Times sports columnist (and former editor of the section) Bill Dwyre gave a nice shout out in today's column to laid-off sports staffers at the rival Daily News:

Finally, a sad goodbye and fervent wish: L.A. Daily News sportswriters Matt McHale, Billy Witz, Heather Gripp and Matt Kredell all were asked to depart their jobs Friday, as the newspaper business continues to scrape flesh off its bones. They were competitors, some friends, all respected.

May they all land well, feed their families and harbor lifelong bad thoughts about the people who did this to them and their business.

Dwyre's column style this morning channels T.J. Simers, who often teases Dwyre in his columns and himself gets mentioned today: "As that sage of sports journalism, T.J. Simers, says and demonstrates almost daily, when you don't have enough to ramble incoherently on one subject, do it on several."

Also: Bill Plaschke writes that the Dodgers are concerned about new slugger Andruw Jones looking heavy and out of shape. This on top of looking clueless at the plate much of last season. He's the highest-paid Dodger (per season) ever.