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Can The Dodgers Rebound From A Disastrous 2005 Season?
By Dr. Gary S. Goodman

There’s something weird that happens to ballplayers when they strap on their spikes at Dodger Stadium.

Maybe, it’s the glitter and glamour that gets to them.

Or it could be the balmy weather, even in April.

Possibly it is because there are such gorgeous babes in the stands, in various states of undress.

Within a year or two of arrival, they kick back, or nurse injuries, or just lose all the starch that was in their caps when they played for the Marlins, or Braves, or Toronto.

Look at Brian Jordan, Shawn Green, Gary Sheffield, and then that litany of pitchers gone bad—Darren Dreifort and Kevin Brown, to name a few of the vastly overpaid.

Now, we have a new regime in town, a new General Manager from the archrival Giants, Mr. Coletti, and a team of hastily assembled veterans, with questionable health credentials.

Can this team make a credible run at the division championship?

It can, if only because its peer group is mediocre, at best. The Padres topped the division in ’05 by winning slightly more than half of their games. So, hobbled and knarled veterans could patch together a better record, simply by showing up.

But don’t expect them to get into the second round of the postseason. By then, the only man left standing may be Jeff Kent.

That’s no surprise: he’s the only gamer among them, who Hollywood hasn’t been able to seduce.

Yet.

Dr. Gary S. Goodman, President of Customersatisfaction.com, is a popular keynote speaker, management consultant, and seminar leader and the best-selling author of 12 books, including Reach Out & Sell Someone(r) and Monitoring, Measuring & Managing Customer Service, and the audio program, “The Law of Large Numbers: How To Make Success Inevitable,” published by Nightingale-Conant. He is a frequent guest on radio and television, worldwide. A Ph.D. from USC's Annenberg School, a Loyola lawyer, and an MBA from the Peter F. Drucker School at Claremont Graduate University, Gary offers programs through UCLA Extension and numerous universities, trade associations, and other organizations in the United States and abroad. He holds the rank of Shodan, 1st Degree Black Belt in Kenpo Karate. He is headquartered in Glendale, California, and he can be reached at (818) 243-7338 or at: gary@customersatisfaction.com.

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