It turns out that Peter, Paul & Mary were right in their wonderful song, “Right Field.” It’s important, you know. There were many story lines in the way the Cardinals embarrassed the Dodgers 9-0 to win the 2013 National League Championship Series. Rookie Michael Wacha, making just his 12th major league start, extended his scoreless streak in the series to 13-2/3 innings, defeated probable Cy Young winner Clayton Kershaw and was named NLCS MVP. Matt Carpenter set the tone for the Cardinals with a stubborn 11-pitch at bat in the third inning that ended with a double to right. Kershaw ended up throwing 48 pitches in the frame, which ended with a 4-0 Cardinal lead. The Cardinals played flawless ball, and it was eerie that they won by the same score that they lost by when the Giants eliminated them in game 7 last year. But there is no better way to fully appreciate the Cardinals superiority and the Dodgers futility than to examine the contrasting games of right fielders Carlos Beltran of the Cardinals and Yasiel Puig of the Dodgers.

The 36-year-old eight-time All-Star Beltran, playing in his fourth league championship series and his 2,109th career game, now has 37 RBI and 44 runs in 45 post-season games. Everything he does on the field is smart and smooth despite limitations from reconstructed knees — his swing, defense and base-running acumen are an instructional video. Beltran finished Friday’s clincher with three hits, including a single that drove in Carpenter for the first run. During one of the first few games of Beltran’s short stint with the Giants he came in hard on a soft sinking liner to right. As he dove, a knee brace dug into the grass, and it looked for a second as though he could have been seriously injured. Thus, it was perhaps the most stunning moment of the series when Beltran went all-out in right-center  field to snare a drive by Juan Uribe, and then crashed to the ground with a jarring slide on his stomach as his momentum took him off his feet.

Puig’s day may very well come. There seems to be too much talent for him not to some day be talked about with the respect that is bestowed on his fellow right fielder. But that day is going to have to wait. Puig’s biggest game in his young pro career was a disaster. He made two errors and struck out twice. He twice tried to throw runners out at the plate that he didn’t really have a shot at, allowing the batter to take an extra base. One of the throws almost landed in the seats near the Cardinals dugout. But one really can’t pin the Dodger debacle on Puig. Kershaw couldn’t survive a five-run fifth, giving up seven runs and 10 hits. Dodgers leadoff hitter Carl Crawford opened the game with a single, but was quickly wiped out when Mark Ellis hit into a double play. A.J. Ellis doubled to start the sixth, but was left stranded. The performance was so uninspiring that you can imagine that many fans watching in Los Angeles switched over to the Disney Channel.

The contrast between the clubs goes beyond the right fielders. The Cardinals had game, the Dodgers had glitz. The Cardinals played with their heads down, the Dodgers said look at me. The Cardinals were old school, the Dodgers were stay after school. The sideshow of Mickey Mouse ears, a bizarre lineup intro by comedian Will Ferrell at Hollywood Stadium, er, make that Dodger Stadium, and the bat-flipping Dodgers got more attention than they deserve because the series didn’t quite live up to the hype. And the weirdest moment of all the extra-curricular activities came after the game six anthem, when Cardinals pitcher Joe Kelly got into a stare-down standoff with Dodgers reserve Scott Van Slyke. The background story is that Kelly by tradition is the last player to stand at attention for the anthem. The Dodgers decided to challenge that by having Van Slyke wait him out. The astonished plate umpire, Greg Gibson, had to send both bad boys to their dugouts so the game could start. Van Slyke claimed victory, saying Kelly moved first. Van Slyke explained his actions by saying ” it was something fun to start the game off.”

It was the only fun of the night for the Dodgers.

