DODGERS NOTEBOOK : ECKERSLEY CAN'T FORGET THIS MOMENT.

Byline: Tim Brown Daily News Staff Writer

Nearly eight years later, Dennis Eckersley, the pitcher, and Ron Hassey, the catcher, drove into the Dodger Stadium parking lot, their minds fully on Kirk Gibson, the hitter.

Eckersley turned to Hassey, grinned, and said, ``Here it is, Hass. This is where you screwed up. This is where you called that horrible pitch.''

They laughed. Hey, it's been eight years.

Eckersley, now 41 and pitching for the St. Louis Cardinals, stood out on the mound at Dodger Stadium on Monday, for the first time since that 3-and-2 slider in Game 1 of the 1988 World Series found the right-field bleachers, courtesy of Gibson. He threw 40 pitches in the early afternoon and then declared his right elbow sound. He'll come off the disabled list on Thursday.

Before Monday's game, he strolled through right field and remembered that moment, recently named Los Angeles sports' most memorable. Then he walked up the runway, and felt the way he did that night, when he blew the save that changed the course of that series. The Dodgers defeated the Oakland A's in five games. Tony La Russa, who managed that team, now manages the Cardinals. Hassey serves as his bench coach.

``So many things have happened since then,'' Eckersley said. ``A lot of great moments. I was just a pup when that happened, in the relief world. That was my first full year (as a closer). That's 300 saves ago, damn near. But I'll never forget that. The Dodgers were destined.''

He remembered the noise in the aftermath. He remembered everything in slow motion, almost as if he were outside his body, watching himself walk up the tunnel as a loser, seeing teammates avert their gazes.

``It was like watching an old film,'' Eckersley said. ``That walk up that runway right there. It was like, `Wow, this was a big one.' ''

Gibson, for whom Eckersley didn't particularly care, kept showing up in his dreams, for months after the home run.

``Oh, yeah,'' he said. ``You can't control what you dream.''

The issue never left him. It can't. Not through 270 saves or three more league championship series or two more World Series or three more All-Star appearances. When he is called in from the bullpen, hostile fans scream one of two things: ``Get a haircut,'' or ``Gibson.''

Of the latter, said Eckersley, whose hair still falls to his shoulders, ``It's amazing how many people do that. Hey, Gibson

People want to hurt your feelings. It's like, is that all you remember? But, it really was a wonderful thing for baseball. It juiced it. Of course, it was at my expense.''

This, however, is not a Bill Buckner experience. Buckner never had a chance to redeem himself. Eckersley did. And has.

``We were lucky because we went to the World Series the next year, and the next year,'' Eckersley said. ``I had a chance to make it go away. That erased some of it. But you never live it down.''

Notes: Right-hander Darren Hall, who had elbow surgery in late April, will throw for the first time since on Thursday or Friday, in Atlanta. Hall's goal is to return to the bullpen in September, when rosters expand. . . . Shortstop Greg Gagne (sprained ankle), asked when he would be able to play again, and if he would need a minor-league rehabilitation assignment, said, ``I don't know and I don't know.'' It was a brief conversation.