Southland might get a classic fall

The distance is only 30.92 miles.

The waiting has been forever.

How long have we wondered? How long have we hoped?

For the 48 seasons that the Dodgers and Angels shared Southern California, all we've wanted is one chance to watch them compete for a championship in something other than our imaginations.

From 1000 Elysian Park Ave. in Los Angeles to 2000 Gene Autry Way in Anaheim, it is a simple drive.

But from the National League to the American League, the chasm has seemed endless.

The teams tried to satisfy us with a spring training competition called the Freeway Series. It has become meaningless.

Baseball officials tried to satisfy with interleague play, also calling it the Freeway Series. It has grown dull.

We want a Freeway World Series, a celebration of our greatest homegrown sport, two weeks in October that belong only to us; how hard can that be?

The New York Yankees and New York Mets have done it. The San Francisco Giants and Oakland A's have done it.

We haven't even gotten close.

This fall is only the second time in those 48 seasons that both of our teams have made the postseason in the same year.

Yet this fall is the first time that our dreams have a real chance.

Beginning the postseason today as respective division champions, the Dodgers and Angels have baseball's two best managers, two of its most dangerous sluggers, two of its best pressure starting pitchers, and two of its best bullpens.

The Dodgers will be fighting against the vagaries of youth. The Angels will be fighting against the perils of rust.

But if there was ever a moment in their history that they could both turn this fall into a true Southern California classic, it is now.

Here are 30.92 reasons it could happen, one for every mile:

* Mile 1: The Dodgers open against a Chicago Cubs team that hasn't won a World Series in 100 years and will mess it up again. You know it, I know it, and, most important, they know it.

* Mile 2: The Angels open against a Boston Red Sox team that they have beaten six straight times.

* Mile 3: After the first round, the Dodgers would play either the Philadelphia Phillies or Milwaukee Brewers, two teams against which they had a combined winning record.

* Mile 4: After the first round, the Angels would play, well, um, nobody.

* Mile 5: Joe Torre's three consecutive first-round exits with the Yankees still burn.