Ex-Pitcher Arrested in Police Standoff : Blue Moon Odom Said to Be Depressed Over Failure to Find Job

Former Major League pitcher John Lee (Blue Moon) Odom, apparently despondent over failure to find a job, was arrested early Wednesday by Fountain Valley police after he allegedly held his wife hostage for an hour in their apartment and held police at bay for another six hours, a police spokesman said.

Odom, who pitched with the championship teams of the Oakland A’s in the early 1970s, was being held at the Orange County Jail in lieu of $10,000 bail on suspicion of assault with a deadly weapon. He is scheduled to be arraigned today.

Lt. Rod Gillman said police received a call at 6:45 p.m. Tuesday that a man was holding a hostage at an apartment at 10225 La Hacendia Ave. Police responded with a SWAT team and surrounded the building.

Odom’s wife, Gayle, 32, who allegedly was punched once in the face, was released an hour later, and police continued negotiations for several hours. When Odom, 40, quit responding to the telephone, police launched two canisters of tear gas. Odom walked out and was arrested without further incident at 1:45 a.m., police said.

Police also recovered two loaded shotguns, Gillman said. No shots were fired.

Gayle Odom said her husband, whose career ended in 1976 after he developed arm and shoulder problems, had been unable to find work since he lost his $24,000-a-year job six months ago as a computer assembler at the defunct Xerox plant in Irvine.

At the Orange County Jail Wednesday night, Odom said he does not remember much about the incident. He said he was preparing his guns for an early-morning hunting trip and did not know what happened to him.

“I just don’t remember. There’s a lot of pressure on me, a lot of stress,” he said. “I’ve been getting more depressed lately. Nobody wanted to give me a chance to work.”