Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Team

CHICAGO -- Takashi Saito is the Dodgers' closer again -- at least that's what Saito said he was told by pitching coach Rick Honeycutt at the start of the National League division series. Saito didn't fool the Cubs in the ninth inning of Game 2, giving up two runs on two doubles and a single, but for him to pitch at all is almost a medical miracle. "For me to be here with my teammates at this time of the year," Saito said, "I really can only think that I had luck on my side."

The Dodgers announced that they would package "a limited number" of Manny Ramirez bobblehead dolls left over from last month's giveaway with a second bobblehead likeness of the slugger as part of a four-game ticket package. The second Ramirez bobblehead will be distributed to the first 50,000 spectators who attend the Sept. 16 game against Pittsburgh. It depicts Ramirez tipping his cap to the crowd after his pinch-hit grand slam July 22, the night of the first bobblehead promotion.

Bill Russell accepted an invitation from Chairman of the Board Peter O'Malley on Wednesday and returned to Dodger Stadium for the first time since Russell was fired as Dodger manager on June 21. Russell and his wife, Susan, sat with O'Malley in the former owner's box and watched the Dodgers play the San Francisco Giants. "Peter invited me and my wife to come out and enjoy a ballgame," Russell said. "This has been a part of my life for 32 years, and we decided to come out and enjoy ourselves.

On a June day in 2003, Paige Bilbrey was on the phone frantically trying to reach her boss, former Los Angeles Dodger great Steve Garvey, at Le Parc Hotel in Paris, where he was attending the French Open tennis tournament. The matter couldn't wait: Standing in the lobby of Garvey's hilltop mansion outside Park City, Utah, was an employee of the local power company. Pay the overdue bill, the man said, or he'd turn off the lights. The incident wasn't the result of an embarrassing oversight.

Few couples have given more to professional baseball than Manny and Margarita Mota. And we're not talking simply about Manny's 20-year playing career, in which he made an All-Star team and broke the record for most pinch-hits. Nor are we talking solely about Mota's 30 seasons as a Dodgers coach, the longest tenure of any coach since the team moved to Los Angeles. If anything, that was just the start. Because the Motas have also given five of their six sons to the game, sending two to the major leagues.

Juan Pierre didn't travel with the Dodgers to Houston on Sunday, remaining in Los Angeles to undergo an MRI exam today to determine the extent of damage to the left knee that he hurt in the sixth inning of a 1-0 loss to the Angels. A decision of whether to put Pierre on the ever-growing disabled list will remain on hold until team physician Dr.

When he heard the snap of a speeding baseball crashing into Hiroki Kuroda's skull, his knees buckled on the dugout steps. Once he recovered, he sprinted to the mound, kneeling near the Dodgers pitcher, who lay in a heap. "Hiroki, turn over," said the interpreter, a former Spanish teacher named Kenji Nimura who was born in Japan and raised in Los Angeles. For two seasons he has been the pitcher's steady hand, a linguistic link between America and Japan. "Hiroki, do you feel nauseous?"

Manny Ramirez took one look at the lineup posted on the wall and shouted across the clubhouse. "Change the lineup, Joe!" he hollered as he laughed. Over the next 10 minutes, Manager Joe Torre drew up a new alignment, this one without Ramirez's name. Hit on the left hand the previous night by a fastball from Cincinnati Reds starter Homer Bailey, Ramirez said he expected to be back in the lineup when the Dodgers open a three-game series against the Florida Marlins on Friday.

Amid the mad swirl of a pennant race, all it takes for Ned Colletti to find his center is to tour his hardscrabble hometown in a rental car. The sights of his childhood homes and haunts bring back memories, to be sure, but it is the sounds that remind him how he pushed himself to move forward, onward, upward. The roar of jets flying into O'Hare airport directly over his family's tiny brick house. The screech of train brakes at the Bensenville Freight Yard a block away.

Frank McCourt had the breakfast crowd eating out of his hand. The Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce honored him Thursday for extending the Los Angeles Marathon to the Santa Monica Pier, and the Dodgers' owner stood up to say thank you. "It's been a very quiet off-season for me," McCourt said, as the room erupted in laughter. McCourt emerged from his self-imposed silence last week, granting his first interviews since his acrimonious divorce proceedings started three months ago, just as baseball's winter shopping season got underway.

