No Team Chemistry Needed

In sports a lot is made of "team chemistry." While I agree in many sports, like Hockey, basketball and football it is important to know exactly what a team mate is doing...their tendencies, speed, agility, etc... In baseball I don't think that's true. Example after example in history has proven guys who hated each other played for winning teams. The Dodgers may not hate each other, but how about this story from today's paper....

LOS ANGELES -- Of all the numbers floating atop the sudsy Dodger Stadium joy Saturday night -- 20 years, three-game sweep, eight more wins -- the most important one was never mentioned.

In a sport that celebrates perseverance, it's a number that doesn't make sense.

In an organization that built its tradition on continuity, it's a number that is actively shunned.

Yet here it was, the most compelling number of one of the Dodgers' most compelling playoff series in history.

Zero.

That is the number of times the Dodgers had used their division-series winning lineup before the division series.

The eight position players who took the field for the opening game against the Chicago Cubs had never before started a game together.

Never.

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