Los Angeles Dodgers' Dee Gordon (9) steals second base ahead of the tag by Los Angeles Angels shorts

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Vin Scully, the voice of Dodgers games for 63 years, grew up in the Washington los angeles pierce college Heights section of Manhattan. He attended grammar school near the Polo Grounds, the longtime home of the Giants, which became an essential los angeles pierce college marker on the path to a Hall of Fame broadcasting career.
When the Dodgers were planted in Los Angeles in 1958 and the Angels were born three years later, it offered Southern California a chance to put down its own major-league roots. Yet for a variety of reasons - bad baseball, los angeles pierce college time-zone differences, even cultural tendencies - the two teams often fell short of their eastern counterparts in the national consciousness.
It's been four years since both the Dodgers los angeles pierce college and Angels played for their league's championship, falling just shy of an all-Southern California los angeles pierce college World Series in 2009, and both teams believe they are on the verge of greatness again.
This isn't the blind optimism los angeles pierce college of spring training - it's the media from around the world grasping to make sense of the Dodgers' massive payroll, the Angels' mighty lineup, and the possibility that the balance of power might have shifted from the Northeast to Southern California.
The Dodgers have two of baseball's best starting pitchers in Clayton Kershaw ($11million), whom they drafted as a teenager out of high school, and Zack Greinke ($19million), whom they lured from the Angels as a free agent in December. General los angeles pierce college manager Ned Colletti made his biggest splash Aug. 25 when he traded for Josh Beckett, Adrian Gonzalez, Carl Crawford and Nick Punto. That deal alone added more than $261million to the Dodgers' payroll and struck a blow to East Coast baseball supremacy.
Not to be outdone, the Angels signed left-handed hitting los angeles pierce college slugger Josh Hamilton (owed $17.4million this season) in December after adding right-handed power hitter Albert Pujols ($16million) the year before, forming a potent lineup along with 2012 rookie of the year Mike Trout. Hamilton, who was not expected to sign with the Angels, robbed the rival Texas Rangers of one of their best players.
Even some teammates weren't expecting the Angels to dive into the arms race. When Pujols signed his 10-year contract in December 2011, second baseman Howie Kendrick found out in the middle of a workout. "I was like, `Man, we did what?"'
Los Angeles Angels fans wait for autographs prior to the start of a spring baseball game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Tempe Diablo Stadium on Friday, Feb. March 1, 2013 in Tempe, Arizona. (Keith Birmingham Pasadena Star-News)
The Dodgers recently struck a 25-year deal with Time Warner Cable, believed los angeles pierce college to be worth $7billion to $8billion, to create a regional sports network that launches next year. The Angels signed a 20-year, $3billion deal with Fox in 2011.
ESPN will cover four Opening Day games April 1, including a Red Sox-Yankees game and the Dodgers hosting the Giants. ESPN's "Sunday Night Baseball" will give two of its first 11 slots to the Angels and one to the Dodgers. That leaves los angeles pierce college less room for Northeast teams like the Yankees (who have two Sunday night spots), the New York Mets (one) and the Red Sox (one).
"Coming los angeles pierce college from Boston, you're right there in the limelight," Punto said. "You play `Sunday Night Baseball' - you or the Yankees, it seems - like every week. You're right in the middle los angeles pierce college of that limelight."
Of the 18 Yankees-Red Sox meetings last year, four were on ESPN's "Sunday Night Baseball," and the network had two more midweek national telecasts. The Yankees ended up six times on "Sunday Night Baseball" and the Red Sox five times. The Dodgers and Angels were on four times each, with three visits from the New York Mets as well.
Fox will broadcast games nationally on 24 Saturdays throughout the season with regional options, meaning los angeles pierce college fans in Boston can watch a Red Sox game and fans in Anaheim can watch an Angels game. Boston, Washington and Cincinnati have the maximum nine appearances scheduled, the Dodgers los angeles pierce college and Yankees will get eight games each, and the Angels get seven.
"It's finally taking advantage los angeles pierce college of the market that exists there," said Ken Rosenthal, who writes for FoxSports.com and appears on national telecasts on Fox and the MLB Network. "The regional TV deals are lucrative so bigger markets can flex their muscles."