The "Ramirez Provision" is no more. The Dodgers -- and all other major league teams -- cannot mandate that a player donate to club charities as part of his contract, the commissioner's office and players' union have agreed. Michael Weiner, the executive director of the players' union, said the agreement does not restrict players from making donations but ensures the choice is theirs. "The goal here never has been to interfere with players making charitable contributions, which guys have a long history of doing," Weiner said Wednesday.

The "Ramirez Provision" is no more. The Dodgers -- and all other major league teams -- cannot mandate that a player donate to club charities as part of his contract, the commissioner's office and players' union have agreed. Michael Weiner, the executive director of the players' union, said the agreement does not restrict players from making donations but ensures the choice is theirs. "The goal here never has been to interfere with players making charitable contributions, which guys have a long history of doing," Weiner said Wednesday.

Get in shape. Or else. That is what's implied by the wording in the contract bearing the signature of Ronnie Belliard, who on Tuesday re-signed with the Dodgers for one year to compete with Blake DeWitt and Jamey Carroll for the starting job at second base. Belliard, 34, will be guaranteed $825,000 this year, but only if he tips the scales at 209 pounds or fewer at some point during spring training, according to multiple sources who spoke on the condition of anonymity because of the sensitive nature of the clause.

Frank McCourt had the breakfast crowd eating out of his hand. The Santa Monica Chamber of Commerce honored him Thursday for extending the Los Angeles Marathon to the Santa Monica Pier, and the Dodgers' owner stood up to say thank you. "It's been a very quiet off-season for me," McCourt said, as the room erupted in laughter. McCourt emerged from his self-imposed silence last week, granting his first interviews since his acrimonious divorce proceedings started three months ago, just as baseball's winter shopping season got underway.

Vicente Padilla stayed out of trouble in the two-plus months he spent with the Dodgers last year, but can the reputed bad boy remain a model citizen for an entire season? Based on the way Padilla behaved during his stint with the Dodgers, General Manager Ned Colletti said he thinks so, which was why he spent $5.025 million to re-sign the erratic but electric-armed 32-year-old to a one-year deal. "As far as his attitude and approach, we saw nothing that would indicate there would be any problems in the future," Colletti said.

The $90 seat is out at Camelback Ranch this spring, and free parking is in. The Dodgers have quietly eliminated the 198-seat VIP section at their spring home, in which fans were offered such perks as preferred parking, food coupons, sunscreen and "cool, scented towels." "Based on fan feedback, we determined that premium seating in spring training wasn't necessary," Dodgers spokesman Josh Rawitch said Wednesday. Those VIP seats were sold for $90 last spring, the highest price in the Cactus or Grapefruit leagues.

The Dodgers reached agreements with their six remaining arbitration-eligible players Tuesday, including outfielder Andre Ethier and closer Jonathan Broxton, who could sign two-year contracts as early as today. In the hours leading up to the deadline for players and clubs to exchange salary figures, the Dodgers also signed Russell Martin, James Loney, George Sherrill and Hong-Chih Kuo to one-year deals. General Manager Ned Colletti would not confirm the signings of Ethier and Broxton, which will not become official until they pass their physical examinations, but said that the Dodgers now have the kind of cost clarity that could result in increased maneuverability on the free-agent market.

The Dodgers reached agreements with their six remaining arbitration-eligible players Tuesday, including outfielder Andre Ethier and closer Jonathan Broxton, who could sign two-year contracts as early as today. In the hours leading up to the deadline for players and clubs to exchange salary figures, the Dodgers also signed Russell Martin, James Loney, George Sherrill and Hong-Chih Kuo to one-year deals. General Manager Ned Colletti would not confirm the signings of Ethier and Broxton, which will not become official until they pass their physical examinations, but said that the Dodgers now have the kind of cost clarity that could result in increased maneuverability on the free-agent market.

The Dodgers have stayed on the sidelines of the free-agent market this winter and their season-ticket sales are down, but owner Frank McCourt said Friday that the fans he has spoken to stand firmly behind the team. "I talk to fans too," McCourt said in his first interview with The Times since it became public that he and his wife and former club president, Jamie McCourt , planned to divorce. "They're very excited about the team. They're very supportive of what we're doing."

Few couples have given more to professional baseball than Manny and Margarita Mota. And we're not talking simply about Manny's 20-year playing career, in which he made an All-Star team and broke the record for most pinch-hits. Nor are we talking solely about Mota's 30 seasons as a Dodgers coach, the longest tenure of any coach since the team moved to Los Angeles. If anything, that was just the start. Because the Motas have also given five of their six sons to the game, sending two to the major leagues.