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Blue in the Face Okay. Alrighty then. What the? I have been in Spain for the last week and was completely out of the baseball loop. I caught up on everything baseball last night when I couldn’t sleep from my jet lag. Wow. What a difference a week makes. Bummed And what’s going on with the Dodgers clubhouse in total disarray? My take is that Grady’s inconsistency with his lineups this entire year put the youth and the veterans in direct competition with each other. Had Grady solidified a youth-dominant lineup, only making adjustments when necessary, I believe it would have given everyone time to adjust to their positions on the team and how they were to be utilized. Instead, with his constant shifting, he got a divided clubhouse with a “may the best man win” attitude. I have heard many times that Grady is a “player’s manager.” If this is true, then how did he let this clubhouse fiasco get so far as to have players slam their teammates in the press? And by the way, Jeff Kent, people in glass houses shouldn’t throw stones. You gave your veterans a hard time in your youth, did you not? “Wait ’til next year.” It’s hard to believe that at the beginning of the season it seemed like this would be our year, with numerous publications predicting we would go all the way. That was six months ago. I will admit, when the organization chose to start the season without Loney, I began to doubt the system. At that time, it was blatantly apparent that the Dodgers didn’t know whether to stick with the vets or go with the youth. That single move was a great indicator of what was to come. Grady has recently stated that we will “stay the course” with the youth movement. Okay -- (a) he has been listening to too many Bush speeches and (b) this was not the course he was on in the beginning of the season. If the original plan was our youth, Loney would have started the season with the Dodgers and the kids would have been a permanent part of the daily lineup. Look at Colorado. Look at Arizona. Both organizations committed to their youth movement and look at them now. “I like the dreams of the future better than the history of the past.” – Thomas Jefferson Peace, Love, AND BASEBALL, Alyssa