Or, as Lowe put it, "you can't have young players thinking they are bulletproof. No one should be bulletproof around here, walking around believing they don't have to listen to anybody.
"Jeff was correct when he said you get only so many chances in this game, and when you have a year like this, you can't act like it just didn't happen."
And when something good does happen, a teammate hitting a home run -- going all the way back to T-ball -- that's a pretty big thing. Start taking it for granted so early in a career, and what next?
"He'll learn," Little said, and it will be interesting to see whether Dodgers fans find that process entertaining or frustrating.
THE DODGERS Kids knocked off the Diamondbacks in the series finale here, and while noting the e-mail response from a number of Dodgers fans, who are already buying into the promise of better days ahead with the young players, I just remember many of these same folks chanting "Hee-Seop Choi," or later, "J.D. Drew."
Public sentiment will swing toward the Dodgers kids because what other choice is there?
But "historically teams with a lot of young players don't win championships right away," Lowe said. "That's something everyone around here is going to want to know -- are we going to be playing young players so that they can have the time to develop and really be good in two years?
"What about next season? I'm going to be 35 . . . that's a little unsettling for some guys who are under contract here. Do they already know the team they're going to field is not going to be competitive next year?"
More than that, Lowe said, when it comes to mixing young players with a new crop of veterans next season, there has to be two-way respect.
"This has to be settled going into spring training," Lowe said. "If there has to be a knockout, drag-out fight, so be it. But it cannot carry over where we're having this same conversation. We can't have the young players believing they are bulletproof.
"We're also going to have to be very careful as an organization what kind of people are brought in next season," he said. "If you listen to people here, the vision is to get even younger. You're going to have to bring in players who are going to be all right with limited playing time." And who don't mind being ignored when they hit home runs, or better yet, just don't hit home runs.
Good news. Shea Hillenbrand should still be available.
