Sports Watch

By Bill Kwon

Tuesday, April 6, 1999

Dodgers, Yanks will
play for title

HOW'S about a back-to-the-future World Series? How about the Yankees and Dodgers in the final World Series of the 20th Century?

The New York Yankees and Los Angeles Dodgers are my picks to win the American League and National League championships, respectively.

Big deal, you say, considering that the Yankees lead every major league franchise in most World Series appearances with 34 and most victories with 24, while the Dodgers and New York/San Francisco Giants are tied among National League teams with 16.

And that the Yankees and Dodgers have played each other in the Fall Classic 11 times, including so many memorable meetings in the 1940s and 1950s.

So, how's about once more with feeling between the Dodgers and Yankees as we head into the next millennium?

Of course, it's a long season and anything can happen in baseball. Nothing's for sure. Even the Yankees won't be a shoo-in to win it all again. Even with the addition of Roger Clemens.

But it's because of their addition of "The Rocket" and the Dodgers' acquisition of Kevin Brown, another dominant pitcher, that I'm figuring it'll be New York and L.A. in the cross country World Series.

They'll face roadblocks en route to their 12th Big Dance together.

THE Yankees' biggest problem will be holding off the Baltimore Orioles to win the AL East, more so than beating the other two expected division winners -- the Cleveland Indians (Central) and the Anaheim Angels (West). The Orioles will be the AL wild-card.

As for the Dodgers, winning the NL West figures to be no sweat. But it'll be sweating time in the playoffs against the Atlanta Braves, who figure to win the NL East again, the Houston Astros, the Central runaway, and the surprising Cincinnati Reds, my boom-off-the-wall choice as the NL's wild-card team.

So where's Boston you ask? Well, since I'm still on sabbatical leave as a Red Sox fan, I won't be bugged by their fourth-place finish in the AL East, just ahead of the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

Sure, they've got Pedro Martinez, who might just beat out Clemens for the AL Cy Young Award this time. But Martinez can't pitch every day. And they'll miss Mo Vaughn. Can Jose Offerman replace the Mighty Mo, who docked at Anaheim? No way, Jose.

Iknow the Red Sox won their season opener yesterday. But you know that baseball adage that says the games you win in April count the same as those you win in September? File it. It doesn't matter with the Red Sox. They've won their season opener in six of the last seven years and look where that got them.

Anyway, this figures to be the last year of my sabbatical from being a Red Sox fan. Starting in 2000, I'll start the same way as I did in the previous century, rooting for the Red Sox.

Until then, you heard it here first about the Yankees and the Dodgers.

I'm rooting for the Yankees because of Clemens. And because it's a rather stress-free pastime, don't you think?

As for the Dodgers, they've never been a particular favorite of mine. But with Onan Masaoka, the Waiakea Kid, and fellow Korean Chan Ho Park on their pitching staff, what's not to like?

Did you notice, too, that Masaoka's wearing Orel Hershiser's No. 55? Surprise, it wasn't No. 50 -- as in Hawaii 5-0 -- which was the uniform jersey of another left-hander from the islands, Sid Fernandez.

Go, pinstripes and Dodger blue.