Indy Digest: Oct. 21, 2024
The whole thing started when I was 11 years old. One of the magazines we got at school had a sheet of 1986 Topps baseball cards as an insert; two of the six players on the sheet in my magazine copy were Los Angeles Dodgers. Around that same time, I read a biography of Jackie Robinson. Add in the fact that my best friend at the time was a massive San Francisco Giants fan, and as a tease, I became a Dodgers fan.
The following year, with more general awareness of baseball, I started watching games on TV instead of complaining when they pre-empted my late-afternoon cartoons … and I discovered that I truly liked the game. It had enough action and strategy to keep my interest, and enough downtime to allow me to do my homework. I started collecting baseball cards, and every morning, I’d grab the sports section of the Reno Gazette-Journal to pore over the box scores.
The 1987 Los Angeles Dodgers were terrible—they went 73-89—but in 1988, the team surprised everybody in a season that was truly magical. The team won 94 games, with starting pitcher Orel Hershiser turning in one of the best seasons ever—concluding the year with 59 scoreless innings. The Dodgers won their division, and beat the heavily favored New York Mets in the National League Championship Series, four games to three. Then came the World Series, and arguably the most memorable moment in baseball history: Kirk Gibson, who could barely walk, hit a two-out, two-run homer in the ninth inning off nearly untouchable closer Dennis Eckersley to give the Dodgers a 5-4 win over the mighty Oakland Athletics in Game 1. The Dodgers would win the series in five games, in one of the biggest upsets in baseball history.
I was hooked. Over those two years, I became a fervent, dedicated Los Angeles Dodgers fan for life.
Little did I know the 1988 championship would be the Dodgers’ last one for a while … a long while. Seven years would pass until the team made the playoffs again—and they wouldn’t win a single playoff game until 2004. The Dodgers didn’t return to the World Series again until 2017, when they were beaten by the Houston Astros in a nailbiter of a seven-game series. They returned to the World Series the next year as well, but were routed by a clearly superior Boston Red Sox team.
As the 2020 season approached, the Dodgers had gone 32 years without a championship. They’d made the playoffs 13 times over those 32 years, but each and every one of those playoff runs ended with a loss.
Two things made that 2020 season notable. First: Shortly after the 2019 World Series, the baseball world learned the Houston Astros were brazenly cheating during their 2017 championship season, using video cameras to steal signs from the opposing team and relay information about the incoming pitch to the batter. MLB Commissioner Rob Manfred pitifully punished the team with a light slap on the wrist—giving Astros players immunity during his belated investigation. Many Dodgers players and fans remain angry to this day, feeling robbed of a championship in 2017.
The Astros would have been soundly booed and ridiculed everywhere they went in 2020, except for the second thing that made that season notable: COVID-19. With the pandemic shutdowns starting just weeks before the start of the season, Major League Baseball postponed the season indefinitely. After months of negotiations and squabbling between players and owners, the owners in June declared teams would play a 60-game season, with no fans in the stands, starting on July 23. The playoffs were expanded and played at neutral sites where players and their families could isolate at hotels.
The Dodgers in 2020 dominated, and won the World Series over the Tampa Bay Rays. Even though the Dodgers had to win more playoff games than any team ever before to win the World Series, some people (wrongly) consider the 2020 championship to be less than fully legitimate. Because of the pandemic, players and fans got no parade or public celebration of the championship.
Despite 100-plus-win seasons in 2021, 2022 and 2023, the Dodgers flamed out each year in the playoffs—with particularly embarrassing first-round losses in the last two years.
It’s because of all of this that I’ve been a bit crazed for the last two-plus weeks as the Dodgers made their way through the playoffs, beating the San Diego Padres and then the New York Mets to advance to the World Series—against their old across-town rivals, the New York Yankees. And it’s because of all this that I’ll be particularly crazed when the World Series starts in Los Angeles on Friday. (If tickets didn’t cost more than $1,200 each as of now, I’d be there. But they do, so I’ll be watching at home.)
Thanks for all of my friends and family for enduring my fandom since 1987. And, of course … GO DODGERS!
—Jimmy Boegle
From the Independent
A 50-Year Marriage: Revolution Stage Company Starts the New Season With the Delightful Musical ‘I Do! I Do!’
By Terry Huber
October 20th, 2024
A musical production with only two characters requires competent, seasoned performers, and Francesca Amari, as Agnes, is sublime, while Gary Powers brings feeling and heart to the character of Michael.
CV History: Frank Bogert, the ‘Cowboy Mayor of Palm Springs,’ Was a Beloved Figure—but Concerns Over His Actions Regarding Section 14 Have Tarnished His Image
By Greg Niemann
October 20th, 2024
Frank Bogert was a rancher, actor, naval officer in World War II, resort-hotel manager, publicist, author, publisher and developer—and, most notably, he was the mayor of Palm Springs from 1958-1966 and 1982-1988.
Killer Sequel: ‘Smile 2’ Is Superior to the Original Because It Improves Upon the Creepy Premise
By Bob Grimm
October 21st, 2024
While the smiley demon is still causing plenty of mayhem, writer-director Parker Finn takes this sequel as an opportunity to do so much more.
