The Changes of Summer

You could tell this summer would be different when the Dodgers leaped to the lead in the National League pennant race without Fernando Valenzuela on the mound pitching for them. But that didn’t prepare Los Angeles for the other dramatic changes in sports.

Valenzuela, the reliable left-hander who has been the most popular Dodger of the 1980s, is benched for an indefinite period with a shoulder problem that limited his effectiveness all through the early part of the season. At least Dodger fans now know why Fernando’s famous screwball wasn’t breaking and why the fastball had lost its zip. Dodger Stadium always seems a special place when Valenzuela pitches, so he is missed. Perhaps he will return for the final weeks of the season, but only if that won’t do permanent damage to his arm. Fernando’s too valuable a local resource, and not just as an athlete, to run the risk.

Facing the scary possibility that their best left-handed pitcher might not play for a long time, the Dodgers engineered a major trade that brought pitcher John Tudor from the St. Louis Cardinals in exchange for long-time Dodger slugger Pedro Guerrero. Like Valenzuela, Guerrero has been hobbled by injuries this season, but somehow it was always reassuring to see him take his powerful cuts in the batter’s box. He has been doing it for the Dodgers for so long, and so effectively, that it is hard to imagine Guerrero doing it for another team. We wish him well and welcome Tudor to the Southland.

Welcomes are also in order for Wayne Gretzky, the great ice hockey player from Edmondton, Canada, whose decision to play for the Los Angeles Kings has been greeted by sports fans with the excitement one might have expected for a Second Coming, or at least a third Olympics,in Los Angeles. Perhaps it is because the wonderful weather lures young Southern Californians to the beach for volleyball and surfing, rather than to ice rinks, but we have never understood hockey’s appeal. We are assured by experts like Times’ sports columnist Jim Murray that Mr. Gretzky is the flashiest man on skates, however, so we eagerly anticipate his turningus all into hockey fans, if not fanatics, this winter.

Perhaps a great winter by the Great Gretzky will help ease the pain of losing one of the real heroes of California sports--Raider quarterback Jim Plunkett, who was released by the team last week after a career that was nothing short of glorious. Ever since New Year’s Day, 1971, when he led Stanford to victory in the Rose Bowl, Plunkett consistently thrilled football fans with a combination of class and courage that only the very best quarterbacks bring to their game. His honors and achievements were numerous, but the one that even the most indifferent sports fan must remember is that Plunkett led the first Los Angeles team to ever win a Super Bowl. For that and much more, Plunkett deserves one final round of cheers.