NATIONAL LEAGUE CHAMPIONSHIP SERIES : Hatcher, the Unsung Hero, Leaves Mets Singing the Blues

Is it true?

Do the Dodgers really have to go on and play another series now?

Haven’t they done enough? Can they possibly get any higher, happier or soggier?

How can they possibly top their 4-games-to-3 win over the Mets in the series to end all series?

How can any two teams top the events of this series? Games played in the rain and mud . . . Inflammatory newspaper columns . . . Extra-inning thrills . . . Crimes committed before a national TV audience . . . Great pitching performances . . . The fielding collapse of the century . . .

They can’t play a World Series right now. This is too tough an act to follow. This was such a big game, Kirk Gibson shaved before it started. You don’t get any bigger than that.

Besides, it’s going to take us experts at least 2 weeks just to figure out how the Dodgers managed to beat the Mets. It’s the mystery of the year, at least, and we have to unravel the clues, analyze the stats and examine the lab tests on the pine tar.

“The Mets are probably over there shakin’ their heads right now,” Mickey Hatcher said in the winners’ clubhouse.

Wrong, Mickey. The Mets lost their heads in the second inning.

Speaking of Mickey Hatcher, which nobody outside his immediate family has ever done in any October, what happened to Mickey in the MVP voting?

Orel Hershiser had himself a fine series, agreed, but the MVP vote of this one-man committee goes to Hatcher.

What player better symbolized the spirit and general weirdness of this series than Hatcher?

If Vegas put odds on championship series heroes, Hatcher would have been about 10 zillion to 1 going in.

He wasn’t even supposed to play, except for a pinch-hitting appearance or two. But when Franklin Stubbs had a disastrous non-hitting day in Game 1, Tom Lasorda, in semi-desperation, threw Hatcher into the starting lineup for Game 2, and he wouldn’t leave.

“I’m the most surprised person here,” Hatcher said as champagne spray filled the air. “I was just gonna go out there and be the set-up man for the big boys.”

Actually, he went out there and was the big boy. Remember Game 2, after the Mets won the opener and were on their way to that 4-0 series sweeperoo?

Hatcher walked and scored the first run of that game, then doubled home two more runs in the second inning.

He scored a big run in Game 4, had a big base hit and scored a run in Game 5, then Wednesday night he had two big at-bats.

He doubled Steve Sax into position to score the first run in the first inning (remember how important it was to score first in this series?), and moved two runners up with a nicely placed ground ball in the second. Both of those runners came around to score.

When Hatcher came back to the dugout after that “sacrifice” grounder, the Dodgers pummeled him as if he had just hit a grand slam.

In this, the age of blase athletes, Hatcher runs around the ballpark like a rookie batboy.

Cool?

“My guts hurt,” Hatcher said, receiving a beer shampoo. “Boy, if somebody tries to tell you you’re not nervous, tell ‘em they’re crazy. From the seventh inning on, man, all I could think of was Buckner (the fielding goat of the ’86 World Series). Just please don’t let me be Buckner.”

But bad luck never got to Hatcher in this series. He outran it.

He runs to first on walks, he runs to first and then back to the dugout on groundouts.

Mickey is the only guy in the big leagues who would run out a strikeout, if he ever struck out, which he didn’t in this series. He batted only .238, but against the mighty Met pitchers, he didn’t whiff once in 21 at-bats.

This was the Mr. Electricity of the series. The fans couldn’t wait to see where Mickey would hit his next double, or how close he would come to killing himself chasing a foul pop-up.

The Dodgers didn’t win a game without a significant contribution from Hatcher, the 33-year-old retread who had been waived out of the game when the Dodgers picked him up last season.

When the Dodgers wrapped it up Wednesday night, the most unsurprised guy in town was Mickey Hatcher. By time the first champagne cork was popped, Mickey was wearing his tinted swimming goggles. He had come prepared.

“The Mets had magic all year,” Hatcher said. “We took that magic away from them.”

Exactly how they did that, nobody is sure. When someone mentioned to Rick Dempsey that the Dodgers didn’t get a lot of respect this season, Dempsey shot back: “At times we didn’t deserve respect. But we changed the attitude around on this ballclub. . . . I really, honestly don’t think we were (the most talented team on the field this series), but it’s not what you do on paper.”

“We’re not the most talented group of individuals,” Mike Scioscia said. “I don’t think anyone’s going to argue that.”

So if a team of underrated nobodys wins a league championship, what more fitting symbol could they have than Mickey Hatcher?

And is the World Series ready for the Mick?