Chain of Fools

Few posts delight us more than a regional restaurant shout out or menu provided by an MLBlogger out on the baseball road. So it was with genuine anticipation that we clicked on the potential mother lode - a 16 city lineup of culinary favorites selected by garrulous gourmand, Tommy Lasorda.

Diamondhacks has dined in 9 of the 35 establishments praised by the Dodger legend and was, therefore, underwhelmed, even dismayed, by some of his entries.

Family style chain, Buca di Beppo was Mr Lasorda's only LA based Italian restaurant of note. Paisano! You've got to be kidding! Maybe it's a step up from Olive Garden, but your favorite Italian...in all of Los Angeles?

Baseball's beloved BLUEbird lays his biggest egg in our home state, Arizona. Phoenix/Scottsdale now boasts scores and scores of interesting, memorable restaurants. According to The New York Times, the nation's best pizza joint may be Phoenix's reasonably priced Pizzeria Bianco. There are prime steakhouses galore, first class Mexican(Carolina's, La Hacienda), world class southwestern(Vincent's), outstanding moderately priced chains(Houston's) - and that's just the tip of the saguaro!

For an esteemed epicure like Tommy Lasorda to say his favorite Arizona (and Milwaukee) restaurant is the depressingly ordinary Lone Star Steakhouse chain is like Thomas Keller gushing over Applebees.

In the best interests of baseball and to restore the credibility of one of it's biggest icons, Diamondhacks recommends the following actions:

• MLBlogs should gently request that Mr Lasorda review and edit his post to reflect, well, taste.

• If Mr Lasorda fails to amend the post voluntarily, an imposing authority with murky, far reaching powers, like Mark Newman, shall politely threaten to remove the post from the blogosphere.

• If Mr Lasorda still fails to act, the offending post shall be skewered and grilled until golden brown - and it's juices run clear.

• Mr Lasorda's "Respected Foodie" card shall be revoked immediately and a replacement card will not be issued - not even within 7 to 10 business days.

Note that our recommendations do not in any way jeopardize billfolds of frequent feeder punch cards or the mountain of unredeemed Chuck E Cheese tokens that may be on Mr Lasorda's person. We believe such cards should remain in force and all tokens be fully vested.

Diamondhacks is, after all, not capricious...mean, maybe, but not capricious.