California, Knows How to Party!
It’s all good, from Diego to the Bay
Your city is the bomb if your city makin’ pay
Throw up a finger if you feel the same way
Dre puttin’ it down for Californ-i-a
California knows how to party
California knows how to party (yes, they do) – 2Pac feat. Dr. Dre, California Love
California baseball is HOT! With Dr. Dre’s verse “It’s all good, from Diego to the Bay” who knew he would be talking about baseball. We could swap from the Bay to Diego but that doesn’t have the same jingle to it. The Oakland A’s (19-12) are edging out the San Francisco Giants (18-12) for the best record in baseball by a half game with Southern California foes, the Los Angeles Dodgers (17-14) and San Diego Padres (17-14) slugging it out behind the Giants in the Wild Wild NL West.
The Los Angeles Angels are the only Cali team without a winning record at (13-15), but they might have the best tandem with the 3-time AL MVP, 8 time All-Star Mike Trout along with Shohei “Sho Time” Ohtani who can do it all from blazing 100 MPH fastballs to crushing homeruns.
L.A. and San Diego are loaded with MVP’s, Cy Young Winners and big time, BIG MONEY, players. The before mentioned Trout and Ohtani lead the charge in Anaheim while the cross town Dodgers, coming off a World Series in 2020, are loaded with talent! Led by the lefty veteran, Clayton Kershaw, the Dodgers added Cy Young winner Trevor Bauer to an already loaded pitching staff with Walker Buehler, David Price, Joe Kelly and Kenley Jansen. We haven’t even touched on the field for the Dodgers with Mookie Betts, Cody Bellinger, Corey Seager and Justin Turner, a lineup with one of those is tough enough, let alone all four! Now we head South to San Diego with sensation, Fernando Tatis Jr., Manny Machado, Eric Hosmer, Yu Darvish, Joe Musgrove and Blake Snell. I could go on with a few more names for both teams, but I think you get the point.
The battle for the NL West and National League must go through L.A. or San Diego right? Not so quick! The Giants have different plans in mind as they are clicking on all cylinders. If you ask a casual baseball fan to name a Giants player, they might give one with Buster Posey, and not even sure they would give you that. Posey opted out last season due to Covid-19 reasons and battled injuries on and off since leading the Giants to their third World Series in a 5 year stretch from 2010-2014 (’10, ’12 & ’14). It is still early in the season, but with veteran leadership and a solid young core, the Giants could make it interesting in the West. They will need the Dodgers and Padres to continue their heavy weight fights and deliver blows to each other which has made for great baseball so far.
Cross the Bay Bridge to Oakland and the A’s continue to play Moneyball as they seem to compete every season with no big time stars. Yes, they do have a solid group of players between Matt Chapman, Matt Olson and Ramon Laureano but outside of that the team seems relatively unknown to baseball fans, especially the East coast. Coming off a Division Title in 2020, the A’s seem to be riding the wave to back to back AL West crowns.
Back down to LA, the Angels have a loaded roster but can they put it together and give the A’s a run for the West? They will need the veteran help of Anthony Rendon, Justin Upton and Albert Pujols but certainly have the ability to compete in the West.
It is only May with lots of baseball left to play, but California is feeling the LOVE with the play of their big league clubs so far! Here’s to keeping the party going on the West Coast.
Throw it up, y’all! Throw it up, throw it up
I can’t see ya
Let’s show these fools how we do it on this Westside
‘Cause you and I know it’s the best side
Yeah, that’s right
West Coast, West Coast
California love
California love, yeah