In 2004, members of the Los Angeles Dodgers came on the field to congratulate the Cardinals players after losing to St. Louis in the National League Division Series. I’ve got a hunch that such a display of sportsmanship won’t be happening from either side in 2013. Wuz up with these Dodgers? Alright, they won game five 6-4 with a four-home run barrage to send the series to St. Louis. Give them credit. I certainly wasn’t ready to see this series that seemed to have so much potential end quietly in five. And after witnessing some more strange Dodger behavior, I’m wondering if just one hard slide or one up and in fastball might trigger an all-out brawl. Adrian Gonzalez always seemed like a classy ballplayer to me, who seemed to go about his business with a lethal swing and a humble, full respect for the game. So I was surprised when he went into the hand gesture thing Tuesday that prompted Cardinal pitcher Adam Wainwright to refer to this as “Mickey Mouse” stuff. Gonzalez wasn’t through, and after whacking a homer in the third inning Wednesday afternoon, he wagged his “Mickey Mouse: ears with another hand gesture on his way to the dugout. If this was the NFL, Gonzalez would get 15 yards for taunting.  Too bad the Cardinals can’t activate former great Bob Gibson to pitch to Gonzalez in game six. I’ve got a feeling that Mickey would end up with an ear ache from one of the no-nonsense Gibson heaters. Confidential note to Don Mattingly: If you are considering using Gonzalez to mentor Yasiel Puig on acting like a professional, you might want to search for another role model

Game 5 notes:

* Speaking of Mattingly, it appears the normally reserved Dodger skipper is surprisingly ready to join Gonzalez and Puig in the act now-think later category. After game five, Mattingly actually said this. “I think if you look at it now we’ve kind of become America’s team, because everyone wants to see a seventh game. Even the fans in St. Louis would like to see a seventh game.” Huh? So the Dodgers have now been anointed by Mattingly as America’s Team. Just to toss in some history here, Bob Ryan of ESPN is credited with designating the Dallas Cowboys as America’s Team while putting together a highlight show in 1978 after seeing people in every stadium wearing Cowboys gear. The name stuck when the CBS announcer used the phrase in a national 1979 Cowboys-St. Louis game. The Atlanta Braves are the only baseball club to try to assume the special title when they used it in 1987 as a marketing tool for their nationally televised games on WTBS. In polls, NFL Super Bowl winners Steelers, Packers and Patriots have all been recommended as America’s Team because of their dominant reigns. Dear Don: The Dodgers haven’t won a World Series title since 1988. Every other team in the West has done so since then. First become the National League’s Team, then let America decide.

* With Magic in the stands and Houdini on the mound, it should not be a surprise that the Dodgers made two Cardinals rallies disappear just like that. Zack Greinke loaded the bases with no outs in the first before dodging disaster with a strike out and a Yadier Molina double play. More trouble was ahead in the third after the Cardinals tied it, but further damage was avoided when the slow-footed Molina repeated his double play grounder. Greinke and Brian Wilson then combined to retire 16 in a row.

* Puig continues to make his presence known even when he is not a major contributor. His very relaxed move toward the ball after lost a fly even had teammates taking notice, and his stare downs with umpires over called strikes are wearing thin.

* A beach ball landed on the field in the seventh. A salute to the original Brian Wilson?

* The Dodgers enter Saturday’s game six with confidence and Kershaw, and an indication that their bats are starting to wake up. Gonzalez, despite his curious sideshow, could be the series-changer with his big-time bat. The homers by Carl Crawford and A.J. Ellis mean that Dodgers throughout the lineup are ready to contribute. And Puig still remains that electrifying presence who can influence a game with one at bat. The storyline of whether the Cardinals will blow another 3-1 series lead is valid, but once the game begins, it’s doubtful that enters any player’s mind. The most important Cardinal on the field Saturday will be rookie starter Michael Wacha, who wasn’t there in 2012. The kid’s biggest obstacle might be to not think about the fact that all of America will be rooting against him as it embraces its new team.

