achtung baby

the 1991 dodgers were up 1 game over the braves with 4 left to play in the season.  they lost 3 in a row and were knocked out of the playoffs on the next to last day of the season by trevor wilson and the giants.  about a month and a half later, u2 released 'achtung baby'.  i understand that achtung means 'attention' or 'look out'.  so, in that sense, 'achtung baby' could refer to the atlanta braves who were 9.5 games out at the all-star break, but came back and won 8 of their last 9 games to overtake the dodgers and win the west. however, i will suggest that u2 was warning me to look out for just how bad the dodgers were going to be in 1992.

jose offerman seems like a good representation of the 1992 dodgers.

the 1992 dodgers were the worst la dodger team of all-time.  they lost 99 games that year.  5 pitchers lost 10 or more games, including their 'closer', roger mcdowell.  they had only one player with more than 6 home runs (eric karros), darryl strawberry had ongoing back problems and eric davis was a bust.  the only bright spots were karros (the nl rookie of the year who made the team out of spring training essentially because kal daniels couldn't handle first base defensively and todd benzinger was working his way back from a calf injury), and pedro astacio, who had 4 shutouts in his 11 starts.

offerman, meanwhile, made 42 errors as the dodgers' shortstop.  'nuff said.

there's a song on the album called 'so cruel'.  it ends thusly: 'to stay with you I'd be a fool.  oh, sweetheart, you're so cruel.'  that tears it - i'm a fool for the dodgers.