Odom Gets 90 Days for Selling Cocaine : Judge Gives Ex-Pitcher 30 Days to Seek Help for Alcohol Abuse

A Superior Court judge Friday sentenced former Major League pitcher John (Blue Moon) Odom to 90 days in the Orange County Jail for selling two grams of cocaine to a fellow worker more than 15 months ago, but he gave Odom 30 days to seek help for a drinking problem first.

Odom, 41, was convicted July 31 of selling cocaine twice--on May 17 and May 24, 1985--to Willie Harris, a co-worker at a now defunct Xerox computer plant in Irvine.

Odom, distraught and sobbing, told Superior Court Judge David H. Brickner that he was innocent and asked for leniency before the judge announced the sentence.

“I’d like to get on with my life,” the former Oakland A’s pitcher told Brickner.

Worsen His Depression

Dr. Seawright Anderson, Odom’s psychiatrist, told Brickner that Odom’s drinking and depression had escalated in the days before the sentencing and said incarceration would worsen his depression.

“He’s been under tremendous pressure over the sentencing,” Anderson said. “He thinks people are looking at him as a criminal.”

Defense attorney Stephan A. DeSales appealed to Brickner to give Odom probation and not order a jail term. Odom could have received up to six years in prison on the two counts of selling cocaine.

DeSales said that the 15 months since his arrest had been traumatic for Odom and that he had been punished enough. Odom lost his job at the computer plant after the arrest and has been unable to find employment since.

“He has already been in a prison of sorts,” DeSales said. “More harm has been done to him over two grams than anyone would have received for a kilo of cocaine.

“Mr. Odom’s problems began before his arrest. He was trying to live a life without sports. Blue Moon was his problem.”

‘Not a Bad Person’

Brickner told Odom: “I don’t think you’re a bad person, and I don’t think the world does either. And I am totally optimistic that you will not engage in this conduct again.

“But I got to do what I got to do, and you have to do what you got to do.”

Once Odom, who pitched in the World Series in 1972, 1973 and 1974, completes his 90-day jail term, he will be on probation for five years.

Brickner ordered Odom to begin serving his jail sentence Oct. 6 and recommended, but did not order, that he seek treatment for alcohol addiction. DeSales said he would try to get treatment for Odom within two weeks.

Outside the courtroom, Odom continued to cry and clutch his wife, Gayle.

DeSales reiterated his claim that the Orange County district attorney’s office had been out to get Odom and that the case was so small it should not have been tried. He said he had agreed last March 14 with Deputy Dist. Atty. Gregg L. Prickett to have Odom plead guilty to possession of cocaine.

Agreement Canceled

But he said the agreement was canceled at the last moment by Prickett’s superiors. Prickett had no comment on DeSales’ statements.

Had Odom not been a former Major League pitcher of renown, DeSales said, he would have never been tried and even if convicted would not have received a jail sentence.

“But we’ve received a fair hearing, and he (Odom) will have to live with that,” the attorney said. “The district attorney’s office will have to live with their consciences. For now, it is time for John to go back to being John Odom, and not Blue Moon.”