It's Business As Usual for Playoff Contenders

By CHRIS BAKER

Sept. 27, 1996 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

So, the Dodgers and San Diego Padres are taking their race for the National League’s West Division championship down to the final series, beginning tonight at Dodger Stadium.

Are they nervous? Determined? Desperate?

Determined, probably, but no more so than each team has been all season. The Dodgers have put a little breathing space between them and the Padres, but San Diego, with a sweep, still can win the title. And whichever team finishes second figures to make the playoffs as the wild-card team, barring a surge by Montreal in the Expos’ closing series against Eastern Division champion Atlanta. So desperation doesn’t figure as part of the equation.

Mostly, if last weekend’s series at San Diego is an indication, the Dodgers and Padres are going about their business professionally, trying to stay relaxed at the same time.

At one point during that series, for instance, reserve Padre catcher Sean Mulligan hoaxed a TV reporter who had mistaken him for pitcher Sean Bergman. Mulligan did an entire interview in front of Bergman’s locker, as Bergman.

Said Tony Gwynn, the Padres’ elder statesman, “That’s one of the reasons why these guys are so much fun to play with, they’re loose. You’re down to five games left in a season, you’ve just come off a series against the Dodgers and we’ve got radios going [in the clubhouse] and guys are relaxed. We’ve done it all year long, so there’s no reason to change now.”

The Dodgers were just as relaxed, tossing a football around their locker room.

Still, there was one incident that, perhaps, bespoke tension. And it involved, of all people, Gwynn. And the Chicken.

The Chicken, once a fixture at Jack Murphy Stadium, returned for last weekend’s Dodger-Padre series, showing up in the eighth inning of the series opener, which the Dodgers led and eventually won, 7-0.

And promptly irritated Gwynn, who was preparing to bat, by delaying the game with his routine.

“That’s the worst I’ve ever seen in my life,” said Gwynn later. “We’re getting our . . . kicked and here comes the Chicken. I mean, I’m ready to bat and he’s planting a flag near the plate. How ridiculous is that?”

Gwynn, a six-time NL batting champion, went into a slump after the Chicken returned, going hitless in eight consecutive at-bats as the Dodgers and Padres split the four-game series.

The Chicken, Ted Giannoulas of San Diego, replied to Gwynn in a letter to the San Diego Union-Tribune, saying, “If my little pep talk-comedy was the worst thing Gwynn has ever seen in his life, then that’s one charmed existence sadly oblivious to the real world of social despair, disease and debt.

“Tony, there’s no crying in baseball.”

Asked if he had read the letter, Gwynn said, “Don’t even mention the Chicken to me.”

Otherwise, it was pretty much baseball as usual--on the field.

“If you can’t get up for these games, you’re in the wrong business,” said Padre coach Davey Lopes, a former Dodger, who played on the club’s 1981 World Series championship team. “I just wish I could play [again]. But Mother Nature took care of that. More than the [championship] ring and more than the money, I’ll never forget the tremendous euphoria of playing in games like these.”

In the stands, it was another matter.

For one thing, the Padres set a franchise attendance record of 197,225 for last weekend’s series, selling out the final three games. It was the first time in Padre history they had sold out three consecutive regular-season games.

Pitcher Andy Ashby said the fans inspired the Padres.

“It was just a great feeling, walking out, seeing 51,000 people in the stands,” he said. “To walk in the stadium and see people here three hours before the game starts, before you even have a uniform on, that makes you turn it up a notch.”

And then there was the brawl. A donnybrook worthy of a Raider-Charger game erupted after two Dodger fans carrying a banner threw it in the face of a Padre fan during Saturday’s game.

Two men were arrested for assault and battery, four were taken to alcohol detox, then released, and six were ejected.

“I’ve been here 13 years and it was the biggest fight I’ve ever seen at a baseball game,” said Bill Wilson, stadium manager. “You can carry a banner, that’s OK. You’ll probably just get beer thrown on you. But to throw it in somebody’s face, that’s going too far.”

Even the players watched the fight, though.

“It looked like a Dodger fan won,” catcher Mike Piazza deadpanned.

Gwynn isn’t as likely to be distracted this weekend, since the traditionalist Dodgers don’t have a team mascot, a dog wearing a uniform who runs the bases during the seventh inning stretch, or girls in short-shorts dancing between innings, as the Padres do.

The Padres even have a dancing ground-crew member.

But there won’t be any sideshows this weekend, only three games for the division title. And everybody seems ready.

Play ball!

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

THE NL WEST

Stretch Drive

TODAY’S GAME

* San Diego (Sanders 9-5) at Dodgers (Valdes 15-7)

7 p.m., Channel 5

WEST DIVISION RACE

*--*

WEST W L Pct. GB Dodgers 90 69 .566 -- San Diego 88 71 .553 2