Russell Is Sick of Being Patient

It’s as if Bill Russell is standing at second base again, waiting to turn a double play, and he sees it coming, barreling down from 90 feet away, trouble.

A glimmer of spikes, a scowl, a high slide and Russell makes a decision.

He will not jump out of the way.

Not this year. Not with his future and the future of Dodger culture on the line.

The pressure is coming, running hard, new ownership and weary fans and last chances.

Russell has one more shot. The Dodger Way has one more shot. Another September collapse, and Fox turns everything into something else, maybe even takes away the blue.

The Dodger manager has decided, he will hang in there like the Bill Russell of 20 years ago.

He will not jump out of the way.

If he goes down, it will be while kicking somebody in the teeth.

“Last year I think I was too . . . patient,” Russell said this week, searching for the right word, finding it. “This year, I cannot be that patient. The players cannot be that patient. I told them that. This is a big year for all of us.”

Last September, particularly during the five-game losing streak against San Francisco and Colorado that essentially ended the Dodgers’ season, Russell played not to lose.

Remember the failure to run for Mike Piazza in the 10th inning in that season-turning loss in San Francisco?

Remember Darren Lewis trying to bunt in the ninth inning when a fly ball would have tied it on that wild Saturday against the Rockies?

Russell made mistakes. But unlike other managers in their first full season, he was not too egotistical to eventually admit it.

He says he spent this winter thinking about the collapse, learning from it.

This season, he says he will be more aggressive, playing only to win. And win quickly.

“I compare what I’m going through as a manager to what you go through as a player,” Russell said. “You learn. You develop. You get better. That’s what I’m trying to do.”

He is not just saying it, he is showing it.

* The third exhibition game, Piazza played all nine innings at catcher.

Risky? Yes. Would Russell be ripped for the next month if Piazza had pulled a hamstring in the ninth inning? Yes.

But he was fine, and Russell’s message was conveyed.

The Dodgers will be in shape in April, a time when this group of players often relaxes and claims, “Judge us by the end of the season.”

Said Russell: “Everybody talks about the games we lost last September. Just as important are those games we lost in April.”

They were 13-11 last April. In the nine years since their last World Series championship, they have gone 90-100 in April.

This is a team that starts each marathon with a light jog. Russell wants everyone to know that this will change.

“Everything starts March 31 in St. Louis . . . and everybody starts playing hard March 31 in St. Louis,” he said. “I have told them this. I want them to be ready for it.”

* Roger Cedeno came to spring training as the starting center fielder. But by the second exhibition game, Russell was sticking Wilton Guerrero in there and calling the job up for grabs.

“Nobody has anything given to them around here this year,” Russell said. “If we feel the need to make a switch somewhere, we will make it.”

Todd Hollandsworth should watch himself in left field. Antonio Osuna, new contract or not, will not be allowed to continually torch games as Todd Worrell did last season.

* During games at Holman Stadium, Tom Lasorda has been as difficult to find as shade.

This has not been Russell’s decision, but this has made it Russell’s team.

From the nameplate above his office door, to the way he strides through the clubhouse, to how he points his bat and barks orders on the field.

Lasorda, you’ll remember, was even in the limelight last season because of his Hall of Fame induction.

But thanks to management’s still-strange decision to cut him out of major league decisions, a natural evolution has occurred.

The former manager, when he has been here, mostly has been hanging around minor leaguers. The other day Lasorda was engaged in a loud conversation outside the clubhouse, and everyone looked up.

What used to be background noise is now startling noise.

The Dodger voice is now a low twang.

“We really feel that,” third baseman Todd Zeile said. “There is no question who is running things. You can tell, Billy is a lot more confident this year.”

How any of this works during the regular season, of course, is anyone’s guess.

Will the laid-back Dodgers respond to this win-today challenge from their boss?

Knowing he is the boss, will they refrain from hollering at him in the dugout in the manner of pitchers Ismael Valdes and Pedro Astacio last year?

Will Russell remember last September in the ninth inning of close games in July?

Will Russell truly be unafraid to juggle the lineup and use a much-improved bench when times are tough?

He took a lot of flak last year for using Eddie Murray as a pinch-hitter in late-season situations, but that is one thing for which he cannot be blamed. Whom else did he have?

This year, will he take advantage of Thomas Howard, Mike Devereaux and Paul Konerko in those roles?

“In some ways, things will be different, because the makeup of this team is different,” Russell said.

The makeup of the manager also seems different. Russell seems more ornery this year, less willing to accept failure, more determined to fix things no matter who gets mad.

No matter who owns the team, the job of Dodger manager is still one of the most prestigious in sports.

It’s comforting to know that an old Dodger apparently will fight to keep it.