I did not believe what I just saw. OK, Matt Holliday’s towering two-run smash in the third inning in game four wasn’t exactly on par with Kirk Gibson’s off-the-charts blast in the 1988 World Series, which came 25 years ago on Oct. 15. But I still can’t believe it. An actual home run was finally hit in the National League Championship Series. I have nothing against pitching duels. Hey, give me Marichal vs. Spahn in a 16-inning, 1-0 game. It did happen. I won’t yawn or leave early. Or to move it up to modern times, I’ll enjoy the artistry of the Kershaws or Verlanders methodically shutting down the opposition. That’s still riveting baseball. But today it seems like everybody — from the starters to middle relievers to the set-up guy and the closer are all throwing 98 mph. So after 33 innings of the NLCS, it just felt good to watch someone pop one over the fence. Holliday did more than pop one. That one would have easily cleared the 42-foot high left-field fence at the Dodgers  initial home, the Los Angeles Memorial Coliseum. That fence had to be that high  to offset the 250-foot distance made necessary by the odd configuration in the former track and field stadium. The blast, which propelled the Cardinals to a 4-2 win and a 3-1 game series lead, also had to help bury the memories of Holliday’s 2012 NLCS. Not only did the Cardinals blow a 3-1 lead to the Giants, but Holliday became public enemy No. 1 throughout the series after his game two hard slide into Giants second baseman Marco Scutaro. The home run outbreak was contagious. Cardinal reserve outfielder Shane Robinson, all-world as a college player in 2005. but who only had five homers in 352 big league at bats, provided some insurance with a pinch-hit blast into the left field seats. Two home runs in one game. Go crazy! Go crazy!

GAME 4 NOTES:

* While not official, reports indicate Don Mattingly will return in 2014 to manage the Dodgers. It was sort of bad timing, in that the leak came as the Dodgers played a horrible game, including a balk, catcher’s interference and the devastating pickoff of Nick Punto at second base in the 7th inning. After the Reds let Dusty Baker go, I thought the former Dodger might be a fit as Mattingly’s replacement if ownership chose to make a change. I wondered if Baker might be just the man to guide the raw but talented Yasiel Puig, providing a combination of fatherly understanding and tough love. But something happened in the fourth inning which made me think that Mattingly might be just that man after all. Puig reacted with a tone of anger after Lance Lynn’s pitch in the fourth inning sailed up and in. Remember, Puig had not won any admirers from the Cardinals after his look-at-me triple the previous game, so it’s hard to tell if there was a message attached to that fastball. The cameras panned over to Mattingly, and caught a telling moment. Mattingly calmy put his arms out with his palms down, gesturing to Puig to just relax and in effect, get focused on the next pitch. Puig then delivered an RBI single. That moment provided a snapshot of the big picture of the Dodger season, as Mattingly remained the coolest guy in the  locker room during the bad days, setting the stage for the incredible 42-8 Dodger blitz.

* A Giants fan would have trouble concurring with this, but high-intensity games at Dodger Stadium are still special. I recall the enjoyment of that ballpark while seeing some games while visiting Southern California in the 1960s, 1970s and 1980s — years when the Dodgers boasted some of the best names and teams in baseball. Baseball at Dodger Stadium hit bottom in 2011 with the McCourt ownership fiasco, the dropping of attendance and a loss of some of the family experience which culminated in the parking lot attack of a Giants fan. Watching last night, it did feel good to see this storied franchise and its historic ballpark back in the baseball spotlight. Giants fans should be OK with that, since they know better than anyone that Giants vs. Dodgers is best when both teams are packing their stadiums and battling for a post-season spot.

* Is the series over? While the Cardinals surprisingly played mediocre baseball in the first three games despite having a 2-1 advantage, they clearly tightened it up last night, so it’s hard to see how they could blow this one. I can only think of two reasons why the Cardinals might not wrap it up: Greinke and Kershaw. This series has not been a classic. If the two Dodger aces do step up, however, all that might change.

* With the 25th anniversary of Gibson’s legendary homer having just passed, it is worth touching on it one more time. Gibson’s left leg injury barely allowed him to walk when he pinch-hit against the A’s Dennis Eckersely in the bottom of the ninth of game one of the 1988 World Series with the score tied. The great Jack Buck’s call of Gibson’s home run is one of the tops ever in baseball. Alan Trammel, a former Detroit teammate of Gibson’s, predicted the whole thing when the Dodgers signed the slugger in the off season. Said Trammel: He thrives on late-inning pressure situations, He’s going to strike out with the bases loaded, but he’s also going to come through with some of those big hits.” Indeed.

