Falling in love again -- with the Dodgers

As only he can, that poet of the ballpark Bill Plaschke reflects on the Dodgers' crazy season:

When the Arizona Diamondbacks lost to the St. Louis Cardinals at 2:32 p.m. Pacific time, the Dodgers officially clinched the National League West championship.

Nobody was on the Dodger Stadium field. Nobody was in the Dodger Stadium stands.

There was only the sweet sound of a six-month sigh of relief.

And then, bless some stadium employee, there was Randy Newman, his trademark song blaring over the loudspeakers, echoing through the Chavez Ravine stillness.

Those who love L.A., it seems, are falling back in love with the Dodgers.

Click away to read more on the Dodgers' division championship. And be sure to check out a Dodger photo gallery about the big night. That's Manny Ramirez above, pouring bubbly on a fan during the celebration Thursday.

-- Steve Padilla

Photo: Gary A. Vasquez / U.S. Presswire

Comments

[frank]

Until they choke in the playoffs like always.

[Jack Gleason]

I am 76 years old and I still cannot get used to them being called: The LA Dodgers. They will always be the Brooklyn Dodgers to me.

It was an awful thing when those Dodgers left Brooklyn.

[redboy]

Are you kidding me? Falling in love with the Dodgers? A joke, right?

Should it get to that level of embarrassment, the Cubs will crush them and the year is over for those bloated blue guys.

They skim by. Supremely lucky. Not WS caliber.

[Lou]

Cubs? Hahahahaha! 1908!