BLESSING IN DISGUISE? DODGERS COULD RALLY BEHIND THIS.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

Hang onto your hat. And keep your shirt on. The celebration can wait until October.

But did you hear what happened Wednesday?

Baseball handed the Dodgers the pennant.

On paper - the fax listing 16 players and three coaches suspended and fined for their roles in the Dodgers' brawl with Chicago fans last week - it looks as if Frank Robinson, the commissioner's vice president for on-field operations (in plainer terms: judge, jury and executioner), just choked the life out of a ballclub.

``This is a way of handicapping the Dodgers, you might say,'' manager Davey Johnson said a couple of hours after the punishments were handed down by Robinson.

Or . . . you might say exactly the opposite.

You might say this is the development that will make - not break - a championship team.

You might even say this is the greatest thing to happen on account of a Dodgers cap since a prankster put eye black in Kirk Gibson's, and Gibson declared that would be the last of the tomfoolery in 1988.

Why should 60 games worth of player suspensions be a good thing for the Dodgers? Here's why.

Teams wait all spring and summer - and fall, if they get that far - for rallying points like the one that just came to them through the fax machine.

Sometimes a long, hard, winning road trip brings a team together. Sometimes it takes a brawl to create that us-against-the-world feeling.

The Dodgers have had two such road trips already in 2000. In the midst of the second trip, they had the brawl, which began when a fan at Wrigley Field hit Chad Kreuter in the head and snatched the catcher's cap as he sat in the right-field bullpen during the ninth inning of a May 16 game against the Cubs.

Not coincidentally, the Dodgers won six games in a row after that incident in the Friendly Confines.

Now they have the unusually harsh suspensions to make them feel picked upon.

Sometimes, petty injustices lead to revolutions. This one can lead to the World Series.

If this doesn't kill the Dodgers, it will make them stronger.

``I told players to channel all their frustrations out on that (Cincinnati Reds) pitcher,'' Dodgers chairman Bob Daly said before Wednesday night's game at Dodger Stadium. ``I think they feel more motivation to stay together.''

Because it must feel as if the commissioner's office is trying to bust them apart.

The Dodgers have a right to be fighting mad. They knew a few of them would be punished for going over the line that separates players and fans. It didn't matter that they were provoked. A front-page photograph of a player with his fingers around a fan's throat is not something baseball wishes to encourage.

But suspensions for 19 Dodgers? Even the ones who appeared to reach into the stands to break up, not inflame, the violence? When, had they backed off, players would have been ridiculed for failing to support a teammate? A suspension for the bullpen catcher, for God's sake?

Baseball seems to be going out of its way to send a message: The paying customer comes first (except in matters of strikes, lockouts, ticket prices, World Series starting times . . .).

It's an overreaction.

Which is different from saying it's the end of the Dodgers' pennant hopes, as the house men on talk radio were predicting Wednesday.

Forget about the three coaches, suspended eight days each. That's an inconvenience, not a calamity. Then, forget about starting pitchers Darren Dreifort, Eric Gagne and Chan Ho Park, suspended three days each. Rearrange the rotation and they needn't miss a turn.

Now you're talking about 51 games worth of suspensions. Think about this: If Gary Sheffield's ankle injury had been serious enough to sideline him for 51 games, would we be saying the season is over? No.

The Major League Players' Association is challenging the suspensions, and the Dodgers have requested an appeal. Maybe they'll be reduced.

If not, look at the bright side.

The Dodgers, as ever a club in search of a personality, have just acquired one by decree of Major League Baseball. They are the big, bad Dodgers. A motorcycle gang in doubleknits. Tough guys, scrappers, public enemies.

Suddenly they have the look and sound of winners. Instead of cursing Frank Robinson, they should doff their caps and say, ``Thanks.''

CAPTION(S):

17 photos

Photo:

(1 -- color) Dodgers catcher Chad Kreuter was handed the largest suspension and fine Wednesday.

(2 -- color) TERRY ADAMS 

(3 -- color) GERONIMO BERROA

(4 -- color) DARREN DREIFORT

(5 -- color) MIKE FETTERS 

(6 -- color) ERIC GAGNE

(7 -- color) SHAWN GREEN 

(8 -- color) TODD HUNDLEY

(9 -- color) ERIC KARROS

(10 -- color) CHAD KREUTER

(11 -- color) ONAN MASAOKA

(12 -- color) ALAN MILLS

(13 -- color) ANTONIO OSUNA

(14 -- color) CHAN HO PARK

(15 -- color) CARLOS PEREZ

(16 -- color) F.P. SANTANGELO

(17 -- color) GARY SHEFFIELD