Monday, June 21, 2004 | 8:55 a.m.
LOS ANGELES --"The Road to the World Series Begins Here."
The sign is nothing new, its white letters etched into a blue plastic plate above the door from the home clubhouse to the field at Dodger Stadium.
Dodgers Shawn Green, Paul LoDuca and Eric Gagne are used to it. Prospects like Las Vegas' Edwin Jackson, Joe Thurston, and Chin-Feng Chen undoubtedly wish they could see it more often.
Sunday afternoon, Los Angeles pitcher Jose Lima played air-trumpet and air-saxophone -- Merengue music from the band he sings in, Bando Mambo -- in front of it.
And while the Dodgers' eyes may pass over the familiar sign as the long season winds on, the 6-by-9-inch placard glued to the wall had a special meaning over the past three days at Chavez Ravine.
The road to the World Series may be hard to appreciate for games against the Colorado Rockies, Milwaukee Brewers or Montreal Expos.
But with the New York Yankees in town, it brings new meaning.
For the first time since 1981, and the first time ever in a month not named March or October, the Dodgers and Yankees played a meaningful series of baseball.
For the Dodgers, the series represented a challenge against an all-star team that takes the field every day. For the Yankees, it represented a tie to a historic rivalry and the victims of eight of the team's 26 World Series titles.
And for baseball fans, the series represented one of the most-watched regular-season sessions of all-time.
More than 165,000 fans turned the gates at Dodger Stadium this weekend -- the largest three-game series in team history -- including a crowd of 55,157 that came to watch L.A.'s 5-4 victory on Sunday.
And it seemed like most in attendance stayed around for the end, giving Dodgers closer Eric Gagne a pop that could be heard for miles as he entered the game in the eighth inning, and an even louder cheer when he struck out Hideki Matsui to earn his 81st consecutive save.
By 9 p.m., the line of brake lights was still crawling away from Dodger Stadium, more than an hour after the game ended.
Two of the three games in the series were broadcast on national television. The Dodgers had nearly 550 members of the media present through the weekend, well more more than the 200 or so who could be expected for a regular three-game series.
By comparison, the Las Vegas 51s drew 326,243 fans in 2003 -- over 72 games. They were never on television. And no more than 15 reporters -- including two from Salt Lake who came for opening weekend -- graced the press box at Cashman Field.
"This was a fantastic series to play in, and what makes it that much better was the fact that we won games," said Dodgers manager Jim Tracy, whose team took two of three.
In the other locker room, Yankees manager Joe Torre said he too enjoyed the experience.
"It's exciting. Going into a series like this, you don't know a whole lot about the opponent. It's exciting from the fans' perspective. I certainly wish we'd gone 2-1, but I think it was certainly worth the trip."
And for the players themselves who suited up in Dodgers blue or Yankees gray, the atmosphere was something they'd never experienced.
"For the fans, anytime you match up with the Yankees, it really ends up being exciting," said Dodgers infielder Robin Ventura. "They're both great teams that have been together a long time. That made it fun."
Despite their home ballparks being just about 15 miles apart, the Dodgers and Yankees never played a meaningful game until 1941, 38 years after the Yankees, then the New York Highlanders, moved to upper Manhattan from Baltimore.
The 1941 World Series was the Dodgers' third trip to the Classic, one of seven series Brooklyn advance to and lost between 1916 and 1955, when the team won its first world championship.
But those watching this weekend's Dodgers-Yankees games were more likely to recall the teams' most recent meetings, cross-country World Series in 1963, 1977, 1978 and 1981 that were the exact opposite of the cross-town games from the first half of the century.
It's that cross-country flavor that Dodgers vice president and former manager Tommy Lasorda said made those World Series and this weekend's interleague series special.
"It's great because of a simple reason -- it connects the West Coast and the East Coast," he said. "What made it special, whenever you play the Yankees, they're champions. It's a big, big, big thing when you play the Yankees."
And for the Dodgers, maybe even bigger to win a series against them, with the postseason a realistic expectation for the first time in recent memory.
Dodgers outfielder Dave Roberts said the series provided confidence to a team that has been in first place at this point in the season before, only to falter down the stretch.
"You don't want to make too much out of it, but it's momentum we can continue to build on," he said.
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