The triple was already well established as the “most exciting play in baseball” going into game three of the National League Championship Series. Scratch that. The “most exciting play in baseball” is now the Yasiel Puig Triple. Puig had struck out in seven of his 11 at bats when he came up in the fourth inning in the Dodgers 3-0 win, so as they say in the sports world, he was due. Upon contact, the youngster flipped his bat and went into his home run trot. The problem with that is that the ball wasn’t even close to a homer, hitting at the base of the right field wall. This is not the first time Puig had chosen to admire one his clouts that didn’t clear the fence. Just a thought: Dodgers fans waved white rally towels, and supporters of Dodgers pitcher Hyun-Jin Ryu waved South Korean flags. Maybe Dodgers manager Don Mattingly can wave a green flag the minute Puig makes contact to remind him to go full throttle right from the starting line. Puig’s Great Adventure was only getting under way. Realizing his gaffe, he went into an Olympic sprinter’s gait, a blur as he dashed around second to third. After arriving at third, Puig stood on the base for the celebration, extending his arms to the sky. You wondered if he expected his teammates to run out on the field and start spraying champagne on him. On his next triple, will he stop at first and second and take a bow before proceeding to third? Puig’s showboating antics leave him an easy target for criticism, but you have to ask yourself: What was the most exciting moment of game three? Puig’s at bats, even his strikeouts, are just a little more entertaining than those of the traditionalists. Any ball hit to right field when he’s out there is worth monitoring for great, bad or ugly. And don’t forget that rifle arm. My only suggestion for Puig is that he borrow Hanley Ramirez’s flak jacket for tonight’s game because the Cardinals might be arriving at Dodger Stadium in a bad mood.

GAME 3 NOTES;

* As if Puig’s three-bagger swagger wasn’t enough, Dodgers first baseman Adrian Gonzalez added his own goofy gyrations after arriving at second base with an RBI double. Gonzalez made gestures that were described by writers as “some hand jive” that “resembled an explosion.” Whatever the meaning of the celebratory display, Cardinals pitcher Adam Wainwright wasn’t pleased. “I saw Adrian doing some Mickey Mouse stuff at second,” Wainwright said. Gonzalez said that was exactly the point, noting that in Southern California, “Mickey Mouse stuff goes. Mickey Mouse is only an hour away.”

* The Cardinals are batting .134, they’ve scored four runs, they’ve gone 13 innings without a run. They let Carl Crawford score from second when they got nonchalant with the relay throw after a bloop hit to center. Right fielder Carlos Beltran let Puig’s shot ricochet by him, turning a double into a triple. Center fielder John Jay and Beltran turned into spectators while converging on a drive to right center, letting the ball fall between them with neither making an effort to make the catch. Daniel Descalso wandered too far off second on a very catchable liner to left, and was doubled off on Crawford’s throw. Boy, it’s no wonder why the Cardinals are down 3-0 and on the verge of elimination. Oh, wait, the Cardinals are actually leading two games to one. But be warned St. Louis, the most trusted man in baseball, Vin Scully, said after the final lout, “The Dodgers are alive and well.”

* One more great stat on the Cardinals, courtesy of Joe Strauss of the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. He wrote that beginning with game 5 against the Giants last year, the Cardinals are hitting .157 with four runs in their last six NLCS games.

* Hanley Ramirez can hit, but his national reputation entering this post season was as a player who got lackadaisical at times and did some weird “goggles” gesture when he did something good. However, Ramirez’s willingness to play with a broken rib while wearing a flak jacket, his contributions to the win and his straightforward, gracious post-game interview might help shift the focus to fact that he can play the game.

* A treat of the TBS coverage has been the pre- and post-game shows hosted by Keith Olbermann. Many have tried, but few have Olbermann’s wit and style in describing the highlights and keeping the conversation of his analysts moving along. Too bad the show can’t be carried over for the World Series — and if the Dodgers make it, they could do the show from Disneyland.

