Pitcher Brennan Is the Birdman of Dodgertown : The Flamingo, as He’s Called Because of Odd Motion, Could Land on Roster

For the unsuspecting batter, it’s as if the Betamax got stuck on freeze-frame.

Out on the mound, Tom Brennan begins his windup, brings his hands over his head, lifts his left leg plateward . . . and stops in midair, balanced delicately on his other leg. Only after they sell a hot dog or two at the concession stand does Brennan follow through and release the ball.

Put him in pink and Brennan would resemble something you’d see on a postcard from Busch Gardens, a flamingo. Thus was born a nickname.

In Dodger Blue, however, he just looks, um, well, weird. Call him the un-natural.

But while Dodger Vice President Al Campanis and Manager Tom Lasorda may argue the merits of Brennan’s unorthodox delivery, and they do, they agree that Brennan has a shot at making the Dodgers as a long reliever. And while that may not seem as fantastic as, say, Robert Redford shattering a scoreboard on the movie screen, the Flamingo alighting in Los Angeles would be something just this side of remarkable.

It is not hard to find Brennan in the minor-league clubhouse at Dodgertown. There he is, graying hair and all, among the boys who have yet to experience the nicks of their first shaves. Seeing him there is sort of like spotting Liz Taylor at a Prince concert.

Brennan, the son of a man who played end on Notre Dame’s 8-1 football team in 1938, will be 33 in October. He has pitched professionally for 10 seasons, in such places as Oklahoma City and Waterloo, Jersey City and Charleston. His summers, with the exception of brief interludes with the Indians and White Sox, have been spent in the minors. His winters have been spent south of the border, playing winter ball.

At one stop, San Jose, he met his future wife, Bridget. “I married a pretty good gypsy,” he said. “We move about four times a year. The only things we own are what we can carry.

“But we’re happy. We have no complaints.”

The Dodgers, should he make the club, would be Brennan’s 13th team. His major-league record is 8-7 with one shutout in 16 starts and a 3.90 ERA.

Last fall, exercising his right as a player with at least six years in the minors, he obtained his release from the White Sox, the team he’d grown up rooting for on the South Side of Chicago.

“I was notified by the White Sox that they were not going to call me up and that they had no plans for me,” Brennan said.

It was not the first time Brennan had been told he was as expendable as a used resin bag. “I’ve been taken off a roster in each of the last four years,” he said.

So why go on?

“I don’t know why,” he said with a shy smile. “I still feel good about baseball and myself.

“I’ve never been hurt, so I guess I’ll keep proving myself, keep doing it, until nobody wants me.”

There was a point, eight years ago, when Brennan thought that time had come, and the faith that had sustained him was about to steal away into the night.

“I wanted to give it up in ‘77,” he said. “I had pitched in triple-A with limited success and now I was back in A ball, struggling. I had worked my way down the ladder.”

But instead of quitting, Brennan found a leg to stand on. And stand and stand and stand. He changed his motion.

“I had been a classic, over-the-top pitcher,” he said. “But I had to make an adjustment, so I became slow and deliberate. That seemed to help me. Then I stopped altogether, and my windup became more compact, I threw more strikes.

“I don’t do it to fool anybody. You can’t get good hitters out with gimmicks.”

Still, Brennan, who throws primarily a sinkerball, wasn’t getting out enough hitters to earn a strong shot at making the majors. But the Dodgers invited him to pitch for Licey, their winter-ball team in the Dominican Republic, and there he thrived.

He became Licey’s most dependable starter, posting a 1.89 ERA, and won two games in the Caribbean World Series. The Dodgers signed him to a triple-A contract, with the stipulation that he would be invited to Vero Beach for a chance to make the big club.

“His problem in the past was left-handed hitters,” Campanis said. “But we changed the angle of his delivery to left-handers, and now he’s getting them out.”

Campanis, saying he had seen Japanese pitchers use a similar delivery but could not recall another big-leaguer who came to a stop, sees no problem with it. “It keeps a pitcher from rushing,” he said.

Lasorda, an ex-pitcher, is skeptical. “There’s no advantage to it,” he said. “That gives him no momentum, no power.”

Pitching coach Ron Perranoski added that it tends to flatten Brennan’s breaking pitches. “But his ball moves pretty good,” Perranoski said. “He’s a good competitor. I like him.”

Brennan says he doesn’t lose momentum, he just has learned to use different muscles.

If he pitches well here this spring, the Dodgers acknowledge that he could very well accompany the team back to Los Angeles. Lasorda said he plans to start the season with 10 pitchers: five starters, three short relievers and two long men.

The starters appear set: Fernando Valenzuela, Jerry Reuss, Bob Welch, Orel Hershiser and Rick Honeycutt. So do the short men: Tom Niedenfuer, Ken Howell and Steve Howe. The last two positions probably will come down to four pitchers: Bobby Castillo, who is trying to overcome rotator cuff problems as well as a sore knee; Carlos Diaz, who was demoted to the minors last season; rookie Larry White, who may not be ready yet, and Brennan.

“He’s got a good chance,” Lasorda said. “We’re going to see a lot of him.”

And maybe this time, the Flamingo will fly.