Programming notes

You don’t have to be much of a sports fan to appreciate the story possibilities that are out there as a result of both local baseball teams making the playoffs.

The Angels, down in Anaheim, have been ahead of the pack all season and next week will begin a quest to reach the World Series for the second time in a few years.

The Dodgers’ ride into post-season play has been much more cinematic, with plot turns and hero characters, and with a third act that so far has been pretty smashing.

If you haven’t followed the saga, the Dodgers began casting this season by giving star billing to Joe Torre, the old baseball hand with a tilt to his walk and a classic face that would look right at home in a Godfather movie.

He came from the Yankees, where his teams won plenty of games year after year, but never enough to satisfy the ravenous New York sports media.

So Torre moved west, where Dodgers owner Frank McCourt –- the executive producer of this picture -- was happy to put his name up on the marquee.

Torre spent his first few months learning who his players were and what they could do on the field. Which was not very much, as it turned out.

For most of the season the Dodgers languished in the middle of the pack – not bad enough to qualify as slapstick comedy, not good enough for blockbuster status. Just kind of average and bland.

Then in late July, the Dodgers imported a new leading man. Manny Ramirez was the star the Dodgers needed. He has won the World Series. He knows the pressure of having the cameras on him, and shrugs it off.

His first week in a Dodger uniform he began hitting home runs and he has never stopped. Manny almost instantly became the most popular Dodger hitter since Mike Piazza, which is a bit of shock since Manny only became available because his old team, the Boston Red Sox, came to loathe him.

In Boston, Manny would loaf on the field and, at least once, was late to take the field because he was on his cell phone. But here, in Hollywood tradition, his rehab has become an inspirational tale.

Manny is the first player at the stadium before games, the hardest worker on the team. His gregariousness has loosened up what was a notoriously taut clubhouse. He’s converted cynical sports columnists into believers. And he’s given $35,000, so far, to the cancer ward at Mattel Children’s Hospital.

There’s a buzz in the stadium whenever Manny comes up, and wigs showing his trademark dreadlocks have been popular sale items at the concession stands.

All this Manny love shows the value of star power in Los Angeles.

In Anaheim, the Angels have had a much better year -- and they have some great players like Vladimir Guerrero. Their late-season acquisition – Mark Teixeira – has been almost as potent at bat as Manny. But other than Angel fans, nobody knows it.

That’s because the Angels are an LA team in name only. Bill Dwyre, the Times’ former sports editor, devoted a column this week to explaining how it is the best team in baseball isn't even the biggest story in its own city.

Some of it is tradition, some of it culture. Vin Scully is a big part of it -- Dodger fans have enjoyed the most revered voice in the game for 50 years, while the Angels have cast a long line of what Dwyre calls “competent game-describers.”

Whatever the reason, as the playoffs heat up next week, the Angels will be favorites to go all the way. Dodgers fans just hope to win a World Series game for the first time since 1988.

It would be the best story of all if they meet in the World Series for the first time. But win or lose, we already know who owns the hearts of LA.

For KCRW, this has been Kevin Roderick with LA Observed.