Elster's 3 HRs Lead Dodgers

Kevin Elster made a splash in the opener of Pacific Bell Park, and he didn't even put the ball in the drink.

Elster homered three times to overcome one each by Barry Bonds, J.T. Snow and Doug Mirabelli and lead the Los Angeles Dodgers over the San Francisco Giants 6-5 Tuesday.

"Isn't it gorgeous! It's a fabulous place," Elster said. "I felt comfortable and obviously it showed."

Before a sellout crowd of 40,930, the $319 million stadium by the bay near downtown formally opened with many in short sleeves. It was in stark contrast to the wind and cold at Candlestick Park, the Giants' home for four decades.

He hit a two-run shot in a three-run fifth and added a solo homer in the eighth off Felix Rodriguez, finishing 3-for-3 with four RBIs in the first three-homer game of his career.

"A guy hits three homers to initiate the park I don't think I've ever seen that," San Francisco manager Dusty Baker said. "That's a lot of home runs in one day. Maybe we ought to look for somebody that's been out of the game."

Elster was retired but decded over the winter to give baseball one more shot.

"Everything I do is kind of a bonus, because I had no idea I was going to be here," said Elster, who hadn't had a three-homer game since Little League. "I had in my mind I was retired. Everything is gravy for me."

Chan Ho Park (2-0) allowed three runs and six hits in six innings, and Jeff Shaw got three outs for his second save despite allowing Snow's leadoff homer.

The Dodgers, who took their rivalry with the Giants to the West Coast after the 1957 season, also won the final game at the old ballpark last Sept. 30, that one by 9-4.

"It's very fan-friendly. The intensity level was high. I'm sorry we had to spoil it for the Giants," Dodgers manager Davey Johnson said with a smile.

The twin draws of the new field and national pastime were evident in the stands and along side the five port-holes in the right field wall, where hundreds of people stood on the pier-side walkway watching the game as if they were kids peering through a knothole.

"Is this heaven?" read one sign held aloft by a fan.

Rueter threw the first pitch at 1:39 p.m. a ball after hour-long pregame ceremonies that began with a ballpark blessing by two Franciscan friars and finished with Bobby McFerrin's stirring rendition of the national anthem punctuated by a thundering flyover by a squadron of Navy fighters.

Devon White was the first batter up and got the first hit in the new park, a single to left. He quickly became the first runner caught stealing when Rueter picked him off first.

The commencement of play coincided with the release of hundreds of red, white and blue balloons and a barrage of fireworks lighting up the sky above Willie McCovey cove, the inlet just beyond the right-field wall that serves as a splash landing for home runs balls.

"Now we begin a new century of Giants baseball, playing the best game there ever was in the best city in the best city in the best ballpark," said team owner Peter Magowan, who led the investor group that bought the club eight years ago, preventing a move to Tampa Bay.

Magowan, who oversaw the construction of the first privately financed major league ballpark in 38 years, joined club executive Larry Baer in throwing out ceremonial first pitches, Magowan recalled his first opening day as Giants owner in 1993 at San Francisco's windy stadium on Candlestick Point.

"We had a full house, a beautiful day. Tony Bennett was there, the Grateful Dead.Barry Bonds homered in his first at-bat as a iant. We won the game and it was the start of a great year," Magowan said. "But we still had to open that game in Candlestick Park."

Bonds' RBI double in the first scored Bill Mueller with the ballpark's first run and his third-inning homer gave San Francisco a 2-1 lead. Elster's homer and Shawn Green's RBI single put Los Angeles ahead 4-2 in the fifth, but Jeff Kent scored on a wild pitch in the sixth.

Geronimo Berroa had an RBI single off Alan Embree in the seventh, and Mirabelli's homer off Terry Adams pulled the Giants to 5-4 in the bottom half.

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