"It's kind of like Mets-Yankees," Mattingly said just before the Dodgers' first full-squad workout of spring training. "The Yankees are the team. (The Mets) are going to have their years when they play well, but the Yankees are still the team. I don't want to badmouth the Angels at all. Mr. (Angels owner Arte) Moreno has done a great job down there in Anaheim, and (Angels manager) Mike (Scioscia) does a great job. But we're the Dodgers, and that isn't going to change." Here's the article http://espn.go.com/los-angeles/mlb/...rs-new-york-yankees-la-not-los-angeles-angels
Updated: February 28, 2012, 1:16 PM ET Don Mattingly: LA is a Dodgers town By Tony Jackson ESPNLosAngeles.com GLENDALE, Ariz. -- Los Angeles Dodgers manager Don Mattingly, who spent his entire 14-year career as a major league player with the New York Yankees, said Tuesday that despite the major offseason moves and high expectations of the crosstown Los Angeles Angels, the Dodgers still own the Southland. "It's kind of like Mets-Yankees," Mattingly said just before the Dodgers' first full-squad workout of spring training. "The Yankees are the team. (The Mets) are going to have their years when they play well, but the Yankees are still the team. I don't want to badmouth the Angels at all. Mr. (Angels owner Arte) Moreno has done a great job down there in Anaheim, and (Angels manager) Mike (Scioscia) does a great job. But we're the Dodgers, and that isn't going to change." Mattingly's playing career coincided with the longest dry spell in Yankees history, the team failing to reach the playoffs until his final season of 1995, when they suffered a first-round loss to the Seattle Mariners. The Mets, meanwhile, were a dominant National League team through much of that period, winning a World Series in 1986. Similarly, while the storied Dodgers have fallen on hard times and currently are in bankruptcy and for sale, the Angels have reached the playoffs six times in the past decade and won a World Series in 2002. They made a national splash this offseason by signing both the top starting pitcher, C.J. Wilson (five years, $77.5 million), and the top position player, Albert Pujols (10 years, $240 million) on this winter's free-agent market. Mattingly contends that has changed nothing in terms of the esteem in which each organization is held locally. "We're still going to need to play good baseball," Mattingly said. "But at the end of the day, if we do things right, worry about ourselves and take care of business, we don't need to worry about what another team is doing. I don't mean this as a negative, because (the Angels) have done a tremendous job down there. "But at the end of the day, the Dodgers are still the Dodgers." Tony Jackson covers the Dodgers for ESPNLosAngeles.com.
Yea I saw this too. I am glad someone from the Dodgers is saying this. It's been too long since our balls have been non-existent. Step up boys! LA is our town!!
see, im ok with him bringing up the Yankees in this sense, unlike Torre LA Times had an article about LA teams and popularity. last January Dodgers were 2nd behind the Lakers in November, it was Lakers, USC, Angels, Dodgers, Clippers fuck that http://www.latimes.com/sports/la-sp-0218-dodgers-chart-20120218,0,3567591.story
This is our last season of having an inferior team to the Angels. Dodger fans are just going to have to ride it out. Once McCourt and Ned are out, big name free agents will be signed and that will tip the scale in the Dodgers favor again. The Dodgers will recapture LA soon. Not soon enough. But soon.
Eric Stephen @truebluela Matt Kemp, expanding on Don Mattingly's earlier comments: "There's only one team in Los Angeles, the LA Dodgers"
I like him more than I did initially too...agree...but what else can the guy say? he's the manager of the Dodgers...and every true BB fan knows it's true. Matty hit the nail on the head. Annaheim is another city. If he were to say anything else, he would come off like the biggest douche in history...but i'm glad he said it publically--good for him. It kind of reminds me of when Bin Laden got wasted...the media saying that The Kenyan was "so brave" to pull it off. What is he going to do? Say "no" when they've got the filthy murdering psychotic cornered? He's just lucky that it happened on is watch...what else can he say?
