The Curse of the Penguin

News came down today that Nomar will spend the first week of the season on the Disabled List. This, just 2 weeks after 3rd base prospect Andy LaRoche went down for 8-10 weeks. We are now 26 years into what I (and I am sure others) have called the "Curse of the Penguin." Ron "Penguin" Cey is the greatest 3rd baseman in the history of the Dodgers, playing 1971-82 with LA. Then in the fall of '82, thinking Cey was too old, they traded him to the Cubs for Vance Lovelace and Dan Cataline. Hows that working out? Cey played another 6 years, Lovelace and Cataline never got above AA, and the Dodgers have been looking for a hot corner guy ever since. Here's just a partial list of the goofballs since Cey:

Bill Madlock- Great player, 10 years before we got him.

Jeff Hamilton(above)- Yes, he was on the '88 Champions, but he's more famous for being the first position player to take a loss by pitching in a 22-inning game. Never batted above .245.

Tim Wallach- see Bill Madlock.

Todd Zeile- See Bill Madlock.

Adrian Beltre- Sure, he gave us one HGH, contract-year blowout with 48 homers and 2nd in the MVP. 5 other non-HGH, non-contract year garbage that went with that.

Mike Blowers, Lenny Harris, Tracy Woodson, Bob Bailor, Rafael Landestoy, Olmaedo Saenz, Chad Fonville, etc, etc, etc..

And now the Nomar and Andy show. LaRoche may show himself to be "the guy" at third for a long time, but you'll excuse me for not taking the bait on this after nearly three decades of has-beens and never-weres.