Feeling the Aftershocks

By JASON REID

June 23, 1998 12 AM PT

TIMES STAFF WRITER

There was yet another news conference Monday afternoon at Dodger Stadium to spin the latest dramatic move in the organization’s season-long sideshow.

It was the biggest and most intriguing to date under the Fox Group umbrella, but there’s always tomorrow with this suddenly volatile bunch.

New Dodger President Bob Graziano initiated the gathering by firing Executive Vice President Fred Claire and Manager Bill Russell late Sunday night and replacing