At first glance, there were hardly any.

In all, the 1988 Dodgers had 10 losing streaks of three games, but nothing longer. They had five losing streaks of two games. That was it.

However, though happy memories of October prevail in our minds, there were stretches in '88 that vexed fans of the soon-to-be World Champions. Believe it or not, Franklin Stubbs, Jeff Hamilton and Alfredo Griffin didn't get the job done all the time.

From May 11 to May 22, the Dodgers went 3-8.

From June 6 to June 17, the Dodgers went 4-8.

From July 27 to August 9, the Dodgers went 3-9.

The rest of 1988, the Dodgers went 84-42 - .667 ball. I might add that they won the National League West despite, as a sign of things to come, a team OPS of .552 in September.

Having lost eight of their past nine games, the 2003 Dodgers are in their worst streak of the year. Tonight against the San Diego Padres, the Dodgers will field a lineup that will put the hallowed feebleness of the 1988 team to shame.

And yet somehow the 2003 team is one that has had winning streaks of 10 games and eight games.

This year's Dodgers are traffic-jam frustrating, but they sure are interesting. Count Rugen ("I'm sure you've discovered my deep and abiding interest in pain.") appears to have them on his Machine, draining one life away from them at a time.

All recent evidence to the contrary, I don't quite believe that Westley dies here.