigo Scott's sign-in until our new Mayor Sam 2.0 tech matters are ironed out.

A Bloggin Deconstruction of Betty Pleasant's Latest "Wanton Missive of Distortion (WMD)" regarding her "Boycotting the Return" of the LA Rams

With no apologies to longtime South LA Soulvine Columnist Betty Pleasant, we must take subjective, bloggin umbrage to her latest "Wanton Missive of Distortion (WMD)", that calls for Boycotting the return of the Los Angeles Rams ..........., to the African-American-governed City of Inglewood.  

Betty Pleasant muses BOYCOTTING the Greater Los Angeles Ramily, (allegedly).

** Blogger's Note: Disclaimer, the following bloggin missive/deconstructing of yet, another factually-devoid, "Wanton Missive of Distortion (WMD)", via the keyboard of longtime South LA Soulvine Columnist Betty Pleasant, will promote a DECISIVE, subjective premise (mixed with sardonic satire), that the extremist pronouncements of the former LA Wave Commentator, is rooted in a want for the return of the LA Raiders. 

Its apparent that Betty craves a return to a formerly South-Central LA Era where "The Silver and Black" were the dominant Sport Colors of choice for most, including those who were the inspiration for later Citizen Initiatives such as Prop 186 (Three Strikes), which laid the foundation for future Raider Booster Clubs, based out of Five Star-rated (Correctional) Locations, such as Central, Twin Towers, Wayside, Sybil Brand, Eastlake Juvenal Hall ......, and of course San Quentin.

 It can also be extrapolated, if we choose to channel the return of the Rams through Betty's "racial prism", that the past Rams Fan Base, was a lighter skin shade (and less prone to commit criminal mischief) than the Raiders ......., but lets not waste anymore time in lending credence to the absurd ........,, and focus instead, on deconstructing another Betty "WMD"----Scott Johnson.       

HONEY, I’M HOME! (Thanks to the leadership of the African-American-governed City of Inglewood)— You know what else needs to be boycotted? The returning Los Angeles Rams (What about protesting the return of the Raiders Fan Base via AB 109 and Prop 47?). For some unknown reason, the Rams left us 20 years ago and settled into a new life in St. Louis (Via a Gold-digging Widow, married for the Eight Time) . I’m wholeheartedly in support of having a football team in Los Angeles, but I want it to be any team except the Rams (The rant of a Raider Lover?). The Rams is like a wayward husband who leaves his wife and moves in with another woman and then decides 20 years later to return to his wife (Wrong analogy Betty, it was a Gold-digging ex, who's husband went for a swim ......., and she becomes a LA-hating NFL Owner)! So how do the jilted residents of Los Angeles react to this? Like, crazy people! (Have you been to the Black Hole lately, Betty?) They’re happy and are welcoming the Rams “home” with open arms. That’s unnatural (what has become "natural" is losing records for the Raiders ......, and shorter incarceration times for its fans). Think about it. Is there any woman alive whose husband up and left her, moved in with another woman, and decided 20 years later to leave his woman and return to his wife, who eagerly welcomes him back! (Betty, how many Olympic-caliber swimmers such as Carroll Rosenbloom, drown in shallow waters ......., and then have their wife inherit a NFL Team?)    No such sane woman exists (But Inglewood was inviting). I hate the Rams and I hope they lose every game they play (and may you enjoy the return of a fan base ......, without a team).

Betty Pleasant in her favorite Black (minus the Silver) Wear.