Classic rock: Dodgers dance with ghosts

Third baseman Justin Turner punched the button, hopped on the ancient elevator in Dodger Stadium and traveled in baseball’s wayback time machine, all the way to 1988.

Game 1 of the first World Series staged at this ballpark in 29 years was hipster retro cool. Dodgers ace Clayton Kershaw won a classic pitchers’ duel, beating Houston 3-1 on Tuesday in a nifty 2 hours and 28 minutes. Crank up “Simply Irresistible” by Robert Palmer. On vinyl, please. Because the Dodgers made 54,253 fans and a whole lot of ghosts get up and dance.

On the 45th anniversary of the day baseball’s most famous No. 42 passed away, the family of the late, great Jackie Robinson gathered to throw out the ceremonial first pitch. Then Kershaw took the mound, hurling fastballs and sliders as hot as the sweltering 103-degree

temperature at game time.

But the party didn’t really get started until Turner, the bearded dude with an uncanny resemblance to Tormund Giantsbane from “Game of Thrones,” blasted a two-run dinger in the sixth inning with a single mighty swing of his ax. Said Turner: “I think every little kid who ever steps on field or puts a glove on, at some point dreams of that situation. … Step in the batter’s box, and what are you going to do?”

Turner drove a splitter from Houston starter Dallas Keuchel 382 feet over the fence. That home run was for you, Kirk Gibson. The Dodgers of 2017 are here to amplify the storied franchise’s blasts from the past.

“At this ballpark, you get to ride down an extremely slow elevator every day. And when you get off on the first floor, we literally take a stroll down Dodgers Memory Lane,” said Turner. On the eve of this Fall Classic, he had patiently explained to me the constant reminders of the franchise’s past glory are a blessing, not a curse.

“It tells you how special it is to be a Dodger,” Turner said. “That’s the beauty of being in this organization. Once you’re a Dodger, you’re always a Dodger.”

The team history reads like Vin Scully poetry. With all due respect to those monuments of Babe Ruth, Lou Gehrig and the pinstriped legends in the Bronx, the coolest baseball museum in the majors is Dodger Stadium, which sits in Chavez Ravine.

The local topography dictates the entrance near home plate is on the ninth floor. Dodger Stadium is the most iconic split-level home in Southern California, with a walk-out basement that opens to a pristine green field of dreams.

As the elevator clicks off the floors, down you go to the hometeam clubhouse, traveling into the core of Dodger Blue lore.

Walk out the elevator and it’s impossible to miss: There sits the World Series trophy from ’88, shining resplendently behind glass. But that’s only the beginning of the bling found on a player’s journey to the clubhouse.

The framed uniform of Robinson beckons a welcome to the fraternity, alongside the retired numbers of Sandy Koufax, Walter Alston and the rest.

“You see all the Gold Gloves, all the Silver Sluggers and the Cy Young awards on the walls,” Turner said. “You get to walk by that every single day we come to work, and it’s the last thing we see again every night when we leave. (Players) are literally walking through Dodgers history every single day.”

Kershaw buried his well-documented personal history of playoff agony deeper in the past, striking out 11 Astros, who barely touched him other than a solo homer by Alex Bregman in the fourth inning.

These Dodgers don’t run from big, blue ghosts.

“I don’t think it has any affect we haven’t been here in 29 years,” Kershaw said.

In fact, prior to Game 1, Koufax made Turner relax with sage advice from a legend: 162 regular-season games are work; the playoffs are where the real fun is.

And maybe this October is when new legends will be born in this ballpark.

“It’s our opportunity,” Turner said, “for us to put our names on the wall.”