LOS ANGELES — The connective tissues stretch all the way across the country and back again, binding Brooklyn, Los Angeles and Queens. Through the years, through all the true bounces and bad hops and yellowed pages, the contents of this baseball triangle remain snugly bound.
Main characters recede and others emerge, and then it repeats all over again. But the strongest and most consistent connection between the Dodgers and the Mets remains Gil Hodges, the late, newly elected Hall of Famer whose No. 14 will be retired by the Dodgers here on Saturday night.
The Mets retired the same number for Hodges in 1973.