SWAGGER STILL NOT INCLUDED.

Byline: KEVIN MODESTI

If these Dodgers go on to win anything bigger than the game they pulled out Monday night, they will do it not as swaggering champions but as perpetual and perhaps epic surprises.

Brake lights will always be flashing in the parking lot, the way they once did for Kirk Gibson and the way they just did for Marlon Anderson.

One Dodger roared early in the heat of this epic game against the San Diego Padres, first base coach Mariano Duncan taking loud exception to the shouts of Jake Peavy after a first inning-ending strikeout. Four Dodgers thundered late, their consecutive home runs in the ninth sending it to extras, where Nomar Garciaparra's homer at 11:04 p.m. brought them from behind again to win 11-10. The Dodgers strutted off the field.

But while the Dodgers are a first-place team again, a first-place aura is not among their glowing qualities.

They're doing this with a conspicuous absence of the swagger that would reassure fans, tell pennant-race rivals they're outclassed and tell inferior opponents not to bother.

``I think it's a big plus when you have it (swagger),'' said Grady Little, the Dodgers' manager, in the dugout before the game. ``There's been times when we've had it, and there's been times when we haven't. Right now would be a good time to get it back. We haven't had a whole lot of swagger when we're playing San Diego this year, to be honest with you.''

It's up for debate whether the Dodgers, one-half game ahead of San Diego after salvaging a split of the four-game series, ever have flashed swagger in 2006. To be credited with swagger, you have to do at least one of the following:

Stare down your closest competitor. Instead, the Dodgers have been dominated by San Diego, which, even with Monday's loss, is 13-5 this season against the Dodgers.

Toss aside the also-rans with a haughty ``go away, kid, you bother me.'' Instead, September has seen the Dodgers go 4-5 against Colorado, Milwaukee and Chicago, felled by the mighty sticks of Troy Tulowitzki and Tony Graffanino and a six-error performance by the Cubs.

Stride John Wayne-like into other ballparks and announce to foes and fans, ``Bring it on.'' Instead, the Dodgers have one of baseball's worst records on the road, and not since April have they won a series on the road against a team with a .500-plus record.

Line up behind an invincible pitcher or two, guys with postseason grit, guys like Derek Lowe and Brad Penny. Instead, since the All-Star break, the Dodgers had managed only a 13-12 record when Lowe and Penny started.

Radiate character. Instead, with Eric Gagne out of the picture, the task of leading by more than example falls to less-demonstrative Garciaparra, Jeff Kent and Greg Maddux. As for J.D. Drew, the man in the middle of the lineup still projects all the presence of Boo Radley.

We're about to see how far a club can go without all that.

I did some online research, and it appears that right now, most everybody in sports either has the swagger (in recent newspaper articles the word is attached to the New York Yankees, Winnipeg Blue Bombers, Scottish national team, Rockhurst High School of Missouri and Matt Kenseth), just lost the swagger (Oklahoma), ``seemed to have regained the swagger'' but really hadn't (Philadelphia Eagles) or was looking to regain the swagger over the weekend (University of Florida -- mission accomplished). No mention of this year's Dodgers, who don't have it, haven't had it and are past the major-league deadline for acquiring it.

To old Dodgers -- and old Dodgers fans -- it's an outrage that any Dodgers team lacks swagger. If Yankees swagger has been passed down through decades of American League dominance, then shouldn't Dodgers swagger have been passed down through decades of National League success?

Don Newcombe, the MVP and Cy Young Award winner in Brooklyn, defines swagger as ``an air of importance'' and ``a proudness.'' He took his lessons on the subject from no less than Jackie Robinson, Roy Campanella, Pee Wee Reese and Carl Furillo.

``It's being proud of what you're doing and where you're doing it,'' Newcombe said on the field before Monday's game. ``You let the other team know you're important and you're going to kick their ass.''

The '06 Dodgers haven't had much chance to practice their strut. Their proudest moments (winning 17 of 18 in July and August, for instance) have been answers to crises (losing 13 of 14 immediately before), which speaks of laudable resiliency amid turmoil -- but hardly causes chests to puff.

Monday night unfolded just that way and ended as the most dramatic example yet of the club's ability to dust itself off.

Penny four first-inning runs. The Dodgers used home runs by Anderson and Rafael Furcal to catch up.

The Padres took a 9-5 lead to the ninth, with Jon Adkins on the mound and the great Trevor Hoffman in the bullpen. Kent, Drew, Russell Martin and Anderson ripped off the first back-to-back-to-back-to-back homers in the major leagues in 42 years, and those fans who left early hit the brakes in the parking lot.

The Padres went ahead 10-9 in the 10th. Then in the bottom of the inning, Kenny Lofton walked and Garciaparra turned on a 3-1 pitch from Rudy Seanez and parked it in the bleachers.

It was right at the end of the first inning, after Jeff Kent had doubled in Furcal with the Dodgers' first run and Drew took a called third strike for the third out, that Duncan and Peavy clashed. Peavy seemed to be shouting in celebration of the strikeout as he walked toward the dugout. Duncan seemed to say something, and Peavy turned toward the coach. Duncan pointed and yelled, and San Diego third baseman Russell Branyan got between them.

No punches were thrown, but maybe the incident put a little starch in the Dodgers' jeans, and maybe that's why they stood so tall later in the night.

Of course, if swagger can be acquired this easily, it would be news to Jackie Robinson.

heymodesti(AT_SIGN)aol.com

[phone]

CAPTION(S):

photo

Photo:

Pitcher Jake Peavy, right, is held back by teammate Geoff Blum as he yells at home plate umpire Gary Cederstrom.

Jeff Gross/Getty Images