DODGERS NOTEBOOK : PIAZZA IGNORES BATTING RACE.

Talk about the National League batting title with Mike Piazza, and he winces. He remembers errands that had to be done yesterday. He bobs, even weaves. He ponders the impact of supermarket tabloids on recent presidential elections, and requests your input.

Anything but batting titles.

Piazza is batting .347, three points better than Ellis Burks, who on Monday and for the next two days stands across the diamond from Piazza, as the Dodgers play the Colorado Rockies for the final time in the regular season.

``I'm telling you the truth,'' Piazza said Monday. ``I really could care less. I'm not worried about if that guy wins or Tony Gwynn wins. What can you do? That's why it's such a dead issue with me.''

Burks is one of the few Rockies whose offensive numbers are not completely skewered by Coors Field. In perhaps the most remarkable statistic in baseball, the Rockies bat .349 at home and .226 on the road. While Burks has batted .389 at home, he is a sound .292 on the road, and probably has gathered some MVP votes along the way.

Piazza isn't surprised.

``I think someone's going to hit .400 here before someone hits 60 homers here,'' he said.

Coors Field has the largest dimensions in baseball.

``I think Tony Gwynn could hit .400 here, easily, if he played here,'' he said. ``That's not another knock on the field. Facts are facts.''

Paunch de Leon: At 39, Tim Wallach doesn't always have it anymore, and hitting coach Reggie Smith understands that. Smith lived through the slowed bat speed, the lapsed concentration and the diminished energy, especially in the closing seasons of his 17-year career.

However, he always knew where he could find those things. They waited for him in critical at-bats, when runners were in scoring position and the game was in the balance.

Smith called those situations his fountain of youth.

``It seemed like I could do it one or two times a game,'' Smith said. ``Tim will tell you he's at his best when men are on base.''

Wallach is a .243 hitter with runners in scoring position, .333 with fewer than two out. His game-winning, two-run single off Dennis Eckersley Sunday afternoon was among the season's most clutch hits.

Occasionally, as he did against Eck, he again is Wallach, circa 1987.

``I don't know about that,'' Wallach said with a laugh. ``I do know I like to hit in those situations, but I always have. I think there are players who don't like those situations, because they're afraid to fail.''