The Forgotten Past : Landreaux and Brock Put Past Failures in Postseason Play Behind Them

One way to deal with failure, maybe the best way, is to forget about it. Take Dodgers Ken Landreaux and Greg Brock, two offensive forces Thursday night, finally, after years of bat blight in postseason play.

As reporters lined up to ask what seemed the obvious question--”Feel pretty good to fire on a pitcher after the playoffs of (year varied from player to player)?”--Landreaux and Brock turned totally amnesiac.

“Say what?” was pretty much the response in each case. They evidently thought they had broken records in the playoffs of (year varied. . . . ).

In fact, they had come close. Since 1981, Landreaux has come to the plate 50 times in postseason play (including the 1981 intra-division series and the 1981 World Series) and gotten 8 hits and all of 2 RBIs. Brock, who has only the 1983 playoffs to go by, had an 0-for-9 record in postseason play.

So no wonder the press came around to marvel at Thursday night’s offense. Landreaux had three hits in four at-bats, scored three runs and batted in one with one of his two doubles. Brock just had one hit, but it was a doozy. It was a two-run blast in the fourth inning that not only gave the Dodgers a 5-1 lead, but made Cardinal pitcher Joaquin Andujar mad besides. Andujar had the next batter, Steve Sax, fighting off a fastball high and inside. He almost fought it off with his head.

So it was natural, right, to ask how they felt getting off to this kind of start after some less-than-explosive starts in the past? But you know what? They had no idea what anybody was talking about.

Brock, to be fair, had an inkling he had been 0 for 9 in playoffs past. When asked whether that was his first home run in playoff games, he said, “I didn’t have a playoff hit in 1983.”

Still, he had no recollection of failure in that series. “In ‘83,” he assured, “I hit a few balls that could have been hits.”

Nobody really remembered it that way. Brock had been going so badly that it was thought only natural and fitting when his luggage, headed for the playoff site in Philadelphia, ended up in Hawaii. Everything had gone south. So maybe this time, it was proposed, his luggage would at least get to St. Louis.

Brock thought about this angle but he was clearly puzzled. “I don’t remember that,” he said pleasantly. “Sure,” somebody said, “you remember, it was a big story.” Brock thought and thought. “You mean my batting gear?”

There was only one answer to that question: “Never mind.”

Meanwhile, Landreaux was hotly debating all reports of playoff plate negligence. “The past is past,” he said, resisting the angle down the line. “Now is now. Stats don’t mean much to me. I don’t know what I did, anyway. What did I do?’

“You had 8 hits in 50 at-bats,” somebody said.

He got mad. “I wasn’t up 50 times,” he said. “I didn’t have no 50 at-bats, no way. Not in championship play.”

No, he didn’t. In championship play, he was 3 for 24. In postseason play altogether, he was, nevertheless, 8 for 50. “Did you say 15 at-bats,” he said, helpfully. “Cause I wasn’t up no 50 times.”

Well, past is past, now is now, and both Landreaux and Brock, who didn’t get to open the playoffs because the Cardinals threw up a left-hander, are hitting the ball again.

For Brock, this is especially satisfying as he has not lately put anyone in the mind of Babe Ruth, or even Candy Maldonado, who replaced him in the lineup Wednesday night. After a wonderful month of July, when he picked up the Dodgers with 5 home runs and 24 RBIs. Brock went into a playoff-like swoon. In August, for example, he batted .190 with 0 home runs and 2 RBIs. Brock didn’t exactly deny the numbers, but he didn’t hold them too meaningful, either. “What about the last two months?” he asked. “I look at October as not being over yet.”

If he’s lucky and good, it will finally be a month to remember.