Tracy Satisfied With the Current Format

It might seem unfair to a team like the Dodgers, who played for nearly eight months, all the while defying the critics who said they didn’t have the talent to reach the postseason.

Yet with the Dodgers heading into tonight’s second game of the best-of-five division series down 1-0 to the St. Louis Cardinals and staring at the possibility of seeing their magnificent season disappear in three games, Dodger Manager Jim Tracy is not about to call for a revision of the format to expand the first round to best-of-seven, as the NBA has done.

“I realize that a short series can be over quickly,” said Tracy, “but I’ve heard a lot of complaints about best-of-seven as well.

“Sometimes it can be an advantage. For example, we can stick with our three best pitchers in this series.”

The time required for the possibility of additional games could also be a problem.

“When are they going to finish the World Series, in November?” Tracy said

“Or do you start the season earlier in April when it’s cold on the East Coast and there is a lot of rain? Or do you go back to 154 regular-season games?”

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Closer Eric Gagne, last year’s Cy Young Award winner, is clearly the Dodgers’ best pitcher. He is also their closer.

So, logically, to get Gagne into the game, the Dodgers have to be ahead or tied. Or at least close.

If the Dodgers don’t do any better tonight than they did in Game 1, in which St. Louis scored five runs in the third inning and cruised to a victory, it will be tough to find a spot to put Gagne on the mound

“It’s frustrating,” Gagne said.

If Dodger fortunes in this series grow even bleaker, might they, in desperation, return Gagne to his former role as a starter? Not a chance.

“I really wasn’t good,” Gagne said.

In parts of three seasons before 2002, Gagne started 48 games and didn’t finish any of them. In the last three seasons, including this one, Gagne has saved 152 games, including a major-league record 84 in a row.

So he will sit and wait and hope the Dodgers can find him some useful employment.

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The Cardinals are 7-1 in division series games at Busch Stadium, and have won all three division series played there. But the Cardinals won’t be dominating too much longer at Busch.

At least, not at this Busch Stadium

Opened in 1966, the stadium will give way to a new Busch Stadium in 2006.

Being built next door to the current structure at a cost of $345 million ($300 million privately financed by the Cardinals), the new stadium will seat 46,600, around 2,500 more than the stadium now in use.

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Tickets for possible National League championship series games at Dodger Stadium go on sale Friday. Stadium gates will open at 8 a.m., and at 8:30 numbered wristbands will be distributed to fans in Parking Lot 10.

A random lottery will be held at 9:30 a.m. to determine priority for ticket sales at 10 a.m. Tickets will also be available at 10 a.m. at www.dodgers.com and at (323) 224-1448.