Clayton Kershaw won the pitching version of the triple crown.

Matt Kemp has been on a tear at the end of the season, chasing the traditional hitters’ version of the triple crown during the final week of games.

As a team, they’ve been really good also — 15 games over .500 (38-23) in the 61 games they’ve played since July 22nd.

For those of us who had generally stopped paying attention, the Dodgers’ performance comes as a huge surprise. James Loney managed to raise his average to over .280 and is in double digits in home runs once again. During the first few months of the season, nobody  would have thought either of those things had a foul ball’s chance of hitting someone at an afternoon game at a mostly-empty Dodger Stadium.

Javy Guerra and Kenley Jansen bounced back and made up for the virtual “no-shows” of Hong Chi Kuo and Jonathan Broxton out of the bullpen.

Ted Lilly and Hiroki Kuroda finished the year with more respectable numbers than I thought and while Kershaw and Kemp have put up all-time great Dodgers seasons.

For a team that was out of the race so early, the numbers will actually look more kindly on the Dodgers than the reality of the situation.

Despite being a Dodgers fan who has rebuked the current ownership, I would be remiss if I didn’t congratulate the players. The players are not the ones that made the Dodgers a joke throughout the league. The players didn’t lead a cornerstone franchise in the second largest media market into inexplicable bankruptcy. The players kept fighting. In the end, this year’s team, the players on the field, should be remembered for doing the best they could.

Despite Ned Colletti’s “logic,” who really expected aging infielders Casey Blake, Juan Uribe, or even Rafael Furcal to have impact seasons necessary for a real playoff run? Did anyone think that a team that planned on a Marcus Thames/Jay Gibbons platoon in left field would be a playoff team? Let’s not go and blame them for getting hurt and not living up to Ned’s sometimes-skewed logic.

The fans took a stand this year against the owner of a team that was more than 10 games back in the division for all but one day since June 28. In a city where getting anyone to care about anything can be a challenge, thousands of people lodged their protests against owner Frank McCourt by not going to games.

But the fans’ protest wasn’t of Kemp, Kershaw, and the players. I hope the players understand that. If not — if Kemp, Kershaw, and other young impactful Dodgers see the fans’ non-support as traitorous and use it as a reason not to be with the team long-term — things could get a whole lot worse before they get any better.

So congratulations Mr. Kershaw and Mr. Kemp for spectacular seasons. The players on the team have turned a completely embarrassing year into one that shows a glimmer of hope for the future with new ownership.

And for that, I say thanks.

When Dallas clinched their NBA Finals series against the Miami Heat, fans and media began to bring up Cuban’s name again in relation to the dumpster fire that is currently the Dodgers’ ownership. On television, radio, and across Internet blogs, Dodger fans are practically begging Cuban to be ready if and when the Dodgers are taken over by Major League Baseball and, God willing, sold.

Maybe the most direct plea to Cuban has been through a website titled Mark Cuban Save the Dodgers, created by Los Angeles native and West Covina resident Roger Arrieta. A web designer who started MarkCubanSaveTheDodgers.com, Arrieta created the site two months ago. During the past week, he says, hits on the site have grown exponentially. On Tuesday, there were 800 “likes” on Facebook and as of Thursday night, there were about 1,250.

“My initial thought was ‘save the Dodgers’ as a general idea,” said Arrieta. “Later on, Mark Cuban came to mind. He’s had ten years of success [in Dallas] and he is someone with instant recognition.”

Arrieta’s site features pictures of Cuban with Dodgers gear on, along with images of past Dodger greatness like Sandy Koufax, Fernando Valenzuela, and Kirk Gibson. His Dodgers Fansmanship goes back to the 70’s and 80’s, and his goal is to help encourage an owner like Cuban to take the reins of the Dodgers, an organization clearly in turmoil.

Being a die-hard Lakers fan doesn’t give him any pause either, despite Cuban’s Mavs knocking the Lakers out of the NBA Playoffs this season.

“It doesn’t deter me,” said Arrieta. A lot of people can’t get over that, but it’s simple. You have to look at what [Cuban] has done. Show me a Dodger fan who wouldn’t want that same success for the Dodgers.”

HOW MANY OTHER TEAMS HAVEN’T MADE THE WORLD SERIES SINCE 1988?

Arrieta discusses Cuban’s potential ownership like it’s a done deal already.

“He’s going to do everything to make the team better,” he said.

Having been to many games at Chavez Ravine this year, Arrieta has definitely noticed a difference.

“There are so many less fans this year. It’s crazy,” he said. “It’s not even packed on bobblehead night.”

He has also noticed the increased police presence and it makes him (like Fansmanship) sad that the additional security is needed.

For Arrieta and most Dodgers fans, a failure by current ownership to act at crucial times is an unforgivable offense.

“The Dodgers were never even in the discussion for Cliff Lee or Halladay. They didn’t build on the LCS. They didn’t add to the roster,” he said. His voice a combination of disgust and sadness. “Even if it took [Cuban] 10 years like the Mavs, we haven’t had a championship in 25 years.”

Actually the number is 22, but the point is well taken.

SAN LUIS OBISPO – BLACK OR BLUE?

For him, and so many other Dodgers fans, the McCourt reign has been untenable.

“He said that even if he wasn’t in financial trouble, he’d still be doing the same thing. That’s not acceptable.”

The lack of non-Manny-related big splashes, a penchant for spending money inappropriately and then blaming everyone but himself, and an ego the size of Los Angeles have all marked the McCourt era. For the sake of Arrieta, this writer, and Dodgers fans everywhere, here’s hoping for an end to this situation sooner than later.

WHAT’S REALLY GOING ON AT DODGER STADIUM?

Things may have to get uglier before they can get better.

The picture of Mark Cuban on Arrieta’s website sure looks pretty right about now…

owen@fansmanship.com