LOS ANGELES, OCT. 13 -- There was the David Cone column to inspire them, the Mike Scioscia homer to breathe life into them and, finally, the brilliance of Orel Hershiser to push them over the top.
There was left fielder Kirk Gibson playing on a bad leg. There was reliever Jay Howell getting suspended for what even the New York Mets said was an overly strict rule interpretation. There were the assorted Hatchers and Shelbys and, today, they are the champions of the National League.
The Los Angeles Dodgers leaped another improbable hurdle Wednesday night by eliminating the New York Mets, 6-0, in Game 7 of the National League Championship Series. Today, they rested, and on Saturday, they will host the Oakland Athletics in Game 1 of the World Series.
"The Mets have a better team, talent-wise," Dodgers outfielder Mike Marshall said. "But for these seven games, we were the better team. And the reason was that, whenever we went on the field and strapped on the spikes, we believed we could win. We want to win as badly as any team I've seen. We even wanted to win spring training games."
The Dodgers did it with Hershiser's ninth shutout and by collecting four timely hits and taking advantage of two New York errors in a five-run second inning. That rally finished off Mets starter Ron Darling, and it pretty much finished off the proud, talkative and heavily favored Mets.
"All I could think during that inning was, 'Is this happening to us? Is this really happening to us?' " Mets General Manager Frank Cashen said.
He spoke softly in a clubhouse where a half-dozen or so players wept and others sat in front of their lockers wearing stunned and sad expressions.
"Seven months gone like that," first baseman Keith Hernandez said, snapping his fingers. "This is the most disappointed I've been in my career."
The Mets may analyze this series for six months and still not understand it. Even in victory, the Dodgers never claimed to be the better team. The Mets were supposed to beat them, and now the A's are supposed to beat them.
The Mets may forever curse themselves for not handling a couple of routine grounders in Game 7. They may also point to the demise of the game's best pitching staff, which began to unravel Sept. 21 when Bobby Ojeda almost severed the tip of his left middle finger.
Then came the playoffs. Cone, who had poked fun at the Dodgers in a post-Game 1 newspaper column, had his worst outing of the season in Game 2, although he bounced back to throw a five-hitter in Game 6.
The Mets may be harder pressed to understand the performances of a couple of their veterans -- Darling and Sid Fernandez, who were rocked for 12 earned runs in 11 postseason innings after winning 29 times during the regular season.
But it's more complex than even that. How could either team have predicted the effect Cone's column would have?
"We definitely needed a spark after losing the first game {when the Mets rallied for three ninth-inning runs}," Marshall said. "I have never seen this team as upset and fired up as we were when we read that. It was as if it represented everyone who doubted us. We've been in first place almost the whole year, but it seemed like every city we went to, we would beat a club, then the next day in the paper that city's manager would say we won't be there at the end. Well, everybody on this team can read."
Who could have guessed that Scioscia, who homered three times in 408 at-bats during the regular season, would connect off Dwight Gooden in the ninth inning to tie Game 4? That the Dodgers would score first in six of the seven games?
That Hershiser would come out of the bullpen for a save in Game 4 then return to toss a shutout 72 hours later? That Hatcher, who began the series on the bench, would be instrumental in all four Dodgers victories? That Shelby would make running catches to end both Dodgers victories in New York?
"I believe in fate," Mets Manager Davey Johnson said. "That's because of what I saw in 1969 {when his Orioles lost to the Miracle Mets}. I saw one thing after another in that Series. Damn, there's just no justice. When you're favored to win something, you should win it. Unfortunately in sports, it doesn't come out that way."
The Dodgers appeared to agree.
"The Mets are probably over there shaking their heads right now," Hatcher said. "We respect other clubs. We just don't put them down. Anytime you do that, it comes back to haunt you."
Hatcher said that as Game 7 wound to a close, he was so nervous "that my guts hurt." He had already been charged with two errors in the series and didn't want one that would haunt him the rest of his life.
"Boy, if somebody tries to tell you they're not nervous, tell 'em they're crazy," he said. "From the seventh inning on, all I could think of was Bill Buckner {whose error helped the Red Sox blow Game 6 of the '86 World Series}. Just please don't let me be Buckner."
So while the Mets are home licking their wounds, the Dodgers, the team that was supposed to finish behind the Giants, Reds and Astros in their division, are in the World Series.
"We played with a lot of heart, and that's the beautiful thing about this club," catcher Rick Dempsey said. "At times, we didn't deserve respect. Every day was a push, a grind. But we changed the attitude around on this ballclub . . . I really, honestly, don't think we were {the most talented team}, but it's not what you do on paper."