48. Chief Noc-a-Homa and Joe Morgan

The two leading hitters for the 1982 Dodgers were named Topsy and Turvy. The ping-ponging jolts of that season, even more than in years like 1951 and 1962, left Dodger fans virtually seasick.

Defending their 1981 World Series title with much of that team’s core intact, the ’82 Dodgers found themselves blindsided by the Atlanta Braves, who had an MLB-record 13 consecutive wins to start the season and held a 71/2 -game NL West lead over the fourth-place Dodgers half a month into the season. By the last day of May, Los Angeles closed within three games of the Braves, only to get swept in Atlanta in early June. When the third-place Dodgers returned to Atlanta on July 30, they trailed the Braves by 101/2 games in the standings and 8–3 in the sixth inning of the first game of a doubleheader.

In those days, the Braves had a mascot named Chief Noc-a-Homa, who held court from a teepee placed in the outfield stands. In the 21st century, he would have struggled against the test of political correctness, but the bigger issue back in the ’80s was that when Atlanta was doing well, the Chief’s teepee occupied some very saleable seating real estate. With the Braves’ red-hot start bringing pennant fever to Atlanta by summertime, owner Ted Turner had the teepee removed so that more seats could be sold.

For those who lived through it, it was an unforgettable decision. Starting by rallying for two runs in the sixth and five in the seventh to beat the Braves 10–9, the Dodgers saw their fortunes shoot upward just as those of the Braves collapsed. Los Angeles won 12 of its next 13 and 17 of 22, while Atlanta lost an astonishing 19 of 21. Within three weeks of Noc-a-Homa’s banishment, the Dodgers had gone from a double-digit deficit to a four-game lead.

Responding to the panic of Braves fans who certainly were going to be less likely to buy tickets if the team’s collapse continued, Turner reinstated the teepee. Atlanta promptly went on a 13–2 binge and, just like that, the Dodgers were looking up at the Braves in the standings again.

The teams would jockey for position for the remainder of the hold-your-breath season. Meanwhile, the San Francisco Giants lurked. The descendants of Bobby Thomson’s miracle workers were a fourth-place 66–67 on September 1, nine games out of first. But their own 18–4 spurt, capped by a three consecutive one-run victories in Los Angeles, created a logjam in the West with one week to go: the Dodgers at 85–70; the Braves and Giants each at 84–71.

Heading into enemy territory on the final weekend of the season, the Dodgers eliminated the Giants with 4–0 and 15–2 victories Friday and Saturday. But the Dodgers had stumbled earlier in the week, and trailed Atlanta entering the final day by one game. For the second time in three years, the Dodgers would be playing on the final day to extend their regular season into a tiebreaker game.

Fernando Valenzuela would be the starting pitcher, but he was gone for a pinch-hitter in the top of the seventh with the bases loaded in a 2–2 tie, a decision that stood in contrast to manager Tommy Lasorda’s do-or-die approach with Valenzuela in his final start the year before during the 1981 World Series. The game was then turned over to two pitchers: Tom Niedenfuer and Terry Forster. If only the Dodgers had had a crystal ball.

Niedenfuer gave up a single and a double, prompting Lasorda to send in Forster with one out in the seventh. Giants pinch-hitter Jim Wohlford struck out, bringing up left-handed hitting second baseman Joe Morgan.

Through the Dodgers’ first 1612/3 games of the season, Forster had not allowed a home run to a left-handed batter. After the game, an inconsolable Forster, who had missed most of the previous three seasons because of two surgeries, told Mike Littwin of the Los Angeles Times that he wanted to run and grab the 1–2 slider to Morgan as soon as he let go of it. But Morgan’s bat got there first, blasting it over the right-field fence for a three-run homer.

“I live for those kind of moments,” Forster said. “That’s what I’ve worked for. What’s the use of working hard when you go out and make a bleeping pitch like that?”

The Dodgers got doubles from Dusty Baker and Ken Landreaux with one out in the eighth to bring the tying run to the plate. But none of the team’s remaining five batters—including Steve Garvey and Ron Cey, in what would turn out to be the final at-bats of their historic Dodgers careers—could reach base. Bill Russell grounded out to end the game, thereby handing the division over to Atlanta. Chief Noc-a-Homa would get a seat for the playoffs and, in a coin-toss of a season, the Dodgers had landed on their heads.