Bad Vibes, Great Movie: ‘Woman of the Hour’ Is a Suspenseful, Heartbreaking Film About a Serial Killer and His Victims
By Bob Grimm
October 21st, 2024
Rodney Alcala infamously made an appearance on The Dating Game in the midst of his multiple murders of women and children.
More News
• One other reason I am a baseball fan: to give me a pleasant distraction from horrifying stories like this one, from The Associated Press: “Over the past four years, judges at Washington’s federal courthouse have punished hundreds of rioters who stormed the U.S. Capitol in an unprecedented assault on the nation’s democracy. On the cusp of the next presidential election, some of those judges fear another burst of political violence could be coming. Before recently sentencing a rioter to prison, U.S. District Judge Reggie Walton said he prays Americans accept the outcome of next month’s election. But the veteran judge expressed concern that Donald Trump and his allies are spreading the same sort of conspiracy theories that fueled the mob’s Jan. 6, 2021, riot. ‘That sore loser is saying the same things he said before,’ Walton said earlier this month without mentioning the Republican presidential nominee by name. ‘He’s riling up the troops again, so if he doesn’t get what he wants, it’s not inconceivable that we will experience that same situation again. And who knows? It could be worse.’”
• Or this one, compliments of The New York Times: “Threatening the news media is nothing new for former President Donald J. Trump. He has accused major news outlets of defamation, blocked journalists from rallies and White House events, goaded followers into profane chants about CNN and popularized the term ‘fake news,’ now embraced by autocrats around the world. Even by those standards, though, his latest anti-media obsession—stripping television networks of their ability to broadcast the news because of coverage he doesn’t like—stands out. ‘CBS should lose its license,’ Mr. Trump wrote on his Truth Social platform last week. ‘60 Minutes should be immediately taken off the air.’ He has repeated his demands in speeches and in interviews, echoing his earlier calls for ABC’s license to be ‘terminated’ because of his displeasure with how the network handled his debate against Vice President Kamala Harris. On Sunday, Mr. Trump ratcheted up his threats against CBS. ‘We’re going to subpoena their records,’ he told Fox News in an interview, repeating his claim that the network’s edit of Ms. Harris’ recent appearance on ‘60 Minutes’ was misleading.”
• Tangentially related, in a sense … a psychologist, writing for The Conversation, explains why people like haunted houses, horror films and other scary things: “I’m not the only one who loves a good scare. Halloween attractions company America Haunts estimates Americans are spending upward of $500 million annually on haunted house entrance fees simply for the privilege of being frightened. And lots of fright fans don’t limit their horror entertainment to spooky season, gorging horror movies, shows and books all year long. … As a developmental psychologist who writes dark thrillers on the side, I find the intersection of psychology and fear intriguing. To explain what drives this fascination with fear, I point to the theory that emotions evolved as a universal experience in humans because they help us survive. Creating fear in otherwise safe lives can be enjoyable—and is a way for people to practice and prepare for real-life dangers.“
• Today’s recall news involves … a LOT of waffles! Again, the recall is due to listeria concerns. CBS News reports: “More than 600 varieties of frozen waffles manufactured by TreeHouse Foods and sold under major store brands such as Walmart’s Great Value and Target’s Good & Gather have been recalled because they might be contaminated with listeria. The recalled products were sold in the U.S. and Canada at the following grocery chains, TreeHouse said Friday: Aldi’s (Breakfast Best brand), Dollar General (Clover Valley brand), Food Lion, Giant Eagle, Hannaford, Harris Teeter, H-E-B, PriceChopper (PICS brand), Publix, Schnucks, Southeastern Grocers, Target (Good & Gather brand), Tops (and) Walmart (Great Value brand).”
• Higher gas prices may be in our future. The Los Angeles Times explains why: “California’s attempt to manage a smooth transition away from gasoline just got roughed up with this week’s decision by Phillips 66 to shutter its refinery in Wilmington next year, wiping out more than 8% of the state’s crude oil processing capacity. The closure is likely to increase California’s already high prices at the gas pump, given that much of the replacement gasoline will be shipped in by ocean vessel, analysts say. The price issue will be ‘most worrisome if we have some kind of disruption in the market’ and the Phillips refinery’s not there to help with resupply, said Severin Borenstein, faculty director at UC Berkeley’s Energy Institute. The planned shutdown, announced by Phillips 66 on Wednesday, came just days after Gov. Gavin Newsom signed a bill that could force the state’s refineries to store extra gasoline, a move intended to minimize price spikes, such as those that occurred in late 2022 and 2023.”
• And finally … this Associated Press headline says, “New Zealand airport imposes cuddle cap with 3-minute limit on goodbye hugs to avoid traffic jams.” Wait, what? Some details from the piece: “Emotional farewells are a common sight at airports, but travelers leaving the New Zealand city of Dunedin will have to be quick. A new three-minute time limit on goodbye hugs in the airport’s drop-off area is intended to prevent lingering cuddles from causing traffic jams. ‘Max hug time three minutes,’ warn signs outside the terminal, adding that those seeking ‘fonder farewells’ should head to the airport’s parking lot instead. The cuddle cap was imposed in September to ‘keep things moving smoothly’ in the redesigned passenger drop-off area outside the airport, CEO Dan De Bono told The Associated Press on Tuesday. … ‘We were accused of breaching basic human rights and how dare we limit how long someone can have a hug for,’ he said, adding that others had welcomed the change.“
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