League Of Enthusiastic Losers Review

The Inevitable Revolution

The odds of beating David Puig were virtually zero. Lenny Dykstra was still playing well after getting off to a hot start with his bat. And with the departure of his catcher, Corey Hart, there was nobody for the Los Angeles Dodgers to have his back.

Puig and his family moved from San Diego to Arizona in the summer of 1998, and that move exposed the youth movement of the Dodgers to a whole different generation. They had great expectations, and proved their toughness the very next year.

After this, the Dodgers went for the long shot of a championship. They set their own standards, and maintained their sense of togetherness through the losing struggles of the years following, with two years and ten years of improvement only tying up two titles in between.

In 1999, the Dodgers won 48 of a possible 48 games to give themselves a 67% winning percentage, and nearly equal the rest of the division. They went straight to the division championship, and won it, and now have the World Series trophy in their hands.

The Los Angeles Dodgers have earned a place in the history books, along with the World Series trophy to go along with them. They may not be the story of a team that can defeat anyone any time soon, but they sure are a shining example of some of the best baseball teams in the world. How do you picture a team that can go farther than anyone, be it the World Series or the NFL playoffs?

I do, and I think the Dallas Cowboys could tell you how. I was more than impressed by how passionate and amped up the fans were. It seemed like this was a group that was full of enthusiasm to keep going, even after what was becoming of the team. It was a spirit that broke through in a number of ways – a new ownership group, a new player, a new manager and a new coach. I used to think the people in the stadium were loud but at the same time you could hear a pin drop in the stands, and it caused you to think something must be different in the stadium going in.