The pitiful offense in the first two games of the NLCS almost makes you yearn for the good old days when the ball and the players were juiced. If a fan tosses a beach ball near home plate at Dodger Stadium on Monday, my guess is that the batter would swing at it and miss. Home runs are so 2012. This is a series for chicks who dig the sacrifice fly. You can thrill some of the baseball fans with overpowering pitching some of the time, but you can’t thrill all of the fans with just overpowering pitching all of the time. In 1858, all-star teams from ball clubs in Brooklyn and New York met in the first ever paid admission baseball games. The three-game series drew 15,000 to a baseball field carved out of the middle of a Long Island race track. The final scores of the games were New York 22-18, Brooklyn 29-8 and New York 29-18. Fans liked these scores, the game caught on and until these first two games of the NLCS, it seemed to be a very exciting sport. Of course, in those Long island games, the pitchers threw underhand and the idea was to let the batters put the ball in play, I say, let’s try that on Monday night. I want 10-9, I want bases-loaded triples, I want to see a ball actually go over the fence in fair territory. And I’m not going to get carried away, having to use up all my adjectives trying to tell the world that the Cy Young Award should now be named the Michael Wacha award. The kid looks good, he’s a nice story, but he’s still more than 500 wins behind Mr. Young.

GAME 2 NOTES:

* The Cardinals are in the driver’s seat with a 2-0 series lead after their 1-0 win, but they’re lucky if their small number of base runners could find home plate with a GPS. St. Louis has four runs in two games. They had two hits Saturday. They didn’t really beat Dodger aces Clayton Kershaw and Zack Greinke, they just survived them. While 2-0 seems formidable, so did 3-1 last post season. The Cardinals then collapsed as the Giants rolled to wins of 5-0, 6-1 and 9-0. Sooner or later, you’ve got to hit. The Cardinals are supposed to be a sound fundamental team — that’s one of the reasons they got this far. But right now, they look like a spring training “B” squad. Center fielder John Jay converted a routine single into a triple by taking a bad angle to the ball; Jay failed to sacrifice a runner when Greinke pounced on his poorly positioned bunt; second baseman David Carpenter’s ill-advised throw to second in game two put the Dodgers on second and third and none out; the Cardinals got a leadoff triple from Carpenter in game two but couldn’t bring him home. Not even Dr. October, aka Carlos Beltran, could do the job. And one more time with Jay: He became the “offensive” hero Saturday with a sacrifice fly after failing on a squeeze bunt attempt with David Freese at third. Jay then had the good fortune to lift a rather short fly ball to left field instead of right field. Freese scored easily as Carl Crawford delivered an off-speed and off-line throw in the vicinity of home plate. Freese would probably not have even tried to score if the ball was hit to right, where you try to advance at your risk by testing the rocket arm of Yasiel Puig.

* Speaking of Puig, I keep thinking about how tough 10 at bats (he’s 0 for 10) can be for a rookie in a big post-season series. A young player can shine in the regular season, but then things can turn dark when the stakes get high as good pitchers bear down and each at bat becomes a pressure situation. Willie Mays faced that reality in the epic 1951 three-game playoff against the Dodgers. Mays hit 20 homers and drove in 68 runs in 121 games after he was called up, helping spark the Giants with his bat, speed and defense. But Mays went just 1 for 10 in the playoff, with no RBIs or extra base hits. This is not to suggest that Puig is or ever will be Willie Mays, but his potential to change the game is just one swing away. Hitting coach Mark McGwire will earn his money if he can explain to Puig during the Sunday off day that the game plan is to work him soft low and outside and then bust him with heat over the inside of the plate. Puig’s mission should be just line-drive type contact — trying to hit three-run homers with nobody on base is not a championship formula.

* The series MVP as of now should go to Cardinals first-game starter Joe Kelly, who drilled Dodger star Hanley Ramirez in the ribs with a fastball. Ramirez entered the NLCS red hot after tomahawking the Braves with an 8 for 16 performance. In games where runs are rare, the loss of Ramirez from that one pitch might be the single biggest moment of the series. This raises the question: Should the Dodgers have retaliated? No one is saying Kelly intended to drill Ramirez, but old school baseball might have drawn a response anyway. Intentional or not, you’ve go to protect your star.

* Game 3 is the biggest game the Dodgers have played in quite a while. Perhaps they should channel their Dodger past for inspiration to break out of their 19-inning scoreless streak. I would direct them to a similar situation in 1962. The Dodgers had Maury Wills, Jim Gilliam, Willie and Tommy Davis, Frank Howard, John Roseboro and others, but they just could not score when it counted. It was game two of the three-game playoff against the Giants, and through five innings the Dodgers trailed 5-0. They had now gone 35 consecutive innings without scoring a run. Then they scored seven times in the sixth to take a 7-5 lead. The Giants tied it, but the Dodgers won it in the ninth. How did the winning run score? You guessed it — a sacrifice fly..

