As Manny says, Dodgers have more work to do

LOS ANGELES -- Manny Ramirez sat at his locker Thursday afternoon, holding court and savoring what must have been the weirdest pennant clinching he'd ever been part of.

How often, after all, do you clinch your division seven hours or so before you can actually pop the champagne corks to celebrate it?

"I found out from somebody in the elevator," he cracked.

That's how he'd learned that the Arizona Diamondbacks had been officially eliminated from contention Thursday afternoon, losing 12-3 at St. Louis.

But as bizarro as MannyWorld can be, and as big kid-like as Ramirez often acts -- part of his charm, you know -- the Los Angeles Dodgers left fielder was dead serious, and deadly accurate, when asked how this compared to his other championships.

"We haven't won a championship yet," he said. "We're just going to the playoffs, going to the first round. We've got to go past two more rounds and go to the big dance. That's when it counts."

Maybe those words should be printed on every wall in the Dodgers clubhouse, in big, bold, blue letters.

Yes, the Dodgers have had an exhilarating season, or at least an exhilarating two months. They've earned their third postseason berth in five years, have regained relevance in the nation's most diverse and fickle sports market and with Ramirez on board have not only a batting order to be feared but also a team that's awfully fun to watch.

But while the Dodgers don't carry as much of a stigma as certain other teams headed for the postseason -- yes, Cubs fans, we feel your century's worth of pain -- they do have to contend with the reminders that they've won one playoff game in 20 years.

"That's a lot of baggage, I know," Manager Joe Torre said. "But you know what? If your club is out there ready to play, preparing to play, I don't want to have to carry years of history that they have to make up for. I don't think that's right. Let's go out there and be the best team we can be, and hopefully that's good enough."

Then again, Torre's teams haven't won a postseason series since 2004. Does that count as at least a carry-on?

This is the bottom line: If the Dodgers again go out in the first round -- as they have in 2006, and '04, and '96, and '95 -- they might as well not have bothered. They will be back at square one.

"We want our real celebration to be for a world championship," owner Frank McCourt said Thursday. "That's what this franchise is about. Everyone knows that. We have a bigger thing to celebrate.

"It's time for this franchise to get to the next level."

After all, how many times can you keep replaying Kirk Gibson's home run on the video board in left field? Isn't it time for a fresh set of World Series highlights?

And why shouldn't these Dodgers -- with a revitalized offense, a pitching staff that's solid at the top of the rotation and deep at the back end, and a month's worth of momentum and energy -- be The Team Nobody Wants To Face in the 2008 postseason?

"I think we're more experienced than we were two years ago in some ways," General Manager Ned Colletti said. "Once a player has been through the postseason, they understand the dynamics of the day and the game.

"For those who have been here for three years, they've seen one run at it. Then they saw that it's not that easy the second year. With all the struggles they went through last year, they have less reason to take it for granted."

If their memories are long enough, maybe they'll even recall the sour look on Colletti's face after the 2006 Dodgers were swept by the Mets.

The sense of urgency this time should be obvious for another reason. After all, there's absolutely no guarantee that certain key short-term rentals will be back for another shot in 2009.

Which brings us back to No. 99's locker, and the message his teammates should be heeding.

"You want to win it all," Ramirez said. "That's when it counts. That's when you get that feeling you can't even describe, when you win the World Series like we did in Boston. Any time you go to the playoffs you want to win it all because you don't know when you're gonna go back."

If a guy with two World Series rings in four years can't make that message convincingly, who can?

(Contact Jim Alexander at jalexander@PE.com.)

(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)