Odom Left Baseball Behind, Perhaps Too Far : Ex-A’s Pitcher Faces a Comeback Off Field After Arrest for Violent Incident

Propped on a couch in the apartment are three dolls--Tommy, Nancy and Moonie. John Lee (Blue Moon) Odom and his wife, Gayle, were unable to have children, so they’ve made those three smiling dolls their “kids.” The dolls are included in the Odom’s Christmas card pictures.

Moonie, a black, chunky Cabbage Patch doll, is Odom’s favorite and accompanies him on fishing excursions, the former major league pitcher’s passion. Moonie has his own fishing license.

The cozy living room scene offers a sharp contrast to Odom’s surroundings today. The man who pitched 10 years in the big leagues and was part of three world champion Oakland A’s teams in the early 1970s sits in the Orange County Jail in lieu of $10,000 bail for alleged assault with a deadly weapon.

On Tuesday night, Odom held his wife hostage at gunpoint for an hour and then held a Fountain Valley police SWAT team at bay for another six hours. He was finally coaxed out of his one-bedroom apartment by a volley of tear-gas canisters.

Both Odom, who ended his major league career in 1976, and his wife said he has been deeply depressed because of his failure to find employment since he lost his job six months ago at a defunct Xerox computer plant in Irvine.

By his own account, the man is paranoid and scared.

“I don’t know what happened to me,” Odom said in a jail interview, adding that he does not recall much about Tuesday night’s episode.

A minor drug arrest last May 24 cost Odom the job on which he said he had never missed a day in six years. Xerox placed him on indefinite suspension following the arrest for allegedly selling one gram of cocaine to another worker. Odom and his wife adamantly accuse the other worker of framing him.

The plant closed in June, and Odom, unlike most of his fellow workers, was not offered a job at another plant. In the past six months, the Odoms have survived on money Gayle received from a car-accident settlement last year and on the $166 weekly unemployment compensation check Odom has been drawing since September.

“He felt degraded about what happened,” his wife said. “He gave them six years, and they turned around and kicked him. That hurt him more than the arrest.”

Odom, 40, said he has sent out more than 100 resumes since losing his job.

“I was getting more depressed,” he said. “Nobody wanted to give me a chance to work. It seemed like people were following me all the time.”

Gayle Odom confirmed her husband’s fears of being watched.

“He is paranoid. He thinks everybody out there is an undercover cop. He just went crazy,” she said. “John has been wronged, and it is tearing him apart.”

Odom also said he has never “had a problem with drugs. I just got down when the job stopped.”

Friends describe Odom as a charitable, caring man who seemed almost obsessed with hiding the fact of being a former baseball player who pitched in three World Series.

“It was a job,” he said of his pitching career. “After a few years, playing professionally, you lose some of the love for baseball. I’ve never missed it. I would try and hide (being a former major leaguer) as much as possible. When people found out, they wanted to put me up on a little pedestal.”

Gayle believes that.

“John doesn’t like to be called Blue Moon,” she said. “He wants to be known as John. Some people didn’t even know he was Blue Moon.”

One who didn’t was Rod Estrella, a bowling buddy.

“I didn’t know who he was until after I met him,” said Estrella, who has known him for five years.

“John never wanted to talk about it.”

But Estrella does know that Odom was especially considerate to his friend’s children.

“A lot of times, he’s gone out of his way to help my kids,” Estrella said. “I respect him for that.”

Gary Gillman, an accountant in Encino who has some business dealings with professional athletes, said he met Odom just last month during a promotion and immediately liked and respected him. A few days ago, Gillman found a little odd job for Odom to do but was busy and had to put off calling Odom for a couple of days.

By the time Gillman called on Wednesday, Odom was in jail.

“If I had just called before, I might have given him some hope,” Gillman said.

Vida Blue, a former teammate of Odom’s who pitches for the San Francisco Giants, remains close to Odom, although most of their contact is by telephone.

“John took me under his wing when I came up as an 18-year-old,” Blue said in a phone interview from Oakland. “It’s a common practice in this business. I do that now with younger players. But with John, I had a genuine feeling that he took care of me because he wanted to.”

Blue is concerned about his friend. And he knows about tough times. Blue was released by the Kansas City Royals in 1983, seemingly washed up. He was later convicted of cocaine possession and spent 90 days in a federal penitentiary. But he sought help for his drug addiction and this past season made a comeback with the Giants, posting an 8-8 record.

“I’ve gotten a lot of help from the right people. I was encouraged (during his own ordeal) by people like John. That meant everything to me,” he said.

Odom and his wife are thinking of perhaps moving to the Bay Area and starting over, once his legal problems are solved. Blue said he would welcome them and help them all he could.

“I know what John is going through,” he said. “Sometimes it takes stuff like this to get your life together.”

For seven years, the Odoms have lived quietly in the same Fountain Valley apartment. His only contact with baseball was the yearly old-timers’ game in Oakland and the very rare promotional appearance.

His wife said they never had any marital problems. Friends said the two were rarely apart.

“We love each other a whole lot,” Odom said. “She’s the best thing that ever happened to me. The whole world can push me into a corner, but I can walk out with her. Our love for each other is so strong.”

Odom said he would be willing to get help for his emotional problems.

“If I need that, then that’s what’s going to happen,” he said. “I’m willing to do anything to better my life. What happened was weird. I can’t explain it, but I know it won’t happen again.”

Jack Baldwin, general manager of a Costa Mesa computer company, called Thursday to offer help after reading a newspaper account of Odom’s problems. He said his company needs workers and that he would be willing to talk to Odom about a job.

“I used to be a fan of his,” Baldwin said. “I would really like for him to apply for a job with our company. If he worked for Xerox, he can work for us.”