Bonds Uproar Is a Tribute to Rivalry

In 1962 in St. Louis, Dodger Maury Wills stole a base that broke a record that had lasted 47 years.

The celebration lasted all of two minutes.

“Just long enough for the groundskeepers to run out, bring in the base, and bring out a new one,” said Wills, who broke Ty Cobb’s single-season record with his 97th swipe. “In the spirit of the game, they played on.”

There was a chance that tonight at Dodger Stadium, Barry Bonds could have hit a home run that broke a record that has lasted only three years.

Yet baseball officials wanted to halt the game and hold a celebration that would make Maury Wills blush.

Pomp, circumstance, everything but a tearful hug from Mark McGwire’s son.

The Dodgers said no.

Something about the spirit of the game. Something about playing on.

And, of course, something about proclaiming, “Get your hands off me, you damned dirty Giants.”

Stated Derrick Hall, Dodger senior vice president: “We will not allow the game to be stopped.”

That was on Monday.

By Tuesday, the politically correct police were heckling them like a bunch of liquored guys in rumpled Mays jerseys.

How dare the Dodgers deny honor to their fellow man! How dare they tread on unity during these times of troubles!

The Dodgers are petty! The Dodgers are rude! The Dodgers are downright un-American!

They are?

Did not our very President urge us to return to normal?

Um, people, this is normal.

The Dodgers and Giants hate each other.

During times when nothing else makes sense, we need for them to continue hating each other.

None of this should matter now, of course, as Bonds went homerless Tuesday and would need four jacks tonight to break Mark McGwire’s record of 70.

But in this town, when it comes to the Giants, it always matters.

You ask most Dodger fans, if Bonds hit an important homer here, he would be lucky if the organization even allows him to circle the bases.

You ask those Dodger fans who filled my e-mail screen Tuesday, Bonds should be walked every time from now until the end of the season, even if it means forcing in the winning run in the final inning of the final game.

Here, the guy is on the verge of inflating one of baseball’s most famous marks, and he was being heckled from the packed left-field pavilion Tuesday as if he had just deflated a beach ball.

It’s silly. It’s fun. And it’s so unlike us.

Folks in these parts usually don’t get worked up over outsiders. After all, most of us are outsiders ourselves.

Other towns jeer us and mock us without ever quite realizing that we’re never quite paying attention.

They chant, “Beat L.A.”

We reply, “What was your name again?”

All these teams here, and only two current and deep rivalries.

We have USC-UCLA.

And we have Dodgers-Giants.

To stop a game at Chavez Ravine for a Giant celebration would be to not only violate the integrity of the pennant race, but the spirit of something rare.

“Some people just don’t remember,” said Ralph Branca Tuesday with a sigh.

Earlier a Giant official was telling the story of how, when the Dodgers came to Candlestick, there used to be 15,000 extra fans.

“Where are they the rest of the year?” asked a new employee.

“They hate baseball,” said the official.

“Then why are they here?”

“They hate the Dodgers worse.”

It works both ways, as evidenced Monday night, after Bonds’ 67th homer was caught in the right-field corner by an apparent Dodger fan from Simi Valley.

He was approached by Giant officials who reminded him that, because the ball wasn’t marked, the minute he walked out of the stadium it would be worthless.

In exchange for the worthless ball, they offered him four Bonds autographed balls.

The Dodger fan kept the worthless ball.

Mike Krukow, the Giant broadcaster and former player who understands the rivalry, had the perfect reaction to the Dodgers’ celebration snub.

“I saw the story this morning and just laughed,” he said. “I thought, ‘How typical.”’

Typical, in that this is just not about the higher ideals of preserving the sanctity of a nine-inning game.

It’s also about payback.

With these two teams, it’s always about payback.

The Giants did two things that infuriated the Dodgers this year.

They used a cheap telescope and stole signs ... oh, no, sorry, that was 1951.

They watered down the basepaths ... oops, that was 1962.

This is about two recent incidents, beginning April 17, when Bonds hit his 500th homer in the eighth inning against the Dodgers at Pacific Bell Park.

The Giants held up the game for around 10 minutes to celebrate the achievement, leaving the Dodgers and pitcher Terry Adams standing on the field in a one-run game.

The Giants eventually won, 3-2, and the Dodgers were steamed.

“I’ve was there during the Sosa and McGwire chase, and they handled things a lot better,” said Adams, a former Chicago Cub. “The proper thing would have been to finish the game and celebrate later.”

The second incident occurred later in the summer, when the Giants asked the Dodgers to participate in a throwback day celebrating Bobby Thomson’s pennant-winning, 1951 homer.

They paid Branca and Thomson to show up, and asked the Dodgers to contribute by wearing throwback jerseys.

The Dodgers refused, and thought the Giants were insulting for asking them to take part in a celebration of one of the worst days in franchise history.

None of it mattered when the Sept. 16 game was postponed because of the terrorist attacks. Neither Branca nor Thomson could attend the rescheduled game, so the promotion has been canceled.

Bob Daly, the Dodger chairman and a former Brooklyn guy, has made some of these decisions in an attempt to restore tradition to the embattled locals.

But there are those who wonder if this is the right time or place.

“What happened to us all singing, ‘God Bless America?”’ asked Eric Davis, a Giant and former Dodger. “Weren’t we just standing side together holding that flag? Is this the right time to be turning against one another?”

Don Newcombe, former Dodger pitcher and current club community relations director, also wondered.

“I support whatever my club decides ... but I would also love to see the Dodgers be the pros that they always are and always will be,” Newcombe said. “I would love to see us honor him.”

And so they shall.

If Barry Bonds hits any sort of landmark home run, he is free to taunt the beaten Dodger pitcher by tackily pirouetting out of the batter’s box.

Surely he remembers how.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.