Once Again, Dodgers Are Left Holding the Bag

Draw the shades. Hang your head. It has happened again.

The final big delivery of the baseball season came rattling through our neighborhood Tuesday, a truck filled with hope, history and some serious hitting.

Their noses pressed to the glass, the Dodgers watched as it headed toward their driveway.

Then stopped next door.

Yes, Brian Giles is coming to Southern California.

To play for the -- cough, choke, gag -- San Diego Padres.

The heavy-swinging Pittsburgh Pirate outfielder so coveted by the Dodgers was acquired for a price far less than what the Dodgers were offering a month ago.

And now he will swing his bat against those Dodgers in seven of the final 16 games of the season.

Just another punch in the gut of an organization whose aura, once as big as Tom Lasorda, has shrunk to the size of Jason Romano.

“We definitely have the talent to get into the postseason,” claimed Dodger boss Dan Evans on Tuesday upon hearing the news, a statement that could be interpreted as a subtle challenge to his manager.

But the Giles affair reminds us that the Dodger problems are not about one person, but a legacy, fans continuing to pay for 15 years worth of sins, one anguishing August at a time.

“We were powerless,” Evans said of this latest Padre insult, and in so many ways, he’s right.

The Dodgers were literally powerless to acquire Giles this week, because the trading deadline had passed, and the lower-ranking Padres claimed him off waivers first, and the Pirates had to deal with only them.

But the Dodgers also could have acquired him last month before that deadline passed. Yet they were powerless in both their lack of bullets and gumption to use them.

Back then, Giles was the guy they really wanted. Forget Aaron Boone. Forget Mike Lowell.

Giles was the guy with the consistent power, averaging 35 homers and 100 runs batted in in his four full major-league seasons before being injured earlier this year.

Giles was the guy with the serious-as-a-broken-bat attitude.

Giles would have worked in the clubhouse, with the fans, and especially in a lineup that needed him the way Shawn Green needs a home run.

Some say they could have had him for Odalis Perez and double-A pitching prospect Edwin Jackson. Others claim they needed to add double-A left-hander Greg Miller, another rising star.

Whatever, Evans refused to give up the future for this season, thus risking one of the greatest summers by a pitching staff in history for the sake of the kids.

Had the farm system been that decimated? Could Evans have not afforded even one young arm to pay Eric Gagne’s way into the postseason?

Little did he know, perhaps, that this future would include the Pirates trading Giles for struggling young pitcher Oliver Perez and average triple-A outfielder Jason Bay and a player to be named later.

Outbid for half the price.

So it goes for the Dodgers, who haven’t made a big late-season trade since the last time they won an important late-season game, and you know when that was.

In the middle of August 1988, Fred Claire dealt Pedro Guerrero to the St. Louis Cardinals for John Tudor.

A month later, Tudor had helped pitch the Dodgers into the playoffs, where they were the last team standing.

Imagine that. A team so filled with talent that they could trade a Pedro Guerrero during a pennant race.

Al Campanis can be thanked for that. His shame-filled departure in 1987 has directly led to the many shameful years that have followed.

An old-fashioned baseball mentality left the organization along with the man they called “Chief,” and has never quite returned. The Dodgers no longer make season-changing trades, they can only watch, and what a sight it has been.

Three years ago, the Arizona Diamondbacks made a late-season trade for pitcher Curt Schilling, and look what eventually happened.

Two years ago, the San Francisco Giants made a late deal for pitcher Jason Schmidt, and who can forget where that led?

Next month when the Padres come to town, add Brian Giles to the list of cover-your-eyes attractions.

*

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