Who’s In Left? It All Depends

In what evolved as the wackiest day of spring training camp, rookie Todd Hollandsworth said Friday that he had been told by Manager Tom Lasorda and bench coach Bill Russell that he would be the everyday left fielder.

Asked to confirm that, Lasorda angrily denied Hollandsworth’s report.

Executive Vice President Fred Claire said it was news to him, that the left-field situation had not been discussed in a lengthy staff meeting Thursday morning.

Russell later telephoned Hollandsworth, who then retracted his earlier statement, saying that he had been speaking only from his own perspective.

Lasorda said, “He must have misunderstood. I never talked to Todd Hollandsworth about being the left fielder. I told him to relax. I told him he had a lot of talent. I told him he doesn’t know how good he is. But I never told him that he’d be my everyday left fielder.”

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The Dodgers investigated the possibility of signing 18-year-old infielder Kohsuke Fukudome of Japan, but were told by the commissioner’s office to back off. Fukudome, an amateur, is scheduled to play on the Japanese Olympic team. He will play in the Japanese minor leagues if he is prohibited from playing in the United States.

Left-handed reliever Scott Radinsky pitched in his second simulated game and was cleared to pitch in a spring training game Sunday or Monday.