Here’s Hoping He Isn’t Just a One-Hit Wonder

You know that nagging

feeling when you can’t figure out the artist or title for a song? It’s in your head, you can’t get rid of it, but you have no idea who sings it?

Eric Karros has felt it for years when it comes to an otherwise forgettable tune from the early 1980s called “What People Do For Money.” And it’s the same level of frustration he has felt at the plate this year.

Karros has been a glaring deficiency in this pleasant surprise of a season for the team. You could even call him a weak spot.

A guy who had been good for at least 30 home runs and 100 RBIs in four fo the previous five seasons won’t get anywhere close to those numbers. In RBI situations lately he’s been stranding more people than 20 episodes’ worth of “Survivor.”

Thanks to a coincidental music selection by the Dodger Stadium deejay (and a little searching on the Internet by a curious columnist), Karros finally has the answer to his musical quest.

And maybe, just maybe, he has found his groove again.

After struggling all week simply to put the ball in play, Karros came through with a single off Chicago Cub closer Tom Gordon to drive in Gary Sheffield and produce a 3-2 Dodger victory in the bottom of the 10th inning Sunday. The single brought an uncharacteristic amount of fist-pumping emotion from Karros.

It was a crucial game. Yet on a day when they had to beat the top team in the National League Central Division to stay ahead of the Arizona Diamondbacks and San Francisco Giants in the NL West, the talk in the Dodger clubhouse kept coming back to Karros.

“Good to see EK come through with the big hit,” said Marquis Grissom, who had a big hit of his own with a fourth-inning home run.

Manager Jim Tracy said: “I think if we are going to win, we are going to have to have him.”

For all intents and purposes, they haven’t had him this season. Not the Karros who has hit more home runs for the Dodgers than anyone else since they moved to Los Angeles. His problematic back has plagued him, and since June 20 he had only three home runs and 18 RBIs in 127 at-bats.

He struck out in his first two at-bats Sunday, grounded weakly to first in his third. In the bottom of the eighth, Cub Manager Don Baylor intentionally walked Shawn Green to load the bases and get to Karros, and Karros struck out again.

In the bottom of the 10th, with two out and Sheffield at second base, Baylor walked Green again.

“He just doesn’t look 100% right now,” Baylor said.

Tracy said he didn’t consider pinch-hitting for Karros, just as he hasn’t given any thought to taking him out of the lineup.

“Trace keeps throwing me out there,” Karros said. “I’m still getting opportunities. Fortunately I was able to take advantage of that last one.”

We might need to give a little credit to the deejay, Rob Marsalis.

Marsalis made a new CD from his record collection at home and played it during batting practice Sunday. It included “What People Do For Money”, which he had as a single. On vinyl.

Karros has liked the song ever since he was in high school. He knows all the words (Which mostly consist of saying “What peo-ple do for moneyyyyyy”). But he couldn’t find it in the music stores then. He has looked through the bins periodically over the years with no luck.

When he heard it Sunday, he asked Sheffield if he knew the group. He didn’t. Karros had a public relations staffer call up to Marsalis and audio engineer Deekay Kendrick, but they didn’t know either.

It turns out the group was called Divine Sounds.

And it turned out to be the musical prelude to Karros’ big single, blaring through the loudspeakers as he walked to the batters’ box.

‘He hadn’t had a hit all game,” Marsalis said. “They walked Shawn Green, because they knew he wouldn’t hit the ball. ‘What People Do For Money’, it just fit. OK, show us what you can do.”

Karros knows he hasn’t shown much this season.

“I’ve never gone through anything like this in my career,” he said. “Fortunately we’ve had other guys pick me up this year. I’ve said it all along: I’d trade [good] numbers any day of the week to be where we are now.”

His numbers now are a .241 batting average with 10 home runs and 46 RBIs. “I feel like there’s different ways I can contribute,” he said. “The last couple of years it’s been offensively. It’s been how many home runs, how many RBIs.

“Would I like to have those type of numbers and be on a winning team? Without question. But I’m not doing that, so it’s defensively, I have to try, and in situational at-bats I have to try to have productive at-bats.”

He did actually win a footrace to first on a grounder by Delino DeShields in the first. But deep inside, Karros knows the Dodgers need him--and are paying him a guaranteed $21.5 million through 2003--to get hits.

It’s what he does for money. And with the pennant race on, perhaps he’s finally ready to face the music.

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J.A. Adande can be reached at j.a.adande@latimes.com