They Need a Closer and His Name Is Fred

Finish it, Fred.

Fox started it, now you finish it.

Complete the inspirational speech begun by your bosses when they shipped off Mike Piazza for three World Series rings.

End it with a raised fist and a statement that will convince the Dodgers they can win the West.

Acquire Randy Johnson.

Even if it means going against every old-time Dodger bone in your body by giving up Darren Dreifort.

The proposed Dodger trade for the dominating Seattle Mariner pitcher was still in limbo Friday, but it appears their season is already being defined by it.

Amid a giddy confusion that has gripped the Dodger clubhouse like it was two days before Christmas, the truths are these:

The Dodgers are one veteran left-handed starting pitcher from the playoffs.

That starting pitcher, the swaggering Johnson, can be picked up right now for a trade involving youngster Dreifort.

Make it, and General Manager Fred Claire shows that he shares his bosses’ sense of urgency.

Make it, and both the message and the player put this team over the top.

Don’t make it, and much is lost.

Momentum. Belief. Maybe even a season.

Don’t make it, and everyone wonders.

Has the Dodger philosophy really changed?

Maybe, to them, the Piazza deal was nothing more than pulling a splinter. Maybe they weren’t trying to improve the record as much as the ratings.

Now that the town is juiced about the team again, maybe the bosses are willing to let us simmer through a summer of chasing the hated Padres and Giants.

Who cares what happens, as long as we’re all watching again? Maybe two weeks ago, the Dodgers were trying to make a splash, not a champion.

Well, if they really wanted a champion, they now make this deal.

Once the talks became public, the team and the town learned what wondrous thoughts Claire was thinking, making it even more imperative that he finish that thought.

When the news of the proposed trade first broke, the names mentioned from the Dodgers were Hideo Nomo and either Todd Hollandsworth or Roger Cedeno.

This was an easy one. Claire could have done that from his car phone.

Then it appears the Mariners were getting a tad more demanding, asking for Ismael Valdes and Wilton Guerrero.

Again, though, an easy one. Claire could have made that from the dugout phone.

But now, it seems, the Mariners are getting wise and asking the Dodgers for their newest crush. Claire needs to sit down for this one.

In his last three starts, all since Charles Johnson began directing that hard slider, Dreifort is 3-0 with a 1.24 earned-run average.

But before those starts, he was 0-4 with a 4.61 ERA. And in his career before now, he was 6-11 with a 4.12 ERA. And for the rest of his career, he will work with a reconstructed elbow.

Certainly, Dreifort is 26, and beginning to fulfill the tremendous promise he held when the Dodgers made him the No. 2 pick in the amateur draft five years ago.

But Johnson is a promise kept.

Johnson is 10 strikeouts and two walks and a buzz that lasts for days.

Johnson, when his mind is right, which it would be here, is a great moment waiting to happen.

Johnson will soon be 35, and might not be here long.

But Johnson is now.

It is hoped these new Dodgers, realizing the emptiness of substituting rookie-of-the-year awards for championships, are also about now.

Because in baseball, you don’t choose the year you’re going to win a title. That year chooses you.

The trade for the three World Series rings seemed like the start of that sort of year.

Finish it, Fred.

“I remember 1984,” Jack McKeon growled Friday.

He is the manager of the visiting Cincinnati Reds, but he made his name as general manager of the San Diego Padres.

Trader Jack, they called him. He made some of the biggest trades and free-agent signings in baseball. Engineered the sorry Padres into a World Series in that year he was remembering.

He remembered how he had added Steve Garvey and Rich Gossage and then, a couple of days before the 1984 season, pulled the trigger with the New York Yankees on a trade for Graig Nettles.

“Before that trade, the players thought we could win,” he remembered. “The day of that trade, they knew we could win.

“When you have a chance to make a trade like that, you forget next year. You go for it now. You may not be around next year.”

This is that kind of trade.

Randy Johnson, who pitched well again Friday in Tampa Bay, could be on the Dodger Stadium mound Wednesday against the St. Louis Cardinals. Staring down Mark McGwire. Think they could sell a few tickets for that one?

Later this season, he could be staring down left-handed hitters in San Diego and San Francisco by the named of Tony Gwynn, Steve Finley and Barry Bonds.

Sure, Dreifort could become Claire’s worst nightmare. He could become Pedro Martinez.

But for the organization’s sake, it is a bullet he needs to bite.

Besides, Fred, by taking on all that salary in the Piazza trade, your bosses have already set the standard for big-budget productions.

Don’t worry if Dreifort, like Martinez, becomes a Cy Young Award winner.

This winter, while celebrating postseason success, Fox will just buy you another one.