Commentary : Finally, Deal Is Done--Dodgers Get Murray : Change of Scenery May Help Murray as It Did Robinson

He felt that he had become stagnant in his current environment, that he should have been doing better and that a trade would be in his best interest.

Eddie Murray fits that description, but then so did Frank Robinson in 1965 when he was traded from the Cincinnati Reds to the Baltimore Orioles and found it to be an elixir in his Hall of Fame career.

Will the same happen to Hall of Fame candidate Murray now that he has finally been traded by the Orioles to his hometown Dodgers?

Robinson, the Oriole manager, says he has no doubt about it, and the evidence seems to support him. The evidence suggests that the Dodgers made a steal and didn’t even require the gun that Murray considered carrying last season when the racial taunts in Baltimore strengthened his desire to leave.

After all, what did Executive Vice President Fred Claire really give up in acquiring a seven-time All-Star who is second to Mickey Mantle on the all-time home run list for switch hitters and has also won three Gold Gloves as a first baseman?

Of the three traded Dodgers, pitchers Brian Holton and Ken Howell and minor league shortstop Juan Bell, only middle reliever Holton fits into the Dodgers’ 1989 plans. Holton did a banner job in an anonymous role, but Tim Crews appears capable of replacing him in an expanded capacity.

Howell had a 10-1 record at Albuquerque in a comeback from shoulder surgery, but his major league record is 18-28 and he was seldom mentioned with Ramon Martinez and William Brennan as the leading candidates for the Dodger rotation.

Bell, 20, has a future, but the Dodgers seem to believe that another Dominican, Jose Oferman, has moved past him as the eventual successor to shortstop Alfredo Griffin. Former major league manager Preston Gomez, now an assistant general manager of the Angels, recently told Dodger scout Mel Didier that the 20-year old Oferman, who hit .331 for Great Falls this year, is the best young shortstop he has ever seen.

“Preston couldn’t believe it was his first pro season,” Didier said.

The Dodgers also had concerns about Bell’s temperament, saying privately that they fear it is similar to that of his brother, George, the Toronto Blue Jays’ often tempestuous outfielder.

“From the kids to the parents, the whole family goes from bad to worse,” a Dodger scout who requested anonymity said of the Bells.

In assembling this modest package, Claire refused to include Tim Leary or any of his proven starting pitchers and refused to meet the Orioles demand for both Bell and Mike Devereaux, the most promising outfielder in the Dodgers system.

“As much as I wanted Eddie Murray,” he said, “I was prepared to walk if I had to give up more than I wanted.”

He didn’t have to, assisted, in part, by the Orioles’ desire to escape a 3-year, $8-million obligation to Murray. Claire even got the Orioles to retain responsibility for $1 million of that.

In exchange, he acquired a proven clean-up hitter and one of the game’s best all-around players, one of the five best, said Robinson.

Murray appeared in every Oriole game for the fourth time in his career last season. Though seldom seeing a good pitch, he hit 28 homers and drove in 84 runs for a team that lost 107 games. In the last 106 games, employed both at first base and as a designated hitter as the Orioles tried to put some distance between Murray and the racial taunts of fans behind first base, he hit .312 with 24 homers and 65 runs batted in.

A scapegoat for the disintegration of a once-proud franchise, Murray returns now to the city where he was born, reared and first drew athletic attention at Locke High.

There will be pressure and expectations in Los Angeles, too, but he will be closer to the womb of a large and supportive family and protected by a lineup of the type he was familiar with in Baltimore during the late 70s and early 80s.

In 1966, his first season after being traded by the Reds to Baltimore, Frank Robinson hit .316, drove in 122 runs and hit 49 homers. It was his best year, and Robinson now believes it could happen for Murray.

“The move came at the right time for me,” Robinson said in reflection. “I wasn’t to the point that I had asked to be traded like Eddie had, but I felt I had become stagnant. I felt that I wasn’t doing what I was capable of. The trade was a shot in the arm. It was a new challenge and we all need that after awhile.”

Murray, too? Did he sense that Murray had grown similarly stagnant?

“No doubt about it,” Robinson said. “He’s a winning player. He’s used to being on winning teams. The last 5 years have been tough on Eddie and Cal Ripken. He likes to win and I’m sure he felt there was no hope of the Orioles winning in the near future.

“The trade will be a shot in the arm for him like it was for me. He can still put the numbers up. There is no question but that he’ll go on now to have some great years. He’ll still hit .300. He’ll still hit 30 homers and drive in 100 runs.”

And if Murray chooses not to discuss his accomplishments--or anything else--with the media, as is often his custom, don’t misunderstand that, Robinson said. He is an animated force in the clubhouse. A leader like Kirk Gibson or Frank Robinson.

“He’s the type guy you want on the club,” Robinson said. “He’s the type you want at the plate with the game on the line.”

The Orioles, of course, are forced to go in another direction, rebuilding with youth. Eddie Murray and Cal Ripken couldn’t do it alone. There was no sense in keeping another big salary.

Murray leaves one legacy and should begin authoring another, as Frank Robinson once did. As Reggie Smith once did when traded to the Dodgers at a similar point in his career. Call it another aggressive move by Claire, who now has Gibson, Murray and Mike Marshall in the middle of his lineup, and may ultimately put another proven veteran named Willie Randolph next to Murray at second base.

The Dodgers served champagne in October. Now what they seem to be providing is a tonic.