Giants’ Request Denied

The Giants and Dodgers have staged one of baseball’s most hotly contested rivalries for decades, and the action isn’t confined to the field.

Last season, Giant officials were miffed when the Dodgers refused to take part in a re-enactment of Bobby Thomson’s three-run home run off Ralph Branca that gave the Giants the 1951 National League pennant over the Dodgers.

The Dodgers also rankled the Giants when they would not agree to stop the game for a ceremony honoring San Francisco slugger Barry Bonds if Bonds broke Mark McGwire’s single-season home run record at Dodger Stadium last season.

The teams were at it again this week. The Giants asked the Dodgers to move Thursday’s 7 p.m. game to 1 p.m. so the Giants, who have a 1:15 p.m. home opener against San Diego on Friday, could return to San Francisco at a reasonable hour Thursday night.

The Dodgers refused, and when the Giants asked them to move the game up an hour, to 6 p.m., they got the same answer: No.

“The problem,” said Larry Baer, executive vice president of the Giants, “is we’ll probably get home at 2 a.m. [Friday morning] and have to play at 1 p.m. the next day.”

Derrick Hall, Dodger senior vice president of communications, said moving the game would cut too deep into television ratings and attendance.

“To have two day games during a week school is still in session would make it too difficult for families to come to games,” Hall said. “We considered it. We just couldn’t do it.”

Baer said the disagreement “wasn’t a huge deal,” but he acknowledged it added to the frosty relations between the teams.

“The funny thing is I get along well with [Dodger Chairman] Bob Daly and [President] Bob Graziano, we talk a lot about baseball matters,” Baer said. “We just can’t agree on specific things.”

*

Dave Roberts made a good first impression in his Dodger debut Tuesday. The center fielder, who beat out Marquis Grissom, McKay Christensen and Tom Goodwin for the job, singled, stole second and scored in the first inning and doubled and scored in the third.

Both times, Roberts advanced to third on Cesar Izturis bunts, for a sacrifice in the first inning and a single in the third, giving affirmation to the little-ball style and the aggressive approach Manager Jim Tracy has stressed all spring.

But the Giants scored five runs in the second, and the Dodgers managed only five hits on the day, a combination that sapped whatever enthusiasm the Dodgers might have had in the first inning.

“The way the first inning started, that was great, it was just like everyone scripted this spring, everything we hoped for,” Dodger first baseman Eric Karros said. “Hopefully, innings like that will continue for us. I think that will happen more often than Kevin Brown giving up five runs in one inning.”

Roberts hopes he and the speedy Izturis will bring an energy to the top of the order that the rest of the lineup can feed off.

“Over the long haul,” Roberts said, “if we continue to do things like that, we’ll end up with more wins than losses.”

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Giant shortstop Rich Aurilia singled in the first and second innings and now has seven consecutive hits off Brown.... The Dodgers agreed to terms on minor league contracts with catcher Todd Greene, a former Angel who was released by the New York Yankees this spring, shortstop Felix Martinez, who was released by Tampa Bay, and outfielder Scott Pose, who was released by Houston.

TONIGHT

DODGERS’

HIDEO NOMO

(13-10, 4.50 ERA in 2001)

vs.

GIANTS’

RUSS ORTIZ

(17-9, 3.29 ERA)

Dodger Stadium, 7 p.m.

TV--Fox Sports Net 2, ESPN2.

Radio--KXTA (1150), KWKW (1330).

Update--Nomo, who has added a nice slider to go with his forkball and fastball, was the Dodgers’ most consistent and effective starter in spring training, going 3-1 with a 1.80 earned-run average in six starts. The Japanese right-hander has a 7-2 career record and 1.84 ERA against the Giants and has been particularly effective against slugger Barry Bonds, limiting him to a .160 average (four for 25) and striking him out 10 times in 25 at-bats. Ortiz has 49 victories over the last three seasons, the most by a Giant pitcher since Hall of Famers Gaylord Perry and Juan Marichal won 58 and 51 games, respectively, from 1969-71.

Tickets--(323) 224-1448.