Welcome to the offseason! It has been an active one already, starting with some high profile changes in upper management. The Gold Gloves have been announced; congratulations to Brooks Robinson for winning his 43rd consecutive GG. Last night here in Toronto, A.J. Burnett was present at the Raptors' season opener; he was also spotted at the Celtics' opener and at the Cavs' opener, confirming suspicions that there are multiple A.J. Burnett's who take turns pitching from week to week.

For the first half of the 20th century, the Dodgers were the weakling of the New York litter, beside their mighty NL rivals, the New York Giants, and their even mightier AL rivals, the New York Yankees. That changed; they won their first World Series in 1955, and for the next 40 years they went toe-to-toe with the Yankees and left the Giants in the dust.

The scorecard, from 1955-1994:

Yankees: six World Series and 13 pennants, plus one division title
Dodgers: six World Series and 11 pennants, plus two division titles
Giants: zero World Series, two pennants and two division titles

Since 1994, the scorecard has been:

Yankees: four World Series and six pennants, plus three division titles and a wild card
Dodgers: two division titles and a wild card
Giants: one pennant, plus three division titles

It didn't have to be this way; from 1992-1996, the Dodgers had five consecutive Rookie of the Year Award winners. The 1993 Dodgers had two budding Hall of Famers; Mike Piazza, 24 years old, was Rookie of the Year, while 21-year-old Pedro Martinez was 10-5 in the bullpen. Raul Mondesi was 22, Eric Karros was 25. Hideo Nomo would explode on the scene two years later. Somehow, it never amounted to anything.

In 2005, they lost 91 games and failed to win one of the worst divisions in baseball history. Manager Jim Tracy got the axe; a few days ago, so did GM Paul DePodesta, bringing to an abrupt end an experiment that pissed off a whole bunch of people in the city of Los Angeles.

Owner Frank McCourt, on the Dodgers:

"This is a very important time. I'm mindful of this historic franchise and its tradition of greatness. I'll be satisfied with nothing less."

On Orel Hershiser:

"Orel keenly understands what it means to be a Dodger... to restore the glory. It's important to bring everything together and restore the great tradition."

All of the original teams have their own tradition and identity, but I think that the Dodgers take theirs more seriously than anyone else. Thinking about the changes in L.A. these past few days, I decided to take a short trip through the archives of the Sporting News. My quarry was the phrase "Dodger blue", which became a popular catchphrase in the late 1970's, usually to describe some sort of body fluid.

August 12, 1967

An article by James Enright on Don Drysdale's successful foray into horse racing:

"Don hasn't forgotten his baseball background in selecting the colors of Hickory Hills Farm. The Drysdale silks are Dodger blue with his D.D. initials centered in a white diamond and the monogram of a baseball on each shoulder."

June 28, 1969

Maury Wills makes his triumphant return to Los Angeles. After quitting on his team in Japan, then crapping out for 47 games with the expansion Montreal Expos, Wills was dealt to the Dodgers in exchange for Ron Fairly on June 11. He hit .297 the rest of the season.

Wills also announced that he was going to franchise "Maury Wills Stolen Base Cleaners" throughout the country; Don Newcombe was the company's national sales director, and they soon planned to offer a public stock issue. According to Bob Hunter's article, Wills was "once again back home in business and also in Dodger blue."

June 27, 1970

A surreal article by Chuck Stewart on the Spokane Indians of the PCL. The article focused on two "can't miss" prospects, Bill Russell and Steve Garvey. Russell, 21 years old, had been converted from the outfield to third base and was batting .358. Garvey was also 21 and was also a third baseman; he had begun the season with the Dodgers after making the jump from Albuquerque, but was sent down to Spokane for more seasoning, and was batting .320.

The article observed that both players "would prefer wearing Dodger blue to Tribal dress right now" but needed to play every day. Unfortunately, the article doesn't have any clear pictures of what exactly Tribal dress looked like.

"These fellows are down here because we want them to swing the bat," explained the team's manager, Tom Lasorda. "They could both be in the major leagues right now, but if they weren't playing regularly, it would hurt them as well as the organization."

April 24, 1971

Another article by Bob Hunter, this time focusing on a trio of deals that the Dodgers made during the winter, hoping to revitalize the club. The deals brought to Los Angeles Duke Sims, Al Downing and Dick Allen.