A series that had classic written all over it lived up to the billing in game one as the Cardinals took the marathon contest over the Dodgers 3-2 in 13 innings. The two storied clubs took different routes to the post-season. The Cardinals built their roster from within, with 18 of their 25 players acquired through the draft or signed as amateur free agents. The Dodgers wrote big checks. That contrast, coupled with the more than 100 years of competition between the franchises, heightened the anticipation for this best-of-seven showdown. In fact, Cardinals vs. Dodgers is now one of the best matchups in baseball. Yet, the teams are limited to meeting just seven times per season because of interleague play. Can’t wait to see the Cardinals-Dodgers battling on the field next year? You’ll have to show some patience, since the teams don’t play each other until June 26. By that time the Dodgers, for example, will have played 11 games against AL squads (Tigers, Twins, White Sox, Royals).

The addition of a wild-card team makes even more of a mockery of the interleague schedule, since the teams who are directly competing for those post-season berths go head to head with their non-division foes very few times. In the epic Cardinals-Dodgers season of 1942, the clubs met 22 times. The Cardinals overcame a 10-1/2 game Dodgers lead in mid-August by winning 43 of their last 51 games to win the flag. The Cardinals finished 106-48, the Dodgers 104-50. Head-to-head play was key, as the Cardinals took their series from the Dodgers 13 to 9. Would have been a shame if the clubs met just seven times that season, while filling out their schedules against the likes of the AL’s Washington Senators, Philadelphia Athletics or Cleveland Indians, all of whom were dreadful that year.

GAME ONE NOTES:

* I know that Carlos Beltran didn’t fit in for some reason with the Giants when they traded for him in the stretch drive of 2011. He was injured, though some questioned whether he should play through it. He did not deliver the big hits. Fans were booing. I know all that, but let’s review Beltran’s NLCS opener: hits two-run double, throws out runner at plate in 10th and wins game with RBI single in the 13th. I know that Beltran seemed as if he didn’t want to stay a Giant, but suppose S.F.’s lineup had Hunter Pence in left and Beltran in right. Beltran is hitting .345 with 16 homers and 34 RBIs in his post-season career. Calling him Mr. October is not showing enough respect. He’s got an advanced degree in the subject. From now on, he should be addressed as Dr. October.

* During his post-game interview with TBS, no one thankfully shoved a shaving-cream pie into Beltran’s face. Somehow, the dignified way Beltran carries himself just makes him the type who teammates would not target in this lame baseball ritual.

* More Giants: Juan Uribe drives in both Dodgers runs; The Beard pitches a scoreless, though eventful inning. If the Dodgers win the World Series, Wilson would have three championship rings in four years, one more than his old Giants teammates. Ouch! Dodgers might start mapping out how Wilson will be given his ring, since that part could get ugly. Ask The Baer about that one.

* Analysts debated whether Don Mattingly should have removed slugger Adrian Gonzalez for a pinch-runner in the eighth with the score tied. There is no gray area here. This game had the feel of one that was going into overtime. Cardinals relievers should text a thank you to the skipper for removing his game-changing threat from the contest. That was a blunder by an inexperienced manager, and could stick in the minds of Dodgers brass when it considers Mattingly’s future at the helm.

* Yasiel Puig was swinging wildly in his 0-for-6 post-season debut, but it’s hard to believe he won’t impact this series with his bat before it is over.

* The Cardinals Yadier Molina must have missed all that post-Buster Posey collision discussion about how catchers should avoid bone-jarring hits. Molina, an obvious student of the Mike Sciosia School of Plate Blocking, made the old Dodgers catcher proud by giving absolutely no lane to Mark Ellis as he tried to score from third on the fly ball to Beltran. Molina never really tagged Ellis out, but the body-to-body smashup was good enough for the ump to signal the runner out. Good call.

* Kudos to the TBS post-game show for using Vin Scully’s radio descriptions for two key Dodgers highlights. I was standing up when I first heard it, but then I pulled up a chair and replayed it. Even better the second time.

