Los Angeles Dodgers Baseball Team

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.

Reporting from Surprise, Ariz. Jay Gibbons is struggling to keep his eyes on the prize. A leading contender for at least a part-time role as the Dodgers' left fielder, Gibbons is leaving spring training for two days because of ill-fitting contact lenses. The lens for his left eye is "not fitting great right now and every once in a while it pops out at inconvenient times, like maybe [while] hitting," Gibbons said Monday, adding that he planned to see an eye doctor in San Francisco on Tuesday and Wednesday.

With nearly $80 million spent this off-season, the Dodgers look better than they did at this time last year. And at least one of the three teams that finished ahead of them in the National League West looks significantly worse: the San Diego Padres. The Padres, who led the division as late as Sept. 25 and finished second to the World Series champion San Francisco Giants, did what teams with no money do: trade their best hitter for prospects. All-Star first baseman Adrian Gonzalez is now property of the Boston Red Sox. Baring significant changes, the Padres, who had a higher team batting average than only than Pittsburgh Pirates and Seattle Mariners last season, figure to be non-contenders next year.

Russell Martin sat on one of the two black recliners on the back end of the silent clubhouse, playing video games on a hand-held device. "It's tough," he said. "It's boring. A lot of downtime. " The Dodgers' 3-1 defeat to the San Diego Padres on Wednesday night was the 45th consecutive game sat out by Martin, who suffered a season-ending hip injury Aug. 3. Martin got off crutches last week and appears likely to avoid surgery, but is a long way from returning to the field.

Reporting from San Francisco Matt Kemp sat in front of his locker, speaking softly with his head bowed. Asked why his season has turned out the way it has, Kemp offered a similar answer to the one provided recently by hitting coach Don Mattingly. He said he didn't know. "I'm working on it," he said. "If I figured it out, I'd be hitting way better than I'm hitting right now. " In the Dodgers' 10-2 defeat to the San Francisco Giants on Thursday night at AT&T Park, Kemp struck out twice to tie his season strikeout record with 153. His average dipped to .248, down from .297 a year ago. He has stolen 18 bases, but has been caught stealing 15 times.

The Dodgers play three games with the first-place Padres in San Diego starting Monday, a series that could have been a crucial showdown in the National League West for the Dodgers, except for the Dodgers' mediocre play of late. San Diego lost its 10th consecutive game Sunday, yet the Dodgers have gained little ground in that span, a lost opportunity extended again Sunday in large part by the San Francisco Giants' No. 8 hitter, shortstop Juan Uribe, for the second time in two days.

No Manny? No matter — the Dodgers still have Hiroki Kuroda. Kuroda's no-hit pitching through 71/3 innings lifted the Dodgers to a 3-0 win over the Philadelphia Phillies and ace Roy Halladay on Monday at Dodger Stadium. The win not only helped the Dodgers put Manny Ramirez's departure behind them, it also lifted the Dodgers to within 5 1/2 games of Philadelphia in the National League wild-card race. Kuroda, perfect before walking Carlos Ruiz with one out in the sixth, didn't allow a hit until Shane Victorino singled to right field with one out in the eighth.

I'd love to tell Manny Ramirez not to let the door hit him on the way out. But he was gone long before that door ever swung open. He waived himself long before the Dodgers did. He was lost long before the Chicago White Sox claimed him. I would love to write a farewell column for the discarded Ramirez, who left the Dodgers on Monday to engage another populace in phony smiles and contract swings. But, with the exception of an occasional lucky moment when a fat pitch hit his slow bat, he departed the Dodgers the moment he was busted for being a performance-enhancing drug cheat.

If the Dodgers somehow overcome long odds and reach the playoffs, they might well point to the fifth inning of Thursday's 7-1 victory over the Milwaukee Brewers as a turning point. Clinging to a 2-1 lead, Dodgers starter Carlos Monasterios walked Brewers pitcher Yovani Gallardo and hit the next two batters to load the bases with one out. It had all the makings of a big Brewers inning that could have dealt the Dodgers a loss and stalled their recent momentum toward earning a National League wild-card berth.

Once the boisterous life of the party, it's now the loneliest place in the yard. The celebrated sign has been torn down. The bright swatch of seats is mostly bare. The mayor is in exile in Arizona. "It's dead out here," says Joe Bruno, 50, a season-ticket holder sitting alone in a long quiet row. "Been dead all year." Mannywood is now Deadwood, the Dodgers ill-conceived tribute to Manny Ramirez serving as a metaphor for the man himself. The two previously rollicking sections in the left-field corner at Dodger Stadium now have the hollow look of a party gone bad. "Manny had us going for a while," said Oscar Chavez, 28, celebrating his birthday there Tuesday night with eight easily obtained tickets for his family.