Dodgers Clubhouse

So I get this call from Hollywood, and as you might expect, the producers want me to star in a football movie, "The Game Plan." They tell me they're going to fly me to Boston, put me in a fancy hotel, food, wine, makeup, wardrobe, the whole bit. Right away I figure it's some movie starring Salma Hayek, and she knows who she wants to play her love interest, but then they tell me they're just looking for someone to play the role of a sportswriter.

Jay Gibbons was beginning to wonder whether his eyes would ever allow him to play in the major leagues again. "It definitely crept through my mind more than once that this was not going to get better," Gibbons said Tuesday after being reinstated with the Dodgers. He replaced Marcus Thames , who was put on the 15-day disabled list because of a right quadriceps strain. Starting in spring training, Gibbons struggled to find the correct contact lenses, especially in his right eye, leaving him unable to handle big league pitching and to break camp with the Dodgers.

The Dodgers' clubhouse, long known as one of baseball's most cramped and outdated, got nipped, tucked and made over while the team was away for spring training, as per the request of the Dodgers' front office. Among the changes: wider lockers with higher shelves and cubbyholes for players to store bats and fan mail, four new flat-screen televisions, placards commemorating the franchise's six World Series titles, new carpeting, new lighting, a new coat of gray paint and quotes from former Dodgers greats written above each locker.

Andre Ethier and Matt Kemp will be eligible for free agency after the 2012 season. Both have said that they would like to remain with the Dodgers beyond then. Both of them reiterated that wish on Wednesday. "My feelings never changed," Ethier said. "I don't want to be anywhere else," Kemp said. Photos: Frank McCourt's ownership of the Dodgers Even before Commissioner Bud Selig announced that his office would take over the business and day-to-day operations of the Dodgers, there were questions whether the cash-strapped ballclub could afford to sign the two outfielders to long-term contracts.

On the far end of the Dodgers' clubhouse, the vote was unanimous. The most important at-bat in the Dodgers' 3-2 come-from-behind victory wasn't that of Ronnie Belliard , who tied the game with a two-out single. Nor was it the one taken by Mark Loretta , who drove in the deciding run. The honor was bestowed on the two-out, nine-pitch walk by Casey Blake that put men on first and second. Then Belliard drove in the tying run. "The hero of this game was Casey Blake," Belliard said.

Eddie Murray was scheduled to be in the starting lineup despite a sore hip. . . . Tuesday was to be Gary Carter's 17th opening day, but his first on the bench. . . . The Dodgers' clubhouse erupted in shouts when the players, watching television, saw former teammate Hubie Brooks hit a home run in the 10th inning to give the New York Mets a 2-1 victory over Philadelphia. Chris Gwynn, one of many players who used Brooks as a role model, predicted the homer.

When the star Dodger routinely showed up for day games still drunk from the previous night, the clubhouse guy knew his role. "It was my job to protect the team," Dave Dickenson said. "That's what I did." Dickenson said he would pour a cup of beer and place it in the dugout bathroom. The star player would sneak there between innings for a drink, and continue drinking throughout the game. "The guy couldn't play with a hangover, so we had to keep him going," Dickenson said.

How hot are the Dodgers? They are so hot that, on Wednesday night, one of their best players was on fire. "Literally," Derek Lowe said. For all the silliness they survived Thursday afternoon, nothing compared to the incident 18 hours earlier, when Lowe accidentally set his pants ablaze in the dugout. "Craziest thing I've ever seen," Manager Grady Little said. In the top of the fifth inning, Lowe was standing in the corner of the dugout preparing to step into the on-deck circle.

The Dodgers' just-completed trip was especially tough on shortstop Rafael Furcal , whose family was forced to evacuate their house in the La Cañada Flintridge area during his absence because of the massive wildfire. The house wasn't damaged and his family was allowed to move back Sunday as Furcal returned with the Dodgers from their series with the Cincinnati Reds. But he said the prior three days were nerve-wracking because it wasn't known whether his house would survive.

These are hectic days for Jon Garland . The newest addition to the Dodgers' rotation was back in the Phoenix-area condominium he used to share with his girlfriend Tuesday to pack his belongings. He'll be back to box the last of them this morning, then head to the ballpark that was his home field as of two weeks ago to face his former team. Only nine days after his trade from the Diamondbacks to the Dodgers, Garland said he doesn't know how he'll be received today at Chase Field.

Reporting from San Diego Casey Blake didn't want to talk about Manny Ramirez . Neither did Matt Kemp . But Andre Ethier and Rafael Furcal took several minutes in the visiting clubhouse at Petco Park to share their fond recollections of Ramirez, who retired Friday instead of facing a 100-game suspension for violating baseball's drug policy for a second time. Asked whether Ramirez was a good teammate, Ethier replied, "One hundred percent. One of the best.