Let me be clear. I am not real big on athletes who bring God into the conversation after hitting the winning homer or scoring the winning touchdown. I don’t think God sits there on Game Day with a bowl of popcorn in front of his big screen TV with St. Peter to decide who he is going to let catch the big pass. I’m thinking he’s got other business occupying his mind besides multi-millionaire athletes such as starving children or victims of some catastrophe. But, before I lay myself to sleep tonight, I would like to give you a sneak preview of my little pre-bed prayer.

“Dear God: Thank you so much for Brian Wilson. That’s the Dodger pitcher, not the Beach Boy guy, though I am thankful for him and all those fine tunes which I heard over and over and over again from my teen sister’s record player back in the day. Anyway, I just wrote this book about the Giants-Dodgers rivalry, and I’m told that the more bitter the rivalry, the more books we might sell. Unfortunately, Brian was on his best behavior tweeting how much he adored the fans and mostly taking the high road about his sensitive departure from the Giants. Then, at the end of the Dodgers-Giants game the other night, there was The Beard chastising The Baer for not forking over his 2012 World Series ring. Never mind that the Giants president had already offered to drive the ring over to his house himself and kiss it, or something like that, but there was Wilson acting wilder than when he would start off the ninth by walking the bases loaded.

So, dear eternal Father, thank you for giving us this tantrum that is sure to rev up the rivalry and sell a few more books. And please, may the Dodgers re-sign Brian for next year so he can stir up enough interest in the rivalry for a second printing.

Amen.

The story was shocking and tragic. A Dodger and Giant fan get into a verbal confrontation. One pulls out a weapon, and the absurd scrap results in death. That’s what happened in July of 1938 when Giants fans, celebrating a win over the Dodgers at Ebbets Field, taunted Dodger fan Robert Joyce at a Brooklyn bar. Joyce left the bar to get a gun, and returned to fatally shoot Giants fan Frank Krug. No one ever learned. A Dodger and Giant fan got into a confrontation in 2003 outside Dodger Stadium. The Dodger fan went to his vehicle, grabbed a gun, and fired a shot that killed the Giants fan. Santa Cruz paramedic Bryan Stow was at Dodger Stadium on opening day in 2011 to watch his Giants play the Dodgers. Giants fans said later there was a bad vibe that night at the ballpark, and it culminated in Stow being severely injured in a parking lot assault after the game, according to police. That night, 89 people were arrested at Dodger Stadium for alcohol-related offenses. Just recently, on Sept. 25, a man with a Giants hat and a man with a Dodger jersey were enough to spark some verbal jabbing just blocks from AT&T Park, where the clubs had played that night. The stories conflict, but the Dodger fan ended up dead after being stabbed.

Incidents of fans spurred to do stupid things because they are caught up in the rivalry are plentiful. In 1971, a Dodgers-Giants game at Dodger Stadium was interrupted when fans threw cushions, a smoke bomb and a wine bottle on the field. When the Dodgers and Giants players almost came to blows at a game in 1987 at Candlestick Park, Giants fans were motivated enough to start throwing beer into the Dodger dugout. Dodgers players had to be restrained from climbing over the railing to get to the unruly spectators. A year later, the Giants and Dodgers played a doubleheader at Candlestick Park, where the final score read: 100 fans ejected, 18 arrested.

It’s unlikely that any of the perpetrators in the above events got up that morning wondering what kind of calamity they could cause today. Yet, there they were by night’s end, involved in altercations with strangers. In three of the four assault-type cases cited, weapons were used. Whatever happened to the old-fashioned fist-fight, a common occurrence, by the way, at Candlestick Park between fans of both teams? The other obvious ingredient is alcohol. Still, even if you’ve been drinking and carrying a weapon, there’s still needs to be something that instigates the violence. If you played word association with Giants-Dodgers, you’d likely get something like “intensity” and “confrontation.” That, as we know, has been part of the rivalry forever. My only guess is that these clashes are processed by those involved as sanitized violence, where you are fighting an enemy who, like a gang member, is wearing some colors that are invading your turf. These violent episodes remind me of road-rage incidents, where people who might not be thugs for a living suddenly turn into foaming-at-the mouth maniacs.

