Readers Call Dodgers Bush Leaguers

So, the Dodgers have kissed and made up. Brett Butler and the boys have welcomed Mike Busch to the homestead after a couple of days of wishing him leprosy and the plague.

Dodger fans? That’s an entirely different question.

If the letters to the sports editor are any indication, and they usually are the best indication, there will be much less joy in Mudville’s stands for the rest of this season.

Once the Dodgers, led by Butler, decided that former replacement player Busch was to be treated like an ax murderer--and that even his wife was to be ignored and/or ostracized--the faithful fans quickly became less so. The letters poured in, in unprecedented numbers, and didn’t slow down much Friday, even after somebody in the Dodger organization apparently had the sense to get both sides together and orchestrate Thursday night’s public show of solidarity. That is called cutting your losses, and from the reaction of the letter writers, it was too little, too late.

At last count late Friday, The Times had received 255 letters and faxes on the subject. Of those, 246 were anti-Brett Butler and the players’ union stance; four were pro-Butler and players; one was anti-Fred Claire, the executive vice president who promoted Busch from the minors, and four were down-the-middle.

Putting it another way, of those 255 people who were moved enough to write, 96.5% of them thought Butler and the Dodger players were acting like a bunch of 4-year-olds sucking their thumbs. The 255 letters are a startling number. Almost no other sports story here in the last decade or so has drawn that kind of response in that short a time. The only things even close were Magic Johnson’s HIV announcement and Jim Murray’s column on the death of his wife.

One letter writer, John Cragin of Chino Hills, went right to the crux of the matter with the start of his letter: “They just don’t get it, do they?”

Don Ellis of Sherman Oaks was equally direct: “Two wishes for 1995. Mike Busch hits .350 and the Dodgers don’t win another game.”

As was Randall Hause III of Newport Beach: “To Tom Candiotti, Bret [sic] Butler and the rest of the spoiled-rotten, millionaire, self-centered ballplayers, bah humbug.”

Even some youngsters, usually innocent loyalists for major league baseball, didn’t like the smell of things. Chris Cuttriss of Fillmore wrote: “My name is Chris. I’m 11. I really like the Dodgers but I’m beginning to question that because of the Mike Busch situation. . . . The word scab does not appeal to me.”

The controversy has also become talk-radio heaven. Earlier this week, on XTRA’s morning show with Chet Forte and Steve Hartman, the “Loose Cannons” as they call themselves, a recording of a crying baby was played. On and on it went, as Forte and Hartman pleaded with the baby, “C’mon Brett, say you’re sorry. Say it now. Say you’re sorry.”

In less than a week, Busch has become perhaps the most popular Dodger. In the same time span, Butler’s likely claim to that title may be gone forever.

It is uncanny how baseball can keep shooting itself in the foot. And it is almost incomprehensible that one of its best spokesmen and most adult-like figures, Butler, is perceived as the one who pulled the trigger this time.

This wound, like all such wounds, will heal. But there might be a visible scar for years. And even though the Dodgers have now done their emergency repair work, it seems fair to let the fans, for once, have the last word.

So here they are, L.A. Dodgers, a sample of the 255 letters from your public.

Read ‘em and weep.