ST. LOUIS — A once-glorious franchise has been restored.
The Dodgers are four wins away from the World Series. They take on the Cardinals on Friday night at Busch Stadium in Game 1 of the NLCS. It’s been 25 years since they last won the World Series.
They haven’t been back since.
This is a franchise that has been dragged through the mud of a Frank McCourt ownership, a franchise that had to spend record amounts of cash just to become relevant again.
“The Dodgers are back, that’s DODGERS, all caps,” Dodgers president and CEO Stan Kasten told The Post.
Kasten and the new ownership doesn’t just want this team to be the Dodgers. It’s DODGERS, baby. The Bums are back.
This team is all about making a splash, spending big money and bringing in big-time players. They are a big-market success story. The Dodgers embrace the Hollywood stage.
They want to own L.A. They do right now.
“You can measure a lot in a city and its passion and its pride for its sports teams by how many hats you see downtown,” GM Ned Colletti said of life in L.A. “And I see that Dodger hats are everywhere.”
Like Randy Newman sings: From the South Bay to the Valley. From the West Side to the East Side.
Finally, it’s Victory Boulevard again.
In the dramatic 4-3 comeback win over the Braves at Dodger Stadium on Monday night, when the Dodgers catapulted to the NLCS on Juan Uribe’s eight-inning home run, the 54,438 fans never gave up and never quieted down. They stayed late, too.
“Remember all those stories about the early-leaving Dodger fans?” Kasten said. “Bullbleep! And it was really loud.”
All night. All caps.
The Dodgers led all of baseball this year in home attendance and road attendance. They made a statement and now they are winning series in the postseason again. Four more wins and the Dodgers are back in the World Series.
This always has been one of the proudest baseball franchises, going back to their days in Brooklyn when they were the Bums and the cry was “wait ’til next year.”
Next year is now. The Dodgers have embraced their history, and that’s why lefty legend Sandy Koufax was embracing current lefty legend Clayton Kershaw on Monday night in the champagne-drenched clubhouse.
“This is very special,” said Koufax, a dignified, understated man. “I’m so happy for the ownership and the players. This is a team with good chemistry.”
Koufax knows about great teams and great chemistry. From 1959 through 1965, the Dodgers won the World Series three times, including sweeping the Yankees in 1963. They went back to the World Series in 1966 and lost. Koufax’s career World Series ERA is 0.95 over eight games. Since his retirement, the Dodgers have won the World Series only twice: 1981 and 1988.
Colletti is big on chemistry, too.
“In 2010, Juan Uribe was a pivotal player on a [Giants] championship team, and that’s why we signed him,” Colletti said. “When he gets the moment, he’s looking to go bang with it, he’s looking for something big and that’s what he does.”
“We look for guys who have been there before. We look for guys who aren’t afraid of the moment, the guys who can excel in the most crucial games. We’ve been fortunate to pick up guys who can contribute. To get to this point you have to have a lot of people who contribute.”
Six Dodgers starters hit over .333 in the NLDS, led by Hanley Ramirez (.500) and ready-for-October rookie Yasiel Puig (.471). Uribe hit .375, Carl Crawford notched a .353 mark, and Adrian Gonzalez and A.J. Ellis each batted .333. Four of those six were not Dodgers until after July 25, 2012.
This is a baseball makeover, though it did take a little while for the pieces to come together.
“We had the ups and downs, we had the incredibly bad start, but we hung together, and to see it come together like this, jeez, it’s a great feeling,” Kasten said.
They are again the DODGERS, all caps.