News of Trade Comes as Surprise to Holton Family

Not only did she have to break the news to her husband, Brian, it was left to Wendy Holton to explain to her 4-year-old daughter, Briana, that her daddy would no longer be a Dodger.

“She kept saying, ‘I can’t understand why Daddy’s not a Dodger,’ ” Wendy Holton said. “Then she said, ‘But I can still be a Dodger, can’t I?’ ”

Brian Holton wasn’t home when the phone calls started early Sunday afternoon, friends and relatives having heard the news that Holton had been traded to Baltimore as part of the Eddie Murray trade. Holton was in St. Croix in the Virgin Islands, playing in a charity golf tournament, and Executive Vice President Fred Claire had been unable to contact him by phone.

So when Wendy Holton told him what had happened, he thought she was joking, the kind of teasing that takes place when you’ve had the ups and downs--most of them injury-related--that Holton had had with the Dodgers since he was drafted in 1978.

“He said, ‘You’re kidding me, aren’t you?’ ” Wendy Holton said. “He had joked about it in the past.”

But this winter, they finally had dared to believe they had a home. Holton had filled his role so beautifully--7-3, 1.70 earned-run average as a setup man, flawless in the postseason--it appeared to be a given that Holton would be in the Dodgers’ plans. His name hadn’t surfaced in trade talks--until Sunday, when they gave him away to Baltimore.

On Sunday, Wendy Holton had gone with a realtor to look at a house in Claremont. “We had been leasing a home,” she said. “Maybe in the back of our minds we wanted to wait until we were a little sure of things.”

Now, uncertainty had moved back into the neighborhood.

“My breath was taken away,” Wendy Holton said. “It was such a surprise. I guess they really wanted Brian.”

Baltimore Manager Frank Robinson said he’ll leave it to Holton whether he wants to be a starter or reliever.

“If Brian is going as a starter, I think he’ll be very happy,” Wendy Holton said.