Solutions? The crowds have been dramatically calmer at comfortable AT&T Park, and security was especially charged up for the Dodgers series with security personnel using the wand for front and back checks of every spectator. I understand that security has been beefed up at Dodger Stadium since the Stow attack. I don’t know what else the clubs could do. This latest tragic death happened near the ballpark, but it could have happened anywhere in San Francisco. It really comes down to individuals being smart about the circumstances. I went to the tense Giants-Padres final game in 2010 with two friends who wore San Diego jerseys, one having the name of Giant enemy Mat Latos on the back. Giants fans would come up to us in taunting mode, but we all;would disarm them with our joking and laughter, and they would quickly become our friends. This rivalry can put people on the edge. But how many more violent episodes will it take to get the message across. When will they ever learn?

Brian Wilson was a good Giant. He pitched for the club for seven years. He appeared in 315 games and threw 320 innings. He had an ERA of 3.21, with 170 saves and 340 strikeouts. He recorded the last out of the 2010 World Series in 2010. It was the first franchise World Series title since 1954. He had a big role in raising the championship flag at opening day 2011. When Wilson entered the game in search of save at AT&T Park, the ballpark sound system  would crank up his “Jump Around” entrance song, and did any Giant fan not get revved up over that moment. Wilson’s jaunt from the bullpen to the mound was one of the magic moments of that season.

So why would local talk shows even be debating how Giants fans will react, assuming Wilson gets an appearance when the Dodgers come to town this week for three games, If he is not greeted with a standing ovation, then Giants fans should be ashamed. To Wilson’s credit, he has said the right things to the fans. A tweet following his signing with the Dodgers said, “It was an honor to pitch in front of you all these years.” And in fairness to Wilson, it wasn’t like he abandoned the Giants for Dodgers riches. It became pretty clear that Giants management was through with Wilson, possibly weary of the so-called act. The Dodgers were willing to take a chance on the Tommy John repaired pitcher, and who could blame Wilson for that. Memo to Giants fans: Stand and applaud the Beard on his first appearance, and then boo the blue uniform from that time on.

You’d think that with all the cash being thrown at Dodgers players these days, they could afford to build their own pools at their luxury homes. But, no! There they were breaking into the private property of the Arizona Diamondbacks, and jumping fully uniformed in to the Chase Field swimming hole. Wait, before we go on, can anyone explain why there is a swimming pool at a ballpark? Anyway, some of the Dodgers players jumped into the pool beyond the right-field fence as part of their celebration after clinching the NL West title. From the reaction of the D-Backs, you’d have thought the pool was filled with holy water. Arizona CEO Derrick Hall saw it as “disrespectful and classless.”

But the richest reaction of all came from Sen. John McCain, who in a tweet called the post-game plunge a “no-class act by a bunch of overpaid, immature, arrogant, spoiled brats.” Never mind for now about a member of Congress calling someone else overpaid. Assume for a moment that McCain is right that the Dodgers acted inappropriately and showed bad judgment. Then how is the gentleman from Arizona going to square ballplayer over-exuberance with his comments as a presidential candidate in Murrell, S.C., on April 17, 2007?  In response to a question about what to do with Iran, this  statesman sang “Bomb, bomb, bomb, bomb Iran” in how he would handle that nation. Sen. McCain, sometimes even “mature” politicians swing and miss.

I didn’t see the pool party live, but after hearing about it, I wondered who was involved. The stunner came when I saw the goofy photo of a drenched Clayton Kershaw. Kershaw is young, but seems in full control. I bet he now looks at the picture, and wonders what he was thinking. I can imagine the dignified Sandy Koufax seeing the photo, and shaking he head in amazement. Let’s all agree: Koufax would not have jumped in. The scene made me wonder: If the Dodgers clinched at AT&T Park, would they all have jumped into McCovey Cove? And next year, if the D-Backs clinch the title at Dodger Stadium, how will they return the favor? Will they take over a Dodger Dog concession stand and start throwing around wieners? Will they storm Vin Scully’s broadcast booth? The stage is definitely set for some bad blood. Tip for Don Mattingly: When Dodgers meet hardball Kirk Gibson’s D-Backs for first time next year, don’t bat prized possession Yasiel Puig leadoff. I’m guessing the first Dodger batter might be going down.