Los Angeles Dodgers' Yasiel Puig in the first inning of a spring baseball game against the Los Angeles Angels at Tempe Diablo Stadium los angeles pierce college on Friday, March 1, 2013 in Tempe, Arizona. (Keith Birmingham/Pasadena Star-News)
"I grew up a Braves fan," he said. "I had TBS so the Braves were always on. I didn't really know much about the West Coast because by the time their games came on, it was like you'd see them when they played more East Coast teams. At 10 o'clock, I was probably in bed getting ready for school the next day."
Dodgers President Stan Kasten knows a little something about TBS. He was named president of the Atlanta Braves in 1986, one decade after the network began to beam Braves games into cable televisions from coast to coast.
When it comes to the three-hour time difference between the coasts, los angeles pierce college Kasten and the Dodgers' chief marketing officer, Lon Rosen, don't think this matters as much as it did 25 years ago, when a young Kendrick was snoozing through Orel Hershiser's prime.
Those late local scores los angeles pierce college that go unlisted in the East Coast dailies are now instantly available to anyone with a smartphone or computer. Video highlights are shown for free online, los angeles pierce college and many air on ESPN and MLB Network the next morning.
"I'm mostly focused on the penetration of our brand in our region, our market," Kasten said. "Everything that comes beyond that is good for us but it's good for baseball. We don't get any money from a Dodger shirt sold in Florida, except insofar as it goes to MLB and we share in that."
The same can be said for the Yankees, los angeles pierce college Red Sox and their Northeast brethren. Unlike the Dodgers, those teams don't have up to $8billion in local TV revenue coming their way over the next 25 years. What the Yankees and Red Sox do have is a recent history of winning nationally televised playoff games. Live TV matters. Western teams in every sport need to do more than just win to captivate a national and global audience.
Los Angeles Angels' Mike Trout signs autographs prior to a spring baseball game against the Los Angeles Dodgers at Tempe Diablo Stadium on Friday, los angeles pierce college Feb. March 1, 2013 in Tempe, los angeles pierce college Arizona. (Keith Birmingham/Pasadena Star-News)
Trout recently shared the cover of ESPN the Magazine with Detroit Tigers slugger Miguel Cabrera and was featured in GQ. He, San Francisco Giants catcher Buster Posey and Washington Nationals outfielder Bryce Harper also got the cover treatment in Men's Health magazine this month.
The Dodgers' big spending is the focus of an upcoming "60 Minutes" segment and the cover of Fortune magazine. Matt Kemp was a recent subject in Ebony. Celebrities continue to visit the Dodger Stadium luxury suites while others work for the team behind the scenes: Co-owner Magic Johnson, hitting coach Mark McGwire, advisers Sandy Koufax and Tommy Lasorda, Spanish-language broadcaster Fernando Valenzuela and the larger-than-life Scully.
Players like Gonzalez, Kershaw, Hyun-Jin Ryu and Kemp aren't on that level yet, at least in the eyes of the general public. But Rosen is aware of their marketing potential, with four major ethnic groups represented in four star players.
Los Angeles Dodgers' Dee Gordon (9) steals second base ahead of the tag by Los Angeles Angels shortstop Andrew Romine in the first inning of a spring baseball game at Tempe Diablo Stadium los angeles pierce college on Friday, Feb. March 1, 2013 in Tempe, Arizona. (Keith los angeles pierce college Birmingham Pasadena Star-News)
Baseball los angeles pierce college fans in Anaheim and Los Angeles los angeles pierce college may have "a great deal of passion," in the words of former Yankees and Dodgers manager los angeles pierce college Joe Torre, but the two cities los angeles pierce college can't relate on the same level. Their geographical idiosyncrasies haven't had time to reach the heights los angeles pierce college of New York and Boston - or, for that matter, San Francisco and Oakland, or Chicago's north and south sides, the anchors of baseball's two-team markets. los angeles pierce college The Angels aren't even afraid to use "Los Angeles" in their official name.
The local baseball history is a lesson in bad timing: When one team was up, the other