Dodgers’ season a bit mysterious, a bit magical

Monday, Oct. 4, 2004 | 11:18 a.m.

The first tipoff came from the stands, not the locker room. The playoffs were in sight, and up in the massive decks of Dodger Stadium, fans weren't racing to their cars during the seventh-inning stretch.

The last time that happened was 16 years ago, which just happens to be the last time the Dodgers were in a World Series. Even then, there were red taillights leaving Chavez Ravine long before Kirk Gibson hit the home run that lives in baseball lore.

Dodgers fans, like Hollywood stars, tend to arrive late and leave early. They go to games to see and be seen, then beat a hasty exit.

Who could blame them? Before Saturday, the last time the Dodgers won a game that really meant something Orel Hershisher was on the mound in the 1988 World Series.

This season, though, they've given fans a reason to stick around.

Time after time - 53 times to be exact, including 13 of their last 14 victories - the Dodgers have come from behind to win. Half the time, they wait until their last at-bats to do it.

Maybe that's why, as the late-inning comebacks mounted, fans sensed something so special was happening that even the thought of a Los Angeles traffic jam couldn't get them to leave.

Or maybe they were just trying to figure out how a team with no real starting pitching, a right fielder with anger-management issues and a general manager who traded an All-Star catcher just when he was needed most could win the National League West.

No matter now. The Dodgers travel to St. Louis to play the Cardinals on Tuesday, baseball is suddenly hot again in laid-back L.A., and even the players are beginning to think this might be a magical year.

"We do it the Hollywood way - that's for sure," Eric Gagne said. "It's amazing."

For a team that scraped its way through the regular season the way the Dodgers did, amazing might be the right word.

Their starting rotation was shattered when Hideo Nomo lost his fastball and Kazuhisa Ishii lost track of home plate, and their hitters were always suspect, at best. Still, the team had a certain chemistry and a dominant closer in Gagne, which was enough to climb to the top of a mediocre division.

Then rookie GM Paul DePodesta, trying to stamp his imprint on the team, almost gave it all away with one boneheaded move at the trading deadline that sent catcher Paul Lo Duca, outfielder Juan Encarnation and top setup man Guillermo Mota to the Florida Marlins.

In return, the Dodgers got a pitcher (Brad Penny) who won only one game before being hurt and a first baseman (Hee Seop Choi) who is batting .161 and hasn't hit a home run in Dodger blue.

Just as quickly, though, DePodesta made a trade that was almost as brilliant as the other was stupid. He outmaneuvered San Diego to get Steve Finley from Arizona for some minor leaguers, and Finley responded with 13 home runs in the final two months of the season.

The last of those home runs clinched the title Saturday for the Dodgers, who were down 3-0 in the ninth inning to the hated Giants when they came up with the biggest rally of the year.

By this time, the sellout crowd of 54,594 knew enough to stick around. After the Dodgers tied the game on some walks, an error and a bloop single, Finley rewarded their newfound patience with a grand slam to win it all.

"I was dreaming about it, and it happened," Finley said. "I wanted it. I knew I was going to get it done. When I walked to the plate, I knew the game was over. I even had a smile on my face."

The rest of the Dodgers are smiling, too, though that may not last against a St. Louis team that was the best in the National League this season.

The three-man rotation the Dodgers will use doesn't exactly bring back memories of Koufax and Drysdale. Odalis Perez has won only seven games all year, Jeff Weaver runs hot and cold and Jose Lima is a junkballer whose best hope is to keep hitters guessing.

At the plate, though, things look better.

Bad boy Milton Bradley - suspended the last five games of the season for going after fans who threw a bottle at him in right field - will be back, and the Dodgers have power with MVP candidate Adrian Beltre, Shawn Green, Jayson Werth and Finley.

That's given rise to a bit of a swagger not seen around downtown Los Angeles for years. Bad management and even worse deals have kept the Dodgers out of the playoffs since 1996, and they haven't won a postseason game since Oct. 20, 1988, when they won the World Series.

The Dodgers know that recent history is not on their side. They were bounced in three straight games the last two times they made the playoffs.

They also know the Cardinals didn't win 105 games without some serious talent.

"If we beat St. Louis, we're going to win the World Series," Perez said. "If we beat them, this is it: Dodgers champions."

Stranger things have happened, of course. Just ask those who resisted the urge to leave early and saw Gibson hit the home run to beat the A's.

Throw some more Dodger Dogs on the grill. This one could be fun to watch.

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Tim Dahlberg is a national sports columnist for The Associated Press. Write to him at tdahlberg@ap.org