For the Record, Dodgers Put Hate Above History

Let’s see now, so the Dodgers and Giants have this heated rivalry, and now Barry Bonds might break baseball’s home run mark here, and the Dodgers want the emphasis to be on hate, as we know it in sports, rather than celebration.

It might be a different world we live in, as some suggest now, but not here in Petty Land with the bitter Dodgers.

A moment for baseball, a record highlight that could stand on videotape for a year, or maybe 30, is clearly not as important as the ill will that burns deeply in the pit of this organization.

You ask the Dodgers about this, and they will tell you, “you just don’t understand,” the Giants and Dodgers have been going at it for so long, the Giants are big meanies, and it’s taken its toll.

The Dodgers had to stand around for 10 minutes earlier this season, and they were really ticked, because the Giants chose to celebrate Bonds’ 500th home run.

The Dodgers were trampled in the Bobby Thomson crush and then miffed 50 years later when the Giants asked them to join the anniversary party.

So much Juan Marichal-like history to overcome, and now it’s the Dodgers turn to tell the Giants, “take that,” and all in the name of a great rivalry--like that competitive rub makes this something loftier than the petty move it really is.

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AS I understand it, this whole thing began when major league baseball took a look at who was pitching this week against Bonds, and rattling off the names of James Baldwin, Chan Ho Park and Terry Mulholland, MLB realized Bonds might homer in every at-bat and shatter Mark McGwire’s record.

So MLB contacted the Dodgers, and asked what they had in mind for such a storied moment--Fox or ESPN probably cutting in to further document the drama for baseball fans everywhere in the country--only to learn the Dodgers are still trying to recover from Thomson’s blast a half century ago.

Derrick Hall, the team’s PR specialist who must have scripted much of what Dodger Boy had to say by the sound of things, said, “We will not allow the game to be stopped or have a ceremony on the field. We’re in the middle of a pennant race ...”

I was hoping to break it gently to the guys, you know, maybe stick a fork in each one of the Dodger lockers, but apparently they need it straight: If you’re reluctant to celebrate because you think you still have a chance to make the playoffs, break out the Bonds’ balloons, the Dodger party is over.

The Dodgers’ snub, of course, has nothing to do with the pennant race, which makes it tough to believe anything Hall has to say. If Sammy Sosa were in Bonds’ position, the Cubs were locked in a wild-card chase with the Dodgers and he set the record here, you know the Dodgers would have paid homage in a post-game soiree. Imagine the PR debacle from blowing off Sosa.

But this is Bonds, not only hated but a hated Giant, and as Hall said, “We don’t believe our fans want to sit through a ceremony for the Giants [here].”

Some would, maybe some wouldn’t. When Park played the role of chicken Tuesday, firing eight balls in the first 10 pitches he threw to Bonds, Dodger fans were booing Park for depriving them of what they came to see.

And when Bonds hit his 67th home run Monday night, it was interesting to note that when he rounded third base, most everyone in Dodger Stadium was cheering, probably thrilled at the chance to tell friends and family for the rest of their lives that they were there when Bonds closed oh-so-close to McGwire.

I’m surprised Dodger management didn’t demand everyone leave the park.

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USC COACH Pete Carroll not only defended the decision not to run the ball at the end of Saturday’s game and take away Oregon’s final timeout, but he said his team had “practiced and were prepared for just that exact situation.”

I’d hate to see what would have happened had they not been prepared.

Carroll said he was on the headset with offensive genius Norm Chow and agreed with the call that had Carson Palmer rolling left, eventually throwing the ball out of bounds, stopping the clock and saving a timeout for Oregon.

“Did someone tell Palmer to fall down before that play?” I asked, and Carroll said Palmer had been told, but instead made a “battlefield decision” to throw the ball out of bounds. Besides showing that Palmer doesn’t listen to the brass, it ruined USC’s chances of posting a huge win against the Ducks.

Carroll didn’t agree. He said the media was making too much of the play. That makes him wrong twice: 1, for approving the poor play; 2, for not admitting it.

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GLAD TO see Michael Jordan is back to school Kobe Bryant. I was afraid Kobe might not get the proper education.

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BRUCE McNALL, the former King owner free now after a stint in prison for fraud, told Times’ reporter Larry Stewart that Tuesday’s Dodger game was his first sporting event since being sprung. McNall said he’s living in Malibu--they must pay well in prison--and is now writing a book. What a wonderful Christmas gift.

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IN HER second “On The Job” column for Street & Smith’s Sports Business Journal, Kathryn Schloessman apparently ran out of subjects, spending the entire piece on the wit and wisdom of Times’ sports editor Bill Dwyre. It was a short story, obviously, but it did offer this quote from Dwyre: “If you love to write, then doing it--doing it well and on deadline--is better than sex.”

I guess that explains why every time Dwyre approaches one of our editors with a story, they complain of a headache.

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TODAY’S LAST word comes in an e-mail from Suzanne:

“I know you just write stuff to upset people, but the only way the NHL would be a minor sport, as you called it in your column, is you if you were covering it. Hockey is obviously too complicated for you to comprehend. Leave it to real reporters.”

You sound upset.

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T.J. Simers can be reached at t.j.simers@latimes.com.