Reporting from Tucson ? The season is long, and the road is lonely. The fraternity of baseball lifers bonds in creaky old ballparks and chain restaurants, scouts and coaches leaning on one another when the comforts of home are far away. P.J. Carey gave his adult life to baseball, more than three decades of working with young players from Casper, Wyo., to Spartanburg, S.C. Carey was working in the Dodgers' front office last year, as an advisor in the minor league department, when he and his wife each were diagnosed with cancer.

Manny Ramirez took batting practice with his teammates for the first time this month Tuesday and was expected to start a minor league rehabilitation assignment Wednesday night in San Bernardino with Class A Inland Empire. Although no timetable has been established, Ramirez was expected to play at least three minor league games and if everything goes well, he could be back with the Dodgers by the weekend. But it remained uncertain when All-Star shortstop Rafael Furcal would be ready to play again.

Not long after veteran Garret Anderson left Dodger Stadium on Sunday morning, his big-league career perhaps finished after 2,529 hits, his successor Jay Gibbons walked into the Dodgers clubhouse. A few hours later, Gibbons — resurrecting his major-league career as the Dodgers' newest left-handed bat off the bench — singled home a run in his first big-league at-bat in three years in the Dodgers' win over the Washington Nationals. "I was just fortunate enough to sneak one up the middle and it just made for a perfect ending" to the day, Gibbons said.

Friday was feeding day for Larry the Boa, the infant snake housed in the Dodgers' clubhouse. Four days removed from his last meal, Larry unhinged his jaw and swallowed whole a frozen mouse purchased for him by clubhouse manager Mitch Poole. A crowd of curious players looked on, some pointing, some laughing, some wondering if the small serpent was overfed. So the reptile was sated. But the third base coach after whom the snake was named was a figuratively famished man that night, as Larry Bowa saw only one of his players run by him and score in a 6-1 defeat by the New York Mets at Dodger Stadium.

In the last week or so, there's been a major change in the Dodgers' clubhouse. Miley Cyrus is out. M.I.A. is back in. So when the Dodgers win, as they did by a 3-2 margin over the Chicago Cubs on Thursday night at Dodger Stadium, "Paper Planes" blares over the locker room sound system. No more "Party in the U.S.A." "We went back to our old roots," Clayton Kershaw said jokingly. "We went back to 2008. We needed a change." But for the two players who were most instrumental in the Dodgers' latest victory, this season has been nothing like the seasons they had two years ago. At this stage of the season of 2008, Kershaw was a 20-year-old rookie trying to discover the key to consistency.

Jay Gibbons was beginning to wonder whether his eyes would ever allow him to play in the major leagues again. "It definitely crept through my mind more than once that this was not going to get better," Gibbons said Tuesday after being reinstated with the Dodgers. He replaced Marcus Thames , who was put on the 15-day disabled list because of a right quadriceps strain. Starting in spring training, Gibbons struggled to find the correct contact lenses, especially in his right eye, leaving him unable to handle big league pitching and to break camp with the Dodgers.

Through the thick tension that enveloped the Dodgers' clubhouse Tuesday afternoon, a pennant-race game blared ominously from one of the overhead plasma televisions. The Boston Red Sox game? So, well, OK, couch spectator Manny Ramirez apparently forgot which pennant race he was playing in. And, OK, so neither did Angel Berroa, who was stressing so much he was flying a remote helicopter near his locker. Nearly landed that sucker on Delwyn Young's head.

In the city where he once effortlessly swayed the fan base from one end of the emotional spectrum to the other, Manny Ramirez discovered Friday night that he had lost the capacity to inspire. Some cheered when Ramirez's name blared over the public-address system at Fenway Park and others booed, but they did so without conviction, the voices of gratitude and disapproval quickly blending with the murmurs of the indifferent. Red Sox Nation had withstood Ramirez's departure. He was now 38 years old and no longer a feared hitter worthy of praise or disdain.

Reporting from Cincinnati — The day was like any other, Manny Ramirez loitering about the clubhouse, plopping down on a couch next to Garret Anderson to make small talk, later turning around to say something to Ronnie Belliard. But three days of serenity at Great American Ball Park were about to come to an end, the Dodgers hours from dropping a 7-1 decision to the Cincinnati Reds and heading to the madhouse that Ramirez used to call home. Ramirez will play in Boston for the first time since his contentious split from the Red Sox two summers ago and will do so against the backdrop of his latest controversy, this one potentially more harmful to the Dodgers' reputation than to his. According to the New York Times, General Manager Ned Colletti and other "high-ranking Dodgers personnel" had discussions last September about how they could "help" a slumping Ramirez and whether the former All-Star had a severe enough medical condition to obtain special permission to use a banned testosterone-boosting substance.