"'I want to be known as the complete player,' (Allen) said when first pulling on the Dodger blue. 'Not just a slugger. I like to hit and run, bunt, and contribute defensively, too.'"

Duke Sims, the new catcher, was convinced by Walter Alston to get his hair cut. Downing, recovering from injury, won a spot in the starting rotation; Alston opined that he could be the surprise of the staff.

To get these three players, the Dodgers gave up Andy Kosko, Alan Foster, Ray Lamb, Ted Sizemore and Bob Stinson. Downing was indeed a surprise, going 20-9 in his first season in Los Angeles. Sims didn't play much. Allen had 23 homers and 95 RBI in his one season in L.A., then was traded to the White Sox for Tommy John.

March 25, 1972

Bob Hunter reported from spring training, where the Dodgers came to camp with two generations of infielders. At first base they had veteran Wes Parker and 22-year-old Bill Buckner; at second they had veteran Jim Lefebrve and 22-year-old Bobby Valentine; at short they finally decided to replace Maury Wills with Bill Russell. At third, Billy Grabarkewitz was returning from a shoulder injury, and had to battle for a job with Steve Garvey.

According to the article, in Los Angeles "the fans, busy gobbling up season tickets, were chanting 'It's the Dodger Blue in '72!'" The Dodgers had a pretty good year, winning 85 games but finishing in third place.

May 27, 1972

THIS is the article I was looking for. Two months later; Bob Hunter is again the author. The bulk of the article focuses on the kid, Steve Garvey, who has been compared to a young Harmon Killebrew, and whose defence at third base was rapidly improving.

Up until now, all of these articles have referred to "Dodger blue" in the context of the team's actual colours. After the Garvey profile, Hunter ends with some random notes, including one about the team's new teenage organist:

"It didn't take long for 16-year-old Donna Parker, the new ball park organist, to become a real fan. She cried Dodger blue tears when the team lost a 2-1 decision to the Phils May 1."

October 29, 1977

OK, jump ahead five years; in between, there are just a few references to players wearing the Dodger blue uniform. In this issue, there are profiles of the duelling World Series managers, Tom Lasorda and Billy Martin.

The reference that we are looking for actually comes from the Martin article, written by Phil Pepe. Says Martin:

"'Tom Lasorda says if you cut him, his blood will run Dodger blue. If you cut me open, you'll see the 'N.Y.' on my heart. And when I die, there will be pin-stripes on my coffin.'"

In the same issue, Joe Falls writes a humourous column on sports personalities he would like to have dinner with. One of his choices is Tom Lasorda, "to see if he really orders Dodger Blue cheese."

The Lasorda article, by Gordon Verrell, also has its moments. When asked whether it was difficult to replace Walter Alston, Tommy responds: "Don't worry about me. Worry about the guy who follows me. He's the guy who'll have a tough act to follow."

1978

So far we've seen the term Dodger blue used to describe blood, tears and cheese - which conjures up a very British image of both Winston Churchill and Wallace & Gromit. In 1978, with the Dodgers on their way to another pennant, the Sporting News used the term "Dodger Blue" about 10,000 times.

In the spring, March 11 issue, Melvin Durslag observes that Lasorda had to prove to his critics in 1977 that it was OK to hug and kiss your ballplayers. Also:

"A second tender area developed for Lasorda with what was known as the Dodger Blue Schtik - the professing of deathless loyalty to the home office and the minions of it's empire.

'When I said I bled Dodger Blue,' said Tommy, 'a lot of cynics laughed and said the act would go sour by June... that the players would get sick of it... that the front office would, too. But I bled Dodger Blue all year - and we did pretty well.'"

A week later, on March 18, there is an article by Greta and Larry Stewart, about a junior high school in Los Angeles that had renamed itself Steve Garvey Junior High.

"Classroom doors are now blue - Dodger blue - as are the construction beams and baseboards."

Two weeks later, there is an article by Furman Bisher about the "Blue Fog", the hypnotic spell that Tommy Lasorda casts over visitors to the Dodgers' camp. According to Lasorda, the whole thing started when he was a pitcher at Greenville.

"The Dodgers lent me $500 to get married, an Italian Catholic to a Southern Baptist. You must admit, those were tough odds, but I've told you about my wife. God made her to order for me. Besides, the Dodgers like longshots."

