Column: Dodgers have chance for baseball greatness

It’s always mesmerizing to watch greatness in real time.

A young Mike Tyson. An ageless Tom Brady. The Boston Celtics of the 1960s. The New York Yankees of, well, several different eras.

Which brings us to the 2021 Los Angeles Dodgers.

This group could become the most exceptional team in baseball history.

The defining answer is still six months way, of course. You can’t claim the ultimate title without a championship attached to your resume.

But, with the baseball season less than a month old, all signs point to the Dodgers making a serious run at being included in a very elite club.

Maybe even the lead member.

Their starting pitching is off the charts. Their lineup is stacked from top to bottom. Their player development is the best in the game. And, for good measure, they’re sitting on an apparently limitless pile of money to plug any leaks that may arise during the course of the 162-game grind.

“We have a chance to do something really special,” manager Dave Roberts said just before the start of the season. "When you look at the talent, potential, it could be as good as any team that the Dodgers have ever fielded.”

Comparing teams from different decades is a precarious exercise, at best, but Los Angeles sure seems to match up well with some of baseball's most iconic teams.

“The pedigree is there, the talent is there,” Roberts added. “There’s no telling how good this club can be.”

For starters, we’re not going to consider any team prior to 1947, since a large, very talented segment of the population was barred from playing in the big leagues.

That rules out the 1906 Chicago Cubs, who still hold the mark for best winning percentage (.763) from a season in which they claimed 116 victories and lost only 36 times. Besides, there’s a very glaring...

source https://www.chron.com/sports/article/Column-Dodgers-have-chance-for-baseball-greatness-16124525.php