Now that's what I call a wild pitch, and good seats still available

by Phil Wood

The two things I found most astounding about last night's 7-6 loss to the Dodgers:

1. Henry Rodriguez's wild pitch ball four to Rafael Furcal. I guess if you're going to be wild, be really wild, be memorably wild. Rodriguez teases us so often with that three-digit fastball and crippling slider that we sometimes forget he has command issues at times. When he's good, he's eye-opening good; when he's not throwing strikes, it's also eye-opening and eye-rolling. Guys who throw that hard frequently are up in the zone, but Yao Ming doesn't catch that one.

2. I know the reported paid attendance for last night's game was north of 34,000, but there were some camera angles that revealed entire empty sections at Dodger Stadium. For one of the game's signature franchises to have that many no-shows on what seemed to be a gorgeous July evening - cool enough that you saw folks in jackets and hoodies - is remarkable. I don't know what the disposition of that ballclub will be eventually, but obviously they're doing something very wrong in that market.

By the way, Larry King was easy to spot sitting behind home plate last night. I knew Larry pretty well back in the 1980s before he moved west. He came to my first wedding and literally introduced himself to everyone at the reception, table-by-table. He really has a passion for baseball, and in his retirement I suppose he'll be at Dodger Stadium as often as he can get there. He'd be a solid resource for whomever ends up owning that team.