LEGENDS, OR THE FALL? THERE ARE PLAYERS, TEAMS -- EVEN A LEAGUE -- THAT MUST STEP UP IN BASEBALL'S POSTSEASON.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

ALCS, Game 7, ninth inning, bases jammed and none other than Alex Rodriguez striding to the plate. Yankees win or lose the pennant right here.

This Test-of-Manhood Moment brought to you by Viagra. Well, would you listen to that. I don't believe I've ever heard home fans boo a hitter in this situation before ...

While waiting to see out how this inevitable scene plays out, we note that Alex Rodriguez is only the most on-the-spot of the people, places and things with reputations at risk in the baseball playoffs that open today.

Here's the non-A-Rod Top 10, in totally random order, or something like it.

Grady Little. Too bad Pedro Martinez's injuries mean no Grady vs. Pedro game in the Dodgers-Mets opener Wednesday. Still, the over-under on how many times the TV will show Little's walk to the mound in the 2003 Red Sox-Yankees ALCS series is 34, or every time this month that the Dodgers manager looks like he's thinking about a pitching change. If Little manages from the gut and not by the book, he'd better get it right.

Tony LaRussa. They brought up Gene Mauch when the Cardinals let a seven-game lead on Sept. 20 slip to one-half game in eight days. Now, as the Cards open with the Padres, the legend LaRussa must unchain himself from his own. Eight of his 10 playoff series losses with Oakland and St. Louis came against teams with inferior records, and he's a longshot to get a chance to improve on a 1-3 World Series record.

Barry Zito. Not since LaRussa was the skipper have the A's made it past round one, going 0-9 in games that could have clinched series in 2000, 2001, 2002 and 2003. Only Zito and Eric Chavez are the faces of this A's era, and Zito has the biggest reason to try to pitch them past the Twins. By the time he starts his usual winter workout routine at Pierce College in Woodland Hills, he'll be on the free-agent market.

Jason Giambi. The Yankees first baseman/designated hitter shares Rodriguez's harsh spotlight after calling out A-Rod in that Sports Illustrated article. Giambi's career playoff and World Series numbers are just fine -- a .301 average, .928 on-base-plus-slugging, six homers in 36 games.

Interesting that Rodriguez's numbers are the same, if not slightly better -- .305, .927, six homers in 31 games.

National League. Or, as soccer fans would call it, the Second Division. The NL has lost six of the past eight and 10 of the past 14 World Series and hasn't won two in a row since 1981-82. The St. Louis team that gave the NL its last World Series repeat had Jim Kaat pitching for it.

That's the Jim Kaat who just retired from broadcasting.

Not that this is likely to change in 2006. The AL playoff teams were a combined 49-23 (.681) in interleague games, the NL playoff teams 23-37 (.383), the AL percentage approximating the 1929 A's and the NL's matching the 2006 Royals.

Greg Maddux. In Maddux's Hall of Fame career, the difference between poetry and great poetry is his October record, which is 10-10 despite a good 3.22 ERA in 31 postseason games. The Dodgers are giving Maddux the stage on which to make us forget that. He'll pitch Game 3 against New York at Dodger Stadium, where his ERA is 1.76 this year.

Mets. In the battle for the tabloids' back pages, the Mets were winning more games than the Yankees until September, when things began to fall apart. Now it's hard to miss the fact this was the Mets' best regular season since, um, 1988. Now if the Dodgers' Russell Martin has some Mike Scioscia lightning in his bat, the Mets could complete a quick fall from their city's good graces.

Tigers. It's the Mets pattern, minus New York and a division title. After their embarrassing collapse, capped by the come-from-ahead loss in game 162 that cost them the Central, the Tigers need to be competitive in the Yankees series that begins today or risk making ``one-year wonders'' an exaggeration.

ESPN. If the network staff is finished mourning the Red Sox, it might notice the bright side of Boston's absence from the playoffs: Now there's time for even more Yankees coverage, expanding from 12 hours a day to 24!

Let's hope not.

Trevor Hoffman. In a two-week span, Hoffman 1) gave up back-to-back, ninth-inning home runs to the Dodgers with first place at stake, 2) broke the career saves record, and 3) gave up back-to-back, ninth-inning homers to the Diamondbacks in a game with the division on the line. Which Hoffman shows up to face the Cardinals?

Those of us who prefer professional to college sports like the larger back stories of pro athletes. As fun as it is to watch a young athlete blossom, it's better to watch an old one try to live up to or live down past glory or failure.

Among sports fans' perverse thrills is watching an otherwise happy, successful, $25 million-a-year man shrink so badly that we can, for a sneering moment, feel superior to him.

A-Rod steps in ...

heymodesti(AT_SIGN)aol.com

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CAPTION(S):

9 photos, 4 boxes

Photo:

(1 -- color) NEW YORK YANKEES' ALEX RODRIGUEZ

Ezra Shaw/Getty Images

(2) LOWE 

(3) HERNANDEZ

(4) PEAVY

(5) CARPENTER

(6) ZITO

(7) SANTANA

(8) ROBERTSON

(9) WANG

Box:

(1) DODGERS vs. N.Y. METS

(2) SAN DIEGO vs. ST. LOUIS

(3) OAKLAND vs. MINNESOTA

(4) DETROIT vs. N.Y. YANKEES