Davey Lopes went to get a cup of coffee and got an earful instead.

        An earful of predictions, that is. From excited Reds fans hanging around downtown Cincinnati as Lopes, the Milwaukee Brewers' rookie manager, made his way to Cinergy Field before the club's workout Sunday afternoon.

        “They're already talking World Series,” said Lopes, the 16-year major-league veteran who will manage his first regular-season game in today's season opener against the Reds. “That's great. That's how it was years ago when you came into town here.”

        Lopes would know. As the Los Angeles Dodgers' second baseman from 1972-81, the 53-year-old one-time speedster was one of the Big Red Machine's peskiest nemeses, a key cog in one of the best rivalries in baseball.

        Beginning in 1970, when the Reds went from nowhere to the World Series, and ending with the Machine's demise in the early 1980s, the Reds and Dodgers battled for National League West Division supremacy nearly every year. Cincinnati beat second-place Los Angeles for the division title in 1970, '72, '73, '75 and '76, while the Dodgers won in 1977 and '78. The Reds won the World Series in 1975 and '76, and LA in 1981.

        Lopes led the National League with 77 stolen bases in 1975 and with 63 in 1976, and hit a career-high 28 home runs in 1979. He played in four All-Star games from 1978-81 and ended his career having played in six League Championship Series and four World Series.

        Nothing, he says, compares to the heyday of that the Reds-Dodgers fued, when they played 18 times a season.

        “The best in my years in playing,” he said. “Everybody talks about the Dodgers and the Giants, but we used to kick the Giants (butt) every day. It wasn't a big deal to us.

        “Back then, it was Cincinnati. It was a great challenge. That's what you look for. The competition level between those two clubs was extremely high and intense. I would have loved to have played them 162 games a year. It had a playoff mentality — we're going to prove to you we're the best.

        “There was mutual respect on both sides. We didn't like each other that much.”

        It's testament to excitement the new Reds are generating that Lopes sees some measure of Cincinnati's swagger coming back. He's not likely to see much of that in Milwaukee, where he earned his first managing job this winter, taking over for the fired Phil Garner, who landed in Detroit.

        The Brewers are almost unanimously picked to finish last in the National League Central and have few recognizable players besides right fielder Jermoy Burnitz and center fielder Marquis Grissom.

        But they do have Lopes' expertise and intelligence — he taught before returning to baseball as a coach — and a coaching staff that rivals any in the league in stature: Hitting coach Rod Carew, a Hall of Famer and seven-time American League batting champion; 16-year major-league veteran Jerry Royster as bench coach; and 19-year major-league veteran Chris Speier as third base coach.

        Lopes, who spent the past four years as the San Diego Padres' first-base coach, is just appreciates the opportunity to manage; baseball has been notoriously slow in hiring minority managers. And he's trying to soak in the experience of his first official game as manager, spending time this weekend with old high school buddies, friends he has met through baseball fantasy camps and his brothers.

        “They'll probably be more excited than I will,” Lopes said. “They seem to be more proud and happy for me than I am for myself.”

        After sipping his coffee Sunday afternoon, Lopes was calm and laughing while relaxing in the visiting manager's office at Cinergy Field.

        But that could change by the first pitch at 1:05 p.m. today. He may need some of that coffee to bring him down.

        “I'll be jacked,” he said. “I wish I could play.”

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