THEY'RE DONE

By BILL PLASCHKE

Aug. 14, 1998 12 AM PT

What is not immediately evident in the standings is painfully obvious everywhere else.

In their eyes, in their actions, in the words of a club official who recently bumped into a neighborhood priest.

“Father,” he said, “it’s time for last rites.”

The priest refused, bless his blue-bleeding heart.

So allow me.

The 1998 Dodgers are dead.

The uncertainty of spring, leading to the chaos of May, causing the purge of June, has left this poorly constructed team with no chance in September.

The 1998 Dodgers are dead.

You look at the wild-card standings, you see them still within shouting distance, you ask, how can you say this?

With a heavy heart, that’s how.

I am an unabashed Dodger fan. I have long admired everything the Dodgers have represented.

But, for the last time, this ain’t that.

This is about a catcher who is too stressed out. A third baseman who is too young. A center fielder who is too worried that everyone thinks he parties too much, which he does.

This is about a starting pitcher who should be in the bullpen. Setup relievers who think they should be closers.

And a young manager who, despite his best efforts, should spend a little more time in a coaching box.

This is about the final deadening clank of a nauseating ride that began with the best of intentions, the trading of Mike Piazza, and ended with the most suspect of maneuvers, the firing and trading of everyone else.

This is about an organization that, in two months, will be wholly without leadership or direction.

Tom Lasorda will be kicked upstairs. Glenn Hoffman will be kicked downstairs. Some good front-office people will be kicked into Echo Park.

You’ve heard of lame-duck presidents? The Dodgers are a lame-duck country, growing more weary and less focused while waiting for the inevitable.

And finally playing like it.

Darren Dreifort’s arm is dead, Raul Mondesi sometimes acts as if his brain is dead, the crowds are dead, even the vendors are worried about a cut in commission.

The powerful Atlanta Braves are coming to town tonight, yet it already feels like football season.

When Fred Claire and Bill Russell were fired, I wrote that such a dramatic move at such a critical time was tantamount to giving up on the season.

That was June 21. Nearly two months later, the scenery has changed, but the odor lingers.

Now, with the Dodgers reeling from beatings by the sorry Montreal Expos, Pittsburgh Pirates and Florida Marlins . . . now, it smells awfully official.

The 1998 Dodgers are dead.

You ask, how can you give up so soon?

I didn’t give up.

Peter O’Malley gave up.

Bob Graziano gave up.

Tom Lasorda did not give up, but he tried too hard, it was way too late, and he seemed way too self-serving. He threw good money after bad, almost gutting the farm system while helping ensure his position in the organization for next season.

All this talk about the Dodgers still being in the wild-card race when Lasorda took over ignored one simple fact: They were chasing three teams, not one.

And they were trying to do it with a rookie manager who took over in midseason.

And with a pitching staff that had lost its ace.

And with an infield that had a third baseman, Adrian Beltre, who should be in Albuquerque.

Do you really want to trade all of your top prospects for a chance to win against those odds?

Lasorda did, and it hasn’t worked, and now, while they are rightfully worried about September, they should be scared to death about next April.

Without a quick infusion of cash and good judgment by Fox, the smell will get worse before it gets better.

If reliever Jeff Shaw leaves town--as small-town Midwestern guys are wont to do--they could start the winter in need of a third baseman, left fielder, starting pitcher, and closer.

And with nobody from the farm system who can fill any of those needs.

You want to blame Fox. I want to blame Fox. Everybody wants to blame Fox.

But as it turns out, once the Fox guys made the Mike Piazza trade, they stayed out of the way, as promised.

And really, Mike Piazza for Charles Johnson and Gary Sheffield is still a good Dodger deal, particularly when Johnson gets more settled and comfortable in his first home outside of Florida.

What started the Dodgers on the road to the ruin was the fine print of that trade.

That Todd Zeile-for-Bobby Bonilla deal.

Fox, and many of us, were snookered into thinking Bonilla was physically able to play a full season, despite having had two off-season surgeries and missing spring training.

Today, the hard-working Bonilla has been moved from third base to left field and now to the bench, while Beltre misses grounders because the Dodgers do not want to admit they blew it by bringing him up.

And the guy in the left-field pavilion is wondering why he spent $6 on this in the first place.

I sat out there Wednesday, away from the press box and the politics, trying to see if my opinion would be shared by the people who count.

Judging from the number who were barely watching the game, it was. They booed, they tossed beach balls, they booed some more as the Dodgers fell listlessly to the Marlins.

Graziano needs to meet some of these people.

Fox started the ride, put the Dodgers in a position to win. But then Graziano--who became the new boss with O’Malley’s blessing--tried to emulate Fox’s aggression and stumbled over his pocket protector.

Some will say the most important day of the season was May 15, the date of the Piazza deal.

I say it was June 2, the day the Seattle Mariner ownership killed the deal for Randy Johnson.

For all of Fred Claire’s mishaps, this was not one of them. The trade was completed. He had acquired Johnson for Ismael Valdes and Wilton Guerrero. It would have transformed the season.

But--and this was finally publicly confirmed recently--Mariner ownership got cold feet at the last minute and killed the trade.

When the Mariners recently got only two minor leaguers from the Houston Astros for Johnson, everyone in that town regretted June 3.

But nobody more than Claire, who three weeks later was fired, with Russell, on the night of the death of the legendary Al Campanis.

A death, by the way, which Graziano called “a peripheral event.”

A firing, by the way, which was fully approved by O’Malley, who said he would have done the same thing if he still owned the team, his words tarnishing a once-proud legacy.

Would Claire have been able to complete the Johnson deal later in the summer if he had not been fired? The Mariners would have told him to call collect.

Would Russell’s experience have helped during a playoff race that his teams went through in each of the last two years? Of course.

Instead, Graziano had to mark his spot, and then Lasorda had to mark his spot, and now, the Dodgers are a team that none of us understands.

An unknown corpse.

Do I want a miracle? Don’t all Dodger fans? I would love the chance to walk into a victorious clubhouse in October and say I was wrong.

But that’s not happening, and Fox must move smartly.

The new general manager should be a former world champion who can combine Lasorda’s baseball knowledge with an understanding of everything else--local hero Bob Watson would fit.

The manager should have old Dodger roots with a new Dodger attitude--Davey Lopes would fit.

Here’s betting the Fox people are embarrassed enough to spend this winter fixing all this.

Until then, feel free to spend your money watching the last chaotic, bloody days of a regime anxiously looking for the helicopters.

Me, I’m saving up for spring training.

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

WITH PIAZZA

Games left: 41

Record with Piazza: 19-22

Batting average: .248

ERA: 4.10

Runs per game: 4.29

Place: 3rd in NL West