A Met Who Was a Dodger Returns (No, Not Piazza)

For a little more than a month, Greg McMichael was sucked into the tornado that is the Dodger season. The winds picked him up, whirled him around and dropped him right back where he started.

“It kind of seemed like a dream,” he said Saturday, back in his customary place in the visitors’ locker room at Dodger Stadium.

On June 5, then-Dodger general manager Fred Claire’s frustration with Hideo Nomo led him to send Nomo to the New York Mets for starting pitcher Dave Mlicki and McMichael, a reliever.

McMichael and Mlicki joined the Dodgers in Seattle at the beginning of a 10-day trip. When it ended, on a Sunday night in Colorado, Claire and manager Bill Russell were fired.

Welcome to Los Angeles.

“Home” for McMichael over the next four weeks was a Hyatt hotel. (“They gave us a pretty good rate,” he said).

But he never felt quite right. All of a sudden he was across the country from his wife, who was pregnant and staying at the couple’s year-round home in Alpharetta, Ga., with their other two children, a 5-year-old daughter and a 2-year-old son.

“It was very difficult,” McMichael said. “Especially when you’ve got little kids. They grow so fast. You start missing that.”

In some ways the easiest part was the work.

“As far as the facilities and the town, there isn’t a better place,” McMichael said. “It’s almost too nice. The stadium is immaculate, the cleanliness of it. The clubhouse attendants were great. As a player, you always hear about the Dodgers. I don’t know if I’d want to play out here my whole career. At least I got to come out here and say I did it.”

In a season in which the team has used 49 players, plenty of people have had the chance to say they played for the Dodgers. Few came out as well as McMichael.

On July 10 new General Manager Tom Lasorda sent him back to New York for Brian Bohanon. McMichael, who gave up seven earned runs in 12 games with the Dodgers, barely had enough time to miss New York.

“It was like I was on vacation,” he said.

“It was a real easy adjustment. After a couple of days, it was like I never left.”

He had already given up the Long Island residence he was renting, but he did come back to a team that was in the thick of the wild-card chase.

It wasn’t an obvious improvement in the beginning. At the time of the trade, the Mets had lost seven of eight games and the Dodgers had won seven of 10.

“When I left, it seemed like we were getting ready to turn things around in L.A.,” McMichael said.

Since then, the Dodgers have gone 22-25 and the Mets are 31-20, including a comeback 4-3 victory Saturday.

The Mets are atop the wild-card standings, eight games ahead of the Dodgers.

“I’m definitely glad to be there in the hunt,” McMichael said. “It makes September more exciting.”

Sometimes the wheel spins around and you come out in the right place. By now, McMichael knows enough to accept that so much of his career is out of his hands and subject to the whims of a general manager.

He broke into the majors with the Atlanta Braves in 1993 and saved 40 games in his first two seasons. But Mark Wohlers took over the closer’s job in Atlanta for the next two years. In 1996 McMichael was traded to the Mets for two guys named Paul Byrd and Andy Zwirchitz.

“The first time I got traded it burst my bubble,” McMichael said. “I guess you get kind of numb to it.”

Sometimes it all works out. McMichael is back in comfortable surroundings. He’s closer to his wife, who gave birth to a baby girl Aug. 12. And he’s winning.

There’s one bit of unfinished business for McMichael in L.A. His teammates call him “Arliss,” a nickname hung by Luis Lopez because when McMichael wears his glasses he’s a dead ringer for Robert Wuhl, who plays the fictitious sports agent on television. But McMichael and Wuhl never met, and the Mets leave town Monday night.

“Maybe he’ll come out,” McMichael said. “If he does, I’ll get a picture with him.”

Maybe they’d talk, share some ideas and McMichael could land a spot on the show as Arliss’ long-lost brother.

No Robert Wuhl sightings Saturday. Larry King came through the Met locker room, but no Robert Wuhl.

A celebrity spotting isn’t as commonplace in Los Angeles as some would believe. McMichael probably knows that now, even if he was only here for a month. Guess he already has had his cameo appearance. He’s ahead of the game.