SAN FRANCISCO -- Andre Ethier covered his wide-open mouth. James Loney had bags under his eyes. Blake DeWitt slumped over in his chair and put his hands over his face.
Less than 24 hours removed from a champagne-drenched celebration at Dodger Stadium that Manny Ramirez said was "something you can't describe," there was no music in the visiting clubhouse at AT&T Park that housed the newly crowned champions of the National League West.
"I know people said we celebrated hard," Ethier said, "but we went through a lot to get here."
They were met by a new manager at the start of spring training. They received almost no production out of Andruw Jones, their $36.2-million free-agent acquisition. They endured the growing pains of their young players. They played without Rafael Furcal, Brad Penny, Takashi Saito, Jeff Kent and Nomar Garciaparra for extended periods and had players miss 1,186 man-games through Thursday.
But they traded for Ramirez and Casey Blake, they loosened up and they won 18 of their 23 games leading up to the elimination of second-place Arizona.
"It's been a rocky road," Manager Joe Torre said. "There have been a lot of things that have happened here."
Starting in the winter.
For Ethier, the season didn't begin on opening day or on the first day of spring training. It started the day he heard Grady Little was no longer his manager.
"Everyone in the off-season stays away from this game," Ethier said. "I don't pick up a bat or ball until Jan. 1. I wouldn't have been thinking about next season until January, but I found myself watching 'SportsCenter.' It made it a shorter off-season."
The team was put in the hands of Manager Joe Torre and his top lieutenant from New York, third base coach Larry Bowa.
Ethier said he and the team's other young players suddenly didn't know where they stood in the eyes of a manager who was in the American League the previous season and knew nothing about them. Though Torre won four World Series titles and reached the postseason in each of his 12 seasons with the Yankees, it could take time for Bowa and him to earn the trust of their new players.
"There were a lot of guys who had things set in their minds," Bowa said. "They thought they have all the answers. To get to another level, you have to break that barrier. At first, it was hard."
The confluence of inexperience and new leadership wasn't the only obstacle.
