The Dodgers

In his cartooning, Conrad pitches into the strike zone more often and more cunningly than most, but that was a bean ball he threw (Sept. 29), retiring the ’86 Dodgers jersey to the Hall of Infamy.

Infamy means evil fame, disgrace, public dishonor. In sports it suggests a team that throws a game, takes the field stoned or scalps blocks of tickets for sold-out games. All the Dodgers did was not win enough games to contend for the pennant. (Not incidentally, at one time five of the usual starting nine were disabled.)

But the Dodgers gave us six months of entertainment and attracted more fans than any team in the league. Sure, the Dodgers studded the season with errors, stranded enough players to colonize an island and too often couldn’t score a man from third with nobody out. But they also turned in hero catches, late-inning wins, some nearly flawless pitching and a season of striving in the best tradition of sports.

Put them in clown suits, Conrad, or mount them on a donkey racing toward a windmill. But don’t say “infamy.”

HARRISON STEPHENS

Claremont