TORRANCE TRIBUNE October 26, 2017 Page 5
LA Dodgers Wave Pennant for the
First Time Since 1988 Title Year
By Adam Serrao
The Los Angeles Dodgers are this year’s
National League champions. A team that has
been knocking on the World Series door for
quite some time now has finally broken that
door down and made their grand appearance
on the world championship stage. That’s not
to say that the Dodgers have necessarily won
anything yet. They’ll still need a World Series
banner to make their magical season turn
complete—and by the time this article appears,
two games will have already been played and
we will have an early idea of how things are
progressing towards that goal.
A three-game sweep over their hated rivals
from Arizona followed by a 4-1 series victory
over a Cubs team that kicked the Dodgers out
of the playoffs last season finally gave all Los
Angeles players and fans the opportunity that
they have been craving for so long now. In just
three games, the Dodgers scored 20 runs and
showed a very loquacious Arizona team that
the latter is nowhere near the level of L.A.
Chicago quickly learned that fact as well. Last
year’s “team of destiny” was quickly removed,
as Clayton Kershaw and company made quick
work of the Cubs--all while looking extremely
powerful in the process.
“Up there with getting married and having
kids,” Kershaw explained of his team’s NLCS
victory, as he held back tears. “It’s right up
there with one of the best days of my life.
Winning the World Series is really all that we
play this game for. All the individual stuff is
great, but at the end of the day, I just want
to win a World Series. If we win, I might
retire, so I might just call it a career. It’s a
special thing, and I know that I’m not taking
that for granted.”
The sentiments that Kershaw echoed bring
to light just how difficult getting to the World
Series can be. The Dodgers themselves had
been trying for years now, only to walk away
at the end of their e postseason runs feeling
disappointed and dejected. A loss to the Cubs
last year in the NLCS. A loss to the New
York Mets in the 2015 NLDS. A loss to the
St. Louis Cardinals in the 2014 NLDS and
again in the 2013 NLCS. All just mere steps
away, knocking on the door. This year, the
Boys in Blue finally put it all together and
used their experience to knock the door down
and become the 2017 World Series favorites
going into the matchup with the Astros that
kicked off this past Tuesday.
The most interesting part about the Dodgers
making it to the World Series is the players
on the roster that have helped get the team
to this point. Every night, someone different
has stepped up to the plate--literally and
figuratively--to get the job done. Chris Taylor
wasn’t on the team’s roster to begin the 2017
baseball season. He was a castoff from the
Seattle Mariners and didn’t play in the outfield
until the Dodgers moved him there. Next
thing you know, he was the NLCS co-MVP
and a super-utility man who can easily be
called the team’s engine. The other co-MVP,
Justin Turner, was a castoff in his own right.
Delegated to the bench in New York with
the Mets, ex-Dodgers GM Ned Colletti saw
something in Turner. Colletti brought him to
the Dodgers, and like many other players on
this team’s roster have done, Turner honed
his craft and has now become one of the
best players in all of Major League baseball.
Many of the moves that this Dodgers
front office--and ex-front office mates like
Colletti--have made were at first unpopular,
but have built a foundation for a winning
ball club that exhibits all of the qualities of
the word “team” to a tee. Dee Gordon, the
former beloved Dodger second baseman, was
traded for a group of players that included
now starting catcher Austin Barnes and the
NLCS Game 5 hero, Kike Hernandez. The
team traded away much coveted pitching
prospect Zach Lee, which at the time was a
controversial decision. Who did the Dodgers
get back in that trade? Chris Taylor. Moves
like those, among others, that may have been
unpopular at the time are paying dividends
now and have proved to put the puzzle pieces
together that have been necessary in forming
this year’s World Series team.
“We’re right where we wanted to be since the
start of the year,” Taylor said of the team that
finished the season with the best record in the
MLB. The Dodgers, who had previously lost
16 of 17 games in September, never doubted
themselves. Their losing was more of a factor
of getting roles set for the postseason than
it was of being a bad baseball team. In the
same amount of time that everyone began to
write the Dodgers off and wonder if they had
what it took to be competitive in the playoffs,
Roberts and the team learned that they could
not trust Pedro Baez and Ross Stripling in
high-leverage situations. They learned that
they could rely on Brandon Morrow in the
eighth inning and bring in Kenta Maeda in
the middle innings to get out powerful righthanded
bats. Adam Liberatore, Grant Dayton
and, to an extent, Luis Avilan all fell off the
board while Tony Cingrani and Tony Watson
stepped up to form one of the best postseason
bullpens baseball has ever seen through the
first two rounds.
Every move by this Dodgers team has
been calculated from the start with the intent
to form one of the best ball clubs in team
history that has begun its first World Series
since 1988. While Dodger teams of the past
may not have had what it took to get the job
done, this team can never be counted out. The
Boys in Blue may not have won anything yet,
but this 2017 Los Angeles Dodgers baseball
team could go down as perhaps the best that
any of their fans has ever seen.
– Aserrao6@yahoo.com •
“Baseball is like driving, it’s the one
who gets home safely that counts.”
– Tommy Lasorda
Up and Adam
Tartars Quickly Fall from Grace
By Adam Serrao
The Torrance Tartars football team has
reached the point in the season where every
single game has become extremely important
to their Pioneer League prospects. Coming off
of two incredible shutout victories over their
rivals from Centennial and South high schools,
the Tartars had been sitting pretty at the top of
the divisional standings. When Torrance took
to the road against the Leuzinger Olympians,
however, the Tartars’ prospects went from bright
and sunny to dull and dreary in the matter of
minutes. With a 20-7 loss at the hands of the
Olympians, Torrance took a significant slide in
the standings with only two games remaining
on the regular season schedule.
The story of the game for the Torrance
Tartars was perhaps less about their lack of
offense and more about the stout defensive
effort brought on by the Olympians. That being
said, Torrance not only had a rough time
scoring the ball, but also found it difficult
to even move the ball down the field. Two
forced turnovers in the first quarter of play
not only put the Tartars behind the figurative
eight ball, but also gave the team into a huge
14-0 deficit. The second quarter didn’t bring
much more luck to the Torrance sideline, as
head coach Rock Hollis and company found
themselves attempting to dig out of a 20-0
hole to start the third quarter.
“We started off tough with a fumble on the
second play of the game and then a bad snap
puts you down quickly,” Hollis explained of
his team’s rough first half luck. “We played
much better in the second half and we held
them defensively--we just need to capitalize.”
Hollis was right. His defense did step
up in the second half, holding Leuzinger’s
offense scoreless in both the third and fourth
quarters of play. Unfortunately for Torrance,
the offense didn’t have enough firepower to
overcome what was a three-score deficit.
The Tartars eventually found it within
themselves to show some signs of life when
in the second half, quarterback Nathan Gottlieb
connected with wide receiver Jerome
Duhon for a touchdown pass and the team’s
first and only points of the game. That brief
moment of joy was quickly overcome by
sorrow when the game clock reached zeroes
and the harsh reality of Torrance’s fifth loss
of the season had finally set in.
Opposing linebacker Vance Yetts put his
team’s victory and Torrance’s loss into perspective.
“This was a very important win to
stay in the race for league,” he explained.
“We might be out of that, but we still are
trying to make the playoffs.” Currently, the
North High Saxons are the only remaining
undefeated team in Pioneer League play,
with a firm grip on the number one overall
spot in the standings. The Tartars, Leuzinger
and West are now all tied for second place,
with the Olympians holding the tiebreaker
over Torrance because of their victory last
week. The Tartars (3-5, 2-1) have two games
remaining on the regular season schedule
with matchups against North High and West
High respectively. Torrance will have to win
out in order to remain in contention for the
second place spot in the standings.
West High vs. South High
The good news for the South High Spartans
in their matchup with the West High
Warriors last Friday night at South is that
the team finally put points on the scoreboard
for the first time in six straight games. The
bad news? The Spartans still lost by a final
score of 48-9 to their Pioneer League rivals.
As most teams have done against South
this season, West took to the ground to score
points and run out the clock against the Spartans.
With one six-yard rushing touchdown
and another run into the end zone from three
yards out, the Warriors took a 14-3 lead
after one quarter of play. If that production
weren’t enough, West quarterback Brandon
Poffenbarger poured it on even more in the
second quarter. An 18-yard touchdown pass
to begin the quarter was followed by a huge
52-yard touchdown on the ground by Venture
O’Neal. Poffenbarger connected on another
13-yard TD pass to end the third quarter. With
South unable to stop any part of the Warriors’
offense, West ran out to a 35-3 lead at the
half before eventually taking a 48-9 victory.
The Warriors (3-5, 2-1) will have a huge
battle on their hands when they welcome in
the Leuzinger Olympians this Friday night
for a matchup that will have second place
implications on the line in the Pioneer League.
South (0-8, 0-3), on the other hand, will have
its best opportunity of the season to record
a win when it travels to Centennial to take
on the 0-5 Apaches.
North High
The North High Saxons made quick work
of the Centennial Apaches last Friday night
at North. The final score of 62-0 says it all.
North not only won its fourth game in a
row, but also took over sole possession of
first place in the Pioneer League standings.
The Saxons and head coach Todd Croce will
look to close out the season with two wins
and take home a divisional championship
for what would be the second time in the
last three seasons. North (6-2, 3-0) travels
to Torrance High to take on the Tartars this
Friday night before finishing the year off
against the South High Spartans.
– Aserrao6@yahoo.com •