‘Blue Moon’ Odom Pays His Dues, Leaves Bad Times Behind

By his own account, the man was paranoid, scared and distrustful of everyone but his wife.

It was more than two years ago that John (Blue Moon) Odom, the former Oakland A’s fireballer who starred in three World Series, snapped and held police at bay for six hours.

Later, he was convicted of twice selling a co-worker a gram of cocaine. He did time in jail and overcame a drinking problem, one that he said had escalated with his deep depression over being unemployed and charged with a crime that he still insists he did not commit.

Now, by his own account, the former major league pitcher is himself again.

Odom talks to youngsters as a member of an anti-drug program called Pros for Kids. He plays in charity golf tournaments and participates in baseball clinics. He also makes a living painting houses for Blue Moon Odom’s Paint Service, a modest enterprise he shares with a friend.

“All that other stuff is behind me,” Odom says.

What all that “stuff” cost Odom, however, was a hefty price in grief, depression and despair. Enough, Odom now acknowledges, that he thought of suicide.

The problems for the former pitcher, now 42, began when he was arrested May 24, 1985, by Irvine police near the Xerox plant where he had worked quietly and efficiently for six years. He was charged with two counts of selling the small amount of cocaine to a co-worker.

Months later, the case still pending and Odom still unemployed, he snapped. He drank heavily one night, threatened his wife, Gayle, then barricaded himself in his Fountain Valley apartment for six hours.

He doesn’t remember much about that night. But the episode was only the beginning of another long year of despair. The court case was delayed several times before he was finally tried and convicted. He was sentenced to 90 days in jail, but before paying that penalty, Odom spent 42 days in an alcohol rehabilitation center.

That done, he served 55 days in jail and was released Dec. 16, 1986. The couple then struggled for months before Gayle Odom found a job with a computer company in Tustin and he began receiving steady invitations for public appearances and started painting houses.

Attorney Stephan A. DeSales, who has represented Odom for the last 2 1/2 years for almost no fee, recently persuaded a judge to let Odom serve the remainder of his 5-year probation without supervision. Actually, it was a favorable report on him by the Orange County Probation Department that swayed the judge to grant Odom more freedom during his probation.

“I think society has extracted its pound of flesh from him,” DeSales said.

Sitting at home in Fountain Valley recently, surrounded by baseball pictures and other reminders of his playing days, Odom agreed.

“I think I paid my dues and the dues of a lot of other people,” he said.

More important, Odom is no longer bitter. He even suggests that his past problems allowed him to grow. “All this stuff has motivated me to do something with my life,” he said.

One thing that surfaced along with his legal problems was his deep desire to bury the name Blue Moon, a moniker he picked up in grade school that he never really liked. He never told the friends he had met after ending his baseball career about the nickname, or his past baseball accomplishments.

But that has changed, too. He is once again comfortable being Blue Moon the ex-baseball player.

“At home I want to be known as John. But now I know that out there . . . before the public, I am still Blue Moon, and that’s the way it should be,” he said.

Odom, who begins collecting a $40,000-a-year baseball pension in 1990, admits that he now is enjoying the benefits of being a former major league pitcher. Occasionally, he receives letters from fans, some of whom enclose old baseball cards of a baby-faced Blue Moon they want autographed and returned.

“Before, I closed myself from the world. But now, I like going out and meeting people. I have met so many good people. I really love it,” he said.

His legal and emotional problems were equally trying for Gayle Odom. She, too, went without a job for months while trying to help her husband overcome his emotional and legal problems.

And Odom freely acknowledges that “without her, I wouldn’t have made it.”

“I’ve gotten him back to be himself. He feels good about himself. That’s the important thing,” Gayle said. “Now, he likes the public.”