THE WORLD SERIES : OAKLAND ATHLETICS vs. LOS ANGELES DODGERS : Mayor’s Office Plans Monday Fete Before Dodgers Make It Final

Optimistic planners in the Mayor’s Office began making arrangements for a victory celebration at City Hall before the Dodgers won the fifth game of the World Series Thursday night.

A parade, including five floats loaded with Dodger players and coaches, will begin at 11 a.m. Monday in downtown Los Angeles. A rally with the players and the mayor will follow at noon on the steps of City Hall, which was recently designated by the City Council as the “Plaza of Champions” because it so often hosts championship-winning teams.

“The mayor is entirely optimistic,” Bill Chandler, a press aide to Mayor Tom Bradley, said Thursday afternoon before the Dodgers defeated Oakland, 5-2, to win the Series in 5 games. “The Dodgers have proven that they really are, as the mayor phrased it, the Cinderella team of baseball.”

At watering holes all over Los Angeles, however, the celebration started when Dodger pitcher Orel Hershiser struck out the Athletics’ Tony Phillips to end the game.

At Tommy Lasorda’s, a restaurant in South Pasadena owned by the Dodger manager, fans were predictably loud.

“It was great. It was fantastic,” said Rim Laney, 34, a salesman from Pasadena. “We’re No. 1--basketball, baseball, football, volleyball, water polo--we’re the best.

“Orel is the greatest since Cy Young. In fact they might change the Cy Young (award) to Orel.”

Said former Dodger Jay Johnstone, also at Lasorda’s: “It’s pandemonium here. They started pouring beer on everybody as soon as the Dodgers won. I think it’s wonderful. The guys showed they had a lot of courage. I’m so excited for them. I know what it was like to play on a team that wasn’t expected to win and they won it all.

Chandler said Mayor Bradley told him Thursday, “Even if the Dodgers were out there, nine players all using crutches, he felt they’d still win, just through their sheer energy, teamwork and their fans’ support.”