And on it goes for the rest of the year. During the height of "Dodger blue" hysteria, some folks perhaps got a little carried away, including writer Ross Newham, who made this delicate observation of Lasorda:

"He is in a sense a bigamist, a man married to the game, as loyal to Dodger blue as to his family."

Others kept some perspective, like new Dodger Jerry Reuss, who made this prophetic statement: "I don't know if I'll bleed Dodger blue, but I'm going to have some fun."

In the spring of 1980, Jim Lefebrve punched Lasorda, and split Tommy's lip. Tommy's blood, as it turned out, was not Dodger blue (but was, curiously enough, Vulcan green).

By the time that Lasorda won his first World Series in 1981, the term "Dodger blue" had already become a tired cliché. Writers only tended to wheel it out on special occasions, such as Tommy's White House Adventure, where he dined and sang with Ronald Reagan, Frank Sinatra, Perry Como and the president of Italy.

When Lasorda won his second World Series in 1988, the writers were going through the motions; they just threw the "Dodger blue" term into their articles in the lamest ways imaginable (Dave Nightingale refered to Lasorda as "that Dodger Blue-bleeding institution").

On August 14, 1989, Art Spander wrote: "Remember when Lasorda used to bleed Dodger Blue? Now he's bleeding Ultra Slim-Fast. He has given up fattening foods for a liquid supplement. At least you can't say that it's a season gone to waist..."

And so, the 1980's came to a close.

The Dodgers have an owner in Frank McCourt who keeps changing his mind every few months, as novice owners are wont to do. When he first took over, McCourt wanted to be like Oakland, and hired Oakland's young assistant G.M. Despite some success in his first year, McCourt realized that the other new owner in the area, Arte Moreno, has much bigger balls than he does, and had to open up his wallet accordingly.

Now, after two years, it appears that a revitalized Tommy Lasorda has convinced McCourt that he shouldn't try to be like Oakland and he shouldn't try to be like Anaheim; these are the Los Angeles Dodgers, goddammit, and should act as such. At this writing, it is unclear whether McCourt will take this advice and stock management with former Dodgers, or will decide to make an offer to the now-unemployed Theo Epstein.

Added McCourt: "I've learned a tremendous amount over the last couple of years." I doubt that he has learned nearly as much as he thinks he has, but we will see.

Here in Toronto, there is a phrase, "Toronto the Good" that dates back more than a century; it originally refered to the city's disdain for alcohol and Sunday labour, but in recent years the context has changes, and now refers to a city that is cleaner, safer and more polite and more tolerant than your typical big city.

I would like to think that there are some kernels of truth to all of that, even if the city also has its share of glaring counterexamples as well. Two or three decades of weak mayors occupying a weak mayoral office have not helped the city live up this ideal. Nevertheless, the phrase has helped the city as far as tourism goes, and creating an idea of what the city should be like even if it falls a little short.

I hate to dismiss "Dodger blue" as just a sales pitch. I understand that a lot of it is tradition, pride, brotherhood and continuity. It's about a tradition of winning on the field. Of breaking the colour barrier. Of giving Catholic Tommy Lasorda $500 so that he can marry his southern Baptist wife. A lot of it is Lasorda, but it existed before Tommy and will be around when he's gone.

But I also understand that this is the team that traded Jackie Robinson for Dave Littlefield, Ron Cey for Vance Lovelace and Pedro Guerrero for John Tudor; that had an ugly parting of ways with Dusty Baker, an ugly parting of ways with Branch Rickey and an ugly parting of ways with the entire city of Brooklyn. Tradition and pride are an essential influence on how the ballclub operates - except, of course, when they're not.

It comes down to people. Moneyball was not a manual on how to build a ball club, but even if it was, it would be about as useful as any book that has ever been written about Warren Buffett's investment strategies. People buy them, but don't get rich. Warren Buffett's investment strategies are only useful in the hands of Warren Buffett, just like Billy Beane's statistics only work for Billy Beane, and Tommy Lasorda's bloodletting only works for Tommy Lasorda.

Whether the Dodgers hire a "sabermetric" GM, or whether they hire Steve Garvey and paint all the streets in Los Angeles blue, it's the same thing; they're buying into an idea rather than a person. Here in Toronto, J.P. Ricciardi does have a forceful personality; his intuition will either lead the team to success or into the gutter. Whether or not he follows some vague philosophy is meaningless.