<strong><span class="subhead">Bowa on Philly fans</span></strong></p><p>Larry Bowa&#8217;s pugnacious personality often seemed to embody Philadelphia fans, first as an overachieving shortstop and later as a manager.</p><p>&#8220;They love their sports teams,&#8221; said Bowa, who currently is the Dodgers&#8217; third-base coach. &#8220;They let you know when you&#8217;re not doing well, but they also let you know when you&#8217;re doing things right.</p><p>&#8220;The one thing they&#8217;re not is front-runners; they come out. Watching the playoffs against Milwaukee, it was quite a sight. And I told our guys if they thought Chicago was bad, they&#8217;re in for a rude awakening, because it&#8217;s not even close.&#8221;</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Nothing amiss</span></strong></p><p>While Bowa acknowledges the oddity of being in the opposing dugout against his former team, not so Philadelphia first-base coach Davey Lopes, who was part of the LA teams that beat Bowa and the Phillies in the 1977 and 1978 playoffs.</p><p>&#8220;It&#8217;s not going to be strange for me, simply because I haven&#8217;t been part of the Dodgers&#8217; organization since 1981,&#8221; Lopes said. &#8220;There are only two people over in that organization that I remember: Tommy Lasorda and Billy DeLury.</p><p>&#8220;There&#8217;s no attachment whatsoever. The players I played with, I&#8217;m sure they&#8217;re not going to show up. So that&#8217;s the only way I would have some kind of emotional feeling playing against them.&#8221;</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Adopted son (sometimes)</span></strong></p><p>Dodgers outfielder Manny Ramirez said he regarded Phillies manager Charlie Manuel as a father figure when the two were together for several years in the Cleveland organization.</p><p>Manuel agreed &#8212; to a point.</p><p>&#8220;Manny is like my son,&#8221; he said. &#8220;I&#8217;ve been around him a long time. But those guys over in Cleveland, they used to say anybody who hit good was my son. They were probably right to a certain (point). But like if you don&#8217;t hit, maybe you&#8217;re not my son no more.&#8221;</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Figuring the odds</span></strong></p><p>Chew on this from the mystical world of oddsmaking, courtesy of Richard Gardner, the Bodog Sports Book manager: The Phillies are favored to win the NLCS, but the Dodgers are a better bet to win the World Series.</p><p>&#8220;This seems to stem from a public perception that the new-look, Manny Ramirez-led Dodgers are a legitimate threat to whichever team emerges from the ALCS,&#8221; Gardner said. &#8220;The same can not be said for the Phillies, who the public seem to believe are too strong a favorite in the series.&#8221;</p><p>All sorts of other odds on the postseason are available at <a href="http://www.bodoglife.com">www.bodoglife.com</a>.</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Black date in Brooklyn</span></strong></p><p>It was 51 years ago Wednesday &#8212; Oct. 8, 1957 &#8212; that Dodgers president Walter O&#8217;Malley broke hearts throughout Brooklyn by announcing plans to relocate the franchise to Los Angeles.</p><p><strong><span class="subhead">Head to head</span></strong></p><p>The eight games comprising the regular-season series between the two teams took part in a 15-day span in August. The Dodgers swept four games Aug. 11-14 in LA before the Phillies gained payback with a four-game sweep Aug. 22-25 in Philly.</p><p>The Dodgers hold a big edge in the all-time series: 1,133-888. They also beat the Phillies in the 1977 and 1978 NLCS. The Phillies beat LA in the 1983 NLCS.