If there can be the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim then perhaps there can be the Boston Dodgers of Los Angeles. The Dodgers are beginning to look more like that.

This week former Sox manager Grady Little was hired as the new skipper of the Dodgers, replacing Jim Tracy who was fired in Los Angeles and hired in Pittsburgh.

Little was 188-136 with the Sox, but has had to live the Bill Buckner baseball life since one omnipresent game in 2003.

That was Game 7 of the American League Championship Series against the Yankees with Pedro Martinez on the mound for the Sox. In a moment that was to become a slice of baseball history, Little went to the mound with Martinez tiring and the Sox leading.

With Sox fans screaming at their TVs to take Martinez out, Little turned back to the dugout as the Sox bullpen stared incredulously at their manager who gave no sign for a reliever.

The Sox lost the game. Little lost his job.

This week in Los Angeles, the naming of Little as manager was followed with a comma and a recitation of that decision in that Game 7. He was referred to in the Los Angeles press as “the guy who left Pedro in.”

New Dodgers general manager Ned Colletti said he spent about 15 minutes talking with Little about that decision, liked the way Little handled the questions and moved on to other matters.

Said Little of his firing by the Sox, “Was it unwarranted? I don’t know. It’s New England, it’s Boston. All they wanted to do is win.”

That’s what the Sox did the next year.

Now Little will work for Dodger owners Frank and Jamie McCourt who are from, where else, Boston. This is the husband and wife team who tried to buy the Sox five years ago.

The McCourts made their money off parking lots in Boston. Mr. McCourt is referred to in Los Angeles as the “parking lot attendant.” His wife receives less flattering monikers as she appears to call the business shots surrounding the Dodgers.

Dodger fans consider the team to be in complete disarray. The McCourts love the spotlight and the TV cameras. Colletti and Little will be shadows as to any decisions regarding the Dodgers.

Many believe Little was a safe choice. He will not confront the intrusions of the owners into his job as manager and he will be patient with a team that is not very good.

Said Little at his introductory press conference, “Today, I welcome my second chance at the opportunity of a lifetime. I had confidence in what I did with that ball club in Boston, but you never know what lies in your future.”

Little hopes this opportunity will be everything he had in Boston with the exception of one move in one game that has permanently attached itself to his name. He’d just as soon have his new team stay the LA Dodgers – period.

Old Town native Gary Thorne is an ESPN and ABC sportscaster.