The Futility Infielder

Stuck Inside Manhattan With the Dodger Blues Again

I've come down with a case of Dodger Blue Fever. I stayed up until 2 AM Monday night sweating out the Dodgers-Giants result from the West Coast, and I'm prepared to do the same again tonight. With these heated rivals in a dogfight for the NL Wild Card, my long-dormant allegiances have been stirred. I'd rise from the dead to watch these two teams mix it up in a meaningful late-season series.

As a lapsed Dodger fan now living in NYC and rooting for the Yankees at much closer range, it's been awhile since I got a charge out of my old team. I've carried a grudge against them ever since they folded the tent at the ends of 1996 and '97 season, hastening their plunge into the clueless oblivion of the Fox era. Late-night vigils for West Coast scores were no longer worth keeping for such a listless and mediocre ballclub, not when a great one was a Bronx-bound subway ride away.

My allegiance to the Dodgers had been founded on continuity--a love for the team handed down from my grandfater to my father to me and my brother, and a stability within the organization that gave us time to form attachments to its key personalities. The stability of the Dodgers' O'Malley era was characterized by a single stat: two managers for forty-three years. From 1954 to mid-1996, Walter Alston and Tommy Lasorda guided the club, in most years able to offer up a contending--if not quite championship-caliber--ballclub. By contrast, the Foxies burned through three underachieving managers in five years, none of whom ever made his mark on the team before bad front-office decisions took their toll.

But Jim Tracy changed all of that. I don't have much of an idea how he's pulled it off, but Tracy has done an amazing job of keeping the Dodgers in postseason contention in each of his first two seasons. His teams have overcome devastating injuries, clubhouse distractions, and some horrible contracts--they paid $22 million for six wins last season, and another $30 million for 14 wins from Kevin Brown over the past two. Tracy has gotten more out of players like Marquis Grissom and Alex Cora than even their mothers thought possible, and his patience through substandard years by Brian Jordan and Eric Karros has been rewarded by their hot Septembers (5 HR/20 RBI/987 OPS for Jordan, 2/9/843 for Karros). Paul Lo Duca has become an All-Star caliber catcher, and one of the league's more exciting players. Already on Tuesday night, he's tagged up and scored on a popout to second base and slid into the dugout at full steam to catch a foul ball. This team hustles for Tracy--they look ready to run through walls for him. Clearly, Tracy has won their respect; he's won mine as well.

Though I only experienced it through ESPN's GameCast and the occasional SportsCenter and Baseball Tonight update, last night's ballgame felt like one for the ages. Hideo Nomo fell behind early, yielding a solo homer to Jeff Kent and and an RBI double by Tom Goodwin (whose salary the Dodgers are paying) in the first inning, and a Rich Aurilia solo shot in the third. The Dodgers got it all back and then some in the fourth inning, as Brian Jordan hit a grand slam off of Jason Schmidt. The Dodgers furthered their lead in the fifth on a two-run double by Adrian Beltre--this just after the umps let slide a fan-interference call which prevented Goodwin from catching a Beltre foul.

Barry Bonds brought the Giants back with a 2-run homer off of 79-year-old Jesse Orosco. The undead Karros countered with a solo shot, making it 7-5. Goodwin scored from second on an infield hit and a Beltre error, cutting the score to 7-6.

The ninth inning was an absolute classic, with Dodger closer Eric Gagne facing the meat of the Giants' lineup: Aurilia, Kent, and Bonds. My palms were sweating and my heart was pounding as the ESPN GameCast ploddingly plotted the action, telling me that Aurilia had flied out deep to centerfield; I had no idea until seeing the replay on Baseball Tonight how close he'd come to a game-tying homer. Marquis Grissom absolutely robbed him. Gagne rung up Jeff Kent for the second out. Tracy elected to walk Bonds rather than give him an opportunity to tie the game; the gamble paid off as Gagne punched out Benito Santiago to end the game, bringing the two teams to a tie in the Wild Card race.

As I write this, tonight's game is on TV. The Dodgers have clawed their way back from an early deficit, and are down now 5-4 in the 8th on Tuesday night/Wednesday mornign, 1:15 AM EST. I'm wired on this race. Go Blue!