Strawberry Sets Tone in Rainout : Dodgers: The opener is postponed by the weather, but outfielder steps forward during a pregame meeting.

The Dodgers’ opening-day game was lost to rain, but a new leader might have been found Tuesday when Darryl Strawberry took the podium from Manager Tom Lasorda in a pregame meeting.

Several hours before the Dodgers’ game against the Atlanta Braves was postponed because of the weather, Strawberry thanked his teammates for accepting him and urged them to stick together during the upcoming 162 games.

It was an unprecedented move for a new player but the type of move that Strawberry vowed to repeat.

“I will not be afraid to call team meetings myself this year,” Strawberry said. “I know what can happen to teams when people get down. . . . We have to notice people like that, and pick them up.

“I’ve always spoken out. . . . In New York, I always stood up for the club. The more you understand about people’s feelings, the more you understand how successful you can be.”

Lasorda said he was happy to be interrupted.

“What he said was beautiful,” Lasorda said. “I don’t know if it was so much of a leadership thing as just Darryl expressing how he felt about his teammates. But it was great to hear.”

It was about the only nice thing that happened to the Dodgers, whose opener was postponed because of weather for the first time since April 10, 1959, when a game in Chicago was snowed out. The game was rescheduled as part of a doubleheader June 28.

The Dodgers stood on the third-base line in a steady drizzle during elaborate pregame introductions, finally running for cover when it became a downpour. After spending 90 minutes sitting in the clubhouse, they took the field when the tarp was removed during a pause in the rain.

But soon the tarp was returned to the field and the game was finally postponed at 10:20 p.m. EDT, after a 2-hour 40-minute delay. The Braves’ loss was a sellout crowd of more than 52,000, which would have ranked as the third highest attendance in Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium history.

“Too bad it rained, because we would have won,” Lasorda said afterward, tongue firmly in cheek. “Something like, 9-1. They would have scored an unearned run. Strawberry would have hit about two out.”

“I don’t know about that,” Strawberry said, “but my approach now is even going to more aggressive than in spring training.”

Strawberry is more than just excited about playing for his new team. He said he is losing sleep over it.

“I couldn’t sleep (Monday) night, I was up still 3:30,” Strawberry said.

About the only action he saw Tuesday was a New York Met game on the clubhouse television. “It was different, watching it,” Strawberry said. “It was kind of familiar, seeing Shea Stadium, hearing the fans. It kind of made me feel like, I can’t wait to get back there myself.”

The rainout will push the Dodgers’ rotation back one day. Tim Belcher will start today, Ramon Martinez will start here Thursday afternoon, and Bob Ojeda will replace Kevin Gross as the starter in the home opener Friday afternoon.

“I wish we had played today, but getting to start at home, at a place where I grew up, that is a thrill for me,” Ojeda said. “I’ve started opening days in New York, but it’s nothing like doing it at a place where you’re from.

“I usually lie and say that it’s just another game, but . . . my great uncle was a big Dodger fan, and even though he’s dead, I wonder if he isn’t going to be looking down on me from somewhere.”

The Braves will juggle their rotation, making John Smoltz the starter tonight. Charlie Leibrandt, Tuesday’s scheduled starter, will pitch Thursday.