Is there too much Georgia on TBS announcers' minds?

Is there too much Georgia on TBS announcers' minds?

Dodgers fans think there's been hometown favoritism in TBS' play-by-play coverage of the L.A.-Atlanta playoff series.

What's next for the TBS announcers? Will they start chanting "Beat L.A."? If TBS cameras panned the broadcast booth, would they catch the announcers doing the tomahawk chop?

Talk about Southern cooking. As far as a lot of fans are concerned, the Dodgers are getting sauced in TBS' coverage.

"The TBS announcers favored Atlanta more than Scarlett O'Hara," grumbled Dodgers fan Patrick Caneday after Friday night's telecast. "And not a mint julep in sight."

Charges of favoritism are always subjective — sports fans can be sensitive sorts when it comes to how their home team is portrayed by out-of-towners.

And the fact that TBS is based in Atlanta, and that play-by-play man Ernie Johnson Jr. has a long history with the Braves, might make Dodgers fans suspicious of their allegiances (Johnson's father was the Braves' play-by-play announcer for four decades).

But tonally — in what the announcers say, how they say it, with the level of detail they provide — the TBS crew of Johnson, Ron Darling and Cal Ripken seems by many to have had a decidedly pro-Braves bent. And that has Dodgers fans a little bent as well.

"The 'East Coast bias' is alive and well," says Lolly Hellman, who's been following the Dodgers for more than 50 years. "You hear it every time they open their mouths. It's all Braves talk, and you can practically hear the announcers thinking 'Beat the Dodgers!'"

TBS officials did not want to comment on any perceived favoritism.

Of note in Friday's telecast:

•A lack of story lines for the Dodger players, while unloading mounds of material on the Braves.

•Comments early in the game about ball and strike calls all going the Dodgers' way.

•The gushing over Braves pitcher Mike Minor's performance, even as Zack Greinke is matching him nearly pitch for pitch. "Mike is really in a rhythm right now," Ripken said in the sixth inning.

•In talking about pitchers as generally poor hitters, never acknowledging that Greinke, who is on the mound as they're discussing this, hit .328 in the regular season.

•Talk of how Greinke is "struggling," as they flash a graphic in the fourth inning showing he's given up no walks and four hits against a lineup that won 96 games in the regular season.

•Their easy acceptance of Dee Gordon being called out on his pivotal steal attempt in the ninth, though at least some replays seemed to show he beat the tag.

Overall, the TBS visual storytelling has been sufficient, sometimes extraordinary, as when they picked up Braves catcher Brian McCann chalking his fingers so the pitcher could get a better read. And, thankfully, TBS seems to forsake the ultra-close-ups of ballplayers spitting or fiddling with their noses, which seems to be a Fox trademark.

Otherwise, the telecasts have been largely uninspired. Oddly, TV directors across the board still fail to catch where fielders are positioning themselves with runners in scoring position at key points in a game.

Largely colorless as well, the only light moment in TBS Friday coverage came when correspondent Craig Sager, he of the dollar-store sport coats, flubbed the number of years Tom Lasorda had been with the Dodgers. Baseball's grandpa-emeritus quickly corrected him, making you wonder if at 86, Lasorda is still quicker than most TV types.

Meanwhile, what's a Dodgers fan to do? TBS says the same announcers will also do the NL Championship Series.

Perhaps the telecasts will balance out, now that the next two are set in L.A., though the venue should really have nothing to do with fairness in coverage.

"I muted the TV and listened to our beloved Vin announce part of it on radio," said fan Catherine Domier Canamar.

That solution goes back decades, though the radio action frequently is out of sync with the network video.

At the end of the day, the extraordinary Scully, who has done Dodgers games since the dawn of time, has never been a "homer." To have him consigned to radio while this team does network telecasts is almost beyond comprehension.

And, you know, the birth of a dynasty is difficult to diagnose, but these Dodgers figure to be winners for a while to come — dynastic or not. Just in case, maybe those from back East could study up a bit.

Dodgers' hot season fires up the faithful

Invigorated by the team's wins and its new owners' decisions, Dodgers fans thrill to the playoffs and happily muse about next year.

With her Dodgers dogged by injuries, Emma Amaya made a stop before work at the Our Lady Queen of Angels church in downtown Los Angeles, where she lit a prayer candle for her boys in blue.

The next day, as the team prepared for game one of their series against the Atlanta Braves, Amaya, 57, rushed to take her train to Glendale, listening to the telecast on her iPhone, where she picked up her car for an hour drive to El Monte. There, amid countless bobbleheads like Vinny and Sandy and Fernando, her anxieties washed away in the warm pulsating glow of her television set and a growing Dodgers lead.

What a time to be a Dodgers fan.

"The future is bright," Amaya said. "They're spending a lot of money. With these owners, it's not just talking with them that they're going to put the best team on the field. They're putting their money behind it."

Although a series loss would be a bitter disappointment for Dodgers fans, many say it would be eased by a growing sense of optimism about the franchise's future. It is a stark contrast to the Frank McCourt years, when the team's ownership came to be reviled and when troubles on and off the field — with loutish and even violent fans — seemed to take a little of the shine off the storied team.

It's easy to forget that during those years, the Dodgers frequently had winning teams, though none that went far in the playoffs. Now, the team under Guggenheim Partners is spending like the Yankees, not only in acquiring top-shelf talent but also on renovating a stadium that, 52 years after its opening, remains a major-league cathedral to the Dodgers faithful.

"There's a sense of confidence in the early days of this ownership group," said Terry Cannon, founder of the Baseball Reliquary in Pasadena. "Obviously, with the recent spending orgies of the current regime, fans are now encouraged that ownership will go out and bring in the pieces that are needed to put the team over the top."

That will soon bring expectations not just of playoff wins but also championships, Cannon said. The Dodgers last won a World Series in 1988.

In the meantime, many fans say their love of the Dodgers has been, if not rekindled, spiced up.

When an Atlanta Braves fan on his Echo Park street playfully taunted Stephen Seemayer, saying the Braves would sweep the Blue Crew in three games, the 59-year-old artist and documentary filmmaker had a Zen reaction for a guy who watches almost every home game from the upper deck of Dodger Stadium.

"I say, 'No, you're totally wrong. They're going to beat them in five,'" Seemayer said.

In fact, he was worried about his team's chances because of key injuries. For years, Seemayer has painted Dodgers-related signs and planted them in his front yard. His latest read in Spanish: "Nuestro equipo esta cojeando a los playoffs!" Our team is limping into the playoffs!

But Seemayer's attitude also had to do with his feeling that the Dodgers' success this year isn't a one-off because the team is "literally doing what the Yankees did, spending ridiculous money."

That's also the sentiment of Marcos Ortiz, 32, a powder coat company worker from Downey. He had been turned off by the rowdiness of some fans in recent years, rowdiness that culminated in the near-fatal beating in 2011 of San Francisco Giants fan Bryan Stow in the Dodger Stadium parking lot. Ortiz said when he went to a game late this season, he was gratified by the friendlier vibes in the stadium — and by the roster on the field.

"They have a really good team, and it can only go up from here," he said. "I'm pretty confident if we don't win it all this year, then the next year and the years to come."

David Carter, executive director of USC's Sports Business Institute, said winning is a cure-all for a lot of things. But he said the optimism many fans feel is driven in part by the sense that the team had fallen so far in the eyes of the community, with the off-field drama of the prior ownership and teams that weren't competitive enough.

"The performance is better. The perception of the team is better. There's certainly a buzz because there's great stories in [Yasiel] Puig and some of the great pitchers," Carter said. "I think there's certainly a lot of reason for the optimism shared over the Dodgers."

With Magic Johnson, a minority owner of the Dodgers, becoming the public face of the team, many fans wonder whether the franchise is using a model for winning employed by legendary Lakers owner Jerry Buss, who died earlier this year. Lon Rosen, the Dodgers' chief marketing officer, was a Lakers publicist under Buss and became Johnson's agent.

Rosen said that the Dodgers studied how other great teams around the country and in Europe did business, and that there's clearly a Lakers way of doing things in that mix. "We all learned quite a bit from Jerry Buss," he said.

The Dodgers have some die-hard celebrity fans, including "Breaking Bad" star Bryan Cranston, but the team has reached out to stars — including NBA players — and made it easier for them to come to games, Rosen said.

"It's fun for them, and fans love to see them," he said. "If you talked to Jerry Buss, that was one of his mantras."

Clement Hanami, 51, a visual artist and art director for the Japanese American National Museum in downtown L.A., said he recently took his 20-month-old son to watch his first game, a slugfest against the Colorado Rockies in which the Dodgers scored 11 runs.

"He's been running around the house with a baseball bat, swinging it everywhere. He gets excited hearing us cheer," Hanami said, adding that if the team falls short of a championship this year, it won't dim his hope. "In my mind, they are committed to winning.... It makes us proud to be in Los Angeles with the Dodgers."

Amaya was so excited to get home Thursday night for the Dodgers' first playoff game that she left her keys in the car with the radio on — and found the battery dead early the next morning. The computer programmer, who has a popular blog about the team, walked into her condominium, past a light switch with a cover custom-decorated with a famous picture of Pee Wee Reese pushing his wheelchair-bound former Brooklyn Dodgers teammate Roy Campanella.

She wore a Dodgers shirt emblazoned with a 22 and the name of one of her favorite players, ace pitcher Clayton Kershaw, and earrings with the Dodgers' interlocking "LA" logo. Her friends sent her constant text messages as the game went on, such as, "6th strikeout in a row for kersh." When Dodgers catcher A.J. Ellis couldn't make an at-bat count, a friend smitten by him texted in Spanglish: "My AJcito no pudo." My little A.J. couldn't.

Amaya talked about Vin Scully, about the Sandy Koufax signed baseball she won and about being teased by Fernando Valenzuela and how Kershaw is always smiling. Amaya gushed about Hall of Fame Spanish-language Dodgers announcer Jaime Jarrin, and about how he calls her "Emmita" and follows her on Twitter.

"Jaime follows only 88 people. And he follows me," she said, smiling widely. "Isn't that special?"

Amaya was worried after Atlanta's starting pitcher struck out the side in the first inning as she took her Metrolink train from Chatsworth. When the Dodgers scored two runs to open a lead, she yelled and clapped so hard she woke a friend and startled other passengers. By the time she got home, around 7 p.m, the Dodgers had scored a barrage of runs. They won, and now the series is split with the Braves as they return to Dodger Stadium on Sunday. All was right with the world.

Dodgers say Hyun-Jin Ryu is fine, logic says maybe not

By Steve Dilbeck

There’s what they say and what they do, and then somewhere is the truth.

Which is where you’re kinda left after the Dodgers tried to explain away Hyun-Jin Ryu throwing an odd bullpen session Friday in Atlanta while Manager Don Mattingly, team doctor Neal ElAttrache and vice president of medical services Stan Conte looked on.

Husbands arriving home in the wee hours with lipstick on their collars and reeking of bourbon don’t look half as suspicious.

But back in Los Angeles on Saturday, the Dodgers said it was really nothing. Just Ryu – who normally never throws a bullpen session between starts – getting in a little extra work because it will be a week between his last game and his scheduled start Sunday in Game 3 of their division series with the Braves.

Ryu said there was no reason for concern.

“No, not at all,” he said. “Typically, when I rest longer than normal, I always squeeze in a bullpen in there just to make sure that my body is responding the way I want it to.”

Well, Ryu throwing a bullpen has happened, but maybe once or twice all year. And he’s had a half-dozen games during the regular season with at least six days between starts.

Ryu said there really was no reason the team doctor, the head of medical services and the manager all wanted to take in the session.

“There wasn't any specific reason,” Ryu said. “It was just to make sure that I could take the mound tomorrow. … and I think they were just there to check it out.”

You know, like they had reason to be concerned he might not be able to take the mound.

“We have no concerns about him,” Mattingly said. “He's starting [Sunday].”

So why all the eyes to observe a simple between-starts bullpen session?

“Stan's pretty much always watching him,” Mattingly said. “And I think Neal just loves being in the bullpen down there in Atlanta. It's nice. It's cool there, the whole thing. So it's good. Full disclosure.”

Red flags everywhere. You know how when some starts a sentence with, “To be honest” your immediate suspicion is to wonder if everything else they’d said was a tall tale?

That’s full disclosure. It immediately makes you suspect that it’s something far less.

Logic says they were down there because of some kind of Ryu concern. The rookie made 30 starts for the Dodgers in 2013, throwing 192 innings, which isn’t far off the 181 innings he averaged over the last seven seasons in South Korea.

I’m thinking  ElAttrache has been in enough bullpens in his life and has no burning desire to hang there, no matter how really cool it is.

So the suspicion is Ryu is battling something and the Dodgers don’t feel it’s to their advantage to let the Braves know about it.

If Ryu does have something flare up and can’t go long Sunday, the Dodgers will have to turn to Chris Capuano and Chris Withrow as their long men. Capuano, who had a groin strain, threw a total of 3 2/3 innings in September. Withrow has thrown more than two innings in a game only once all season (three on July 10).

Maybe the medical concern was minor and Ryu goes lights out on the Braves. And maybe, they had real concern.