Manager Tommy Lasorda danced for a city still giddy over the Los Angeles Dodgers' World Series triumph over the Oakland Athletics, then dropped an I-told-you-so number on the rest of baseball.
"When we went to spring training, we had one goal in mind," Lasorda told thousands of cheering fans Monday at a rally on the south lawn of City Hall following a downtown parade."It wasn't to just win the division. It wasn't to win the playoffs. It wasn't to get into the World Series, but it was to win the World Series.
"No one outside of our fans and the baseball team and the Dodger organization ever had a feeling that we could win the division."
That said, Lasorda took a jab at a trio of National League West colleagues.
"Pete Rose said, `I'm not worried about the Dodgers, I'm worried about San Francisco and Houston.' But you know what? He was right. Because when we went eight games above them (the Cincinnati Reds), he was tied with San Francisco and Houston.
"Roger Craig said, `I promised the Giant fans that we will be in the World Series.' He was right. He was there watching us play.
"Hal Lanier said, `We can beat the Dodgers. We know we can beat them. If we don't beat them, I shouldn't be working here.' He's no longer working," Lasorda said of Lanier, who was fired as the Houston Astros' manager at the end of the season.
"Then we went to play the playoffs against the team that beat us 10 out of 11 times (the New York Mets), and the whole world said, `They don't belong the same field with 'em.' They were right. They didn't belong on the field with us.
"Then we went in to play the Fall Classic against a team that won 104 games, the third-greatest record in the last 50 years in the major leagues," Lasorda said of the A's.
"They didn't want to play the Dodgers. Don Baylor said they wanted to play the best team in the National League East. But who did they play? They played the best team in the National League."
Lasorda kept his promise and did a few unidentifiable dance steps for the crowd in what has become known as the Plaza of Champions. The last celebration here was in June for the NBA champion Los Angeles Lakers.
The next stop for the Dodgers is a White House visit Wednesday.
Kirk Gibson, meanwhile, hinted that he'd rather still be playing ball.
Because of knee and hamstring injuries, Gibson's lone World Series appearance was a storybook, two-run homer in the bottom of the ninth inning of Game 1 that beat the A's 5-4.
"It's kind of a sad day for me, I guess; it's a good day of celebration," Gibson said.
"In late January I made the most important decision of my life at that time, and that was to come here and join the city of Los Angeles and the fans and the organization. And I made a couple of statements that many, quite frankly, laughed at," Gibson continued.
"I said that I thought the organization was committed to us being world champs. I certainly was here to be world champs, and quite a few people thought I was crazy to say that."