I don’t like the latter half of September. It goes by in a flash. Before I know it, the fall quarter has started, a bunch of new students have swarmed the UCLA campus and I’m back to 4-hour classes and lots of reading.

The trouble with late September is baseball. In case you didn’t know, I love the Dodgers. I’ve been following since I could say “el Toro” and remember jumping up and down wildly during the 1988 World Series with my dad. I’ve been a bad fan this season, going only to two games (last year I went to about a dozen). Then again, I’m on the road almost as much as the Dodgers.

As the season winds down, the races for a berth in the playoffs come down to the wire. I love and hate the excitement. I ignore my studies as I watch late and post-season games.

This brings me to tonight’s Dodgers vs. Padres games. First, I must say that I love my roommate for ordering cable. That means I can watch the Dodgers games on cable.

I started watching tonight and then stopped. The game wasn’t going so good. Dodgers were down 4-0 at the end of the first inning. By the end of the third, they had tied it up. The game continued like that all the way until the ninth inning. At this point, San Diego was up 9-5. A lesser fan would have turned off the TV and prepared tomorrow’s lunch.

I kept watching. Bottom of the ninth, Jeff Kent comes up to bat. He hits a homerun.

J.D. Drew came next. He hit the second homerun of the inning.

At this point, I called my brother wondering, what’s happening? I didn’t want to get too excited, because no one wants to be let down. The Padres managers then brings in a new pitcher. The excitement at Chavez Ravine keeps building as the score is now 9-7.

Oh, and there are no outs.

Russell Martin came up to bat. He hits a homerun.

The Dodgers are making three homeruns in a row seem like the norm.

Marlon Anderson came up to bat. He hits a homerun, the second of the night (he went five for five!).

Okay. Did you get that? FOUR homeruns in a row. The fine fact-finders at Fox Sports inform viewers that this has only happened three other times in Major League history. The last time was in 1964.

The excitement in the 9th inning ended three batters later.

I was talking to Gabby about the game. The top of 10th inning scared us. The Padres didn’t give up so easily, got a couple of men on base and scored a run. Going in to the bottom of the 10th the score was 10-9.

Gabby gave her analysis of what needed to happen, “Lofton needs to get on base and Nomar needs to homer.”

Kenny Lofton gets walked. Vin Scully calls him a rabbit. Lofton has legs and has stolen 27 of 31 bases.

With Lofton on first, Nomar Garciaparra comes up to bat. Nomar had missed the last two games after an injury on Friday night.

Nomar must have been listening to Gabby.

He hit a homerun in to the left field bleachers.

The crowd got even crazier. Randy Newman’s I Love LA blared over the PA system as it always does when the Dodgers win.

Vin Scully stayed quiet for a minute as Nomar ran the bases with a slight limp. It was almost a replay of the Dodgers’ win in game one of the 1988 World Series when Kirk Gibson hit a game-winning homerun that no Dodger fan will ever forget.

Vin Scully ended his broadcast with a simple line, “I forgot to tell you, the Dodgers are in first place.”

I hope that doesn’t change.

ESPN recap, top photo from ESPN, and the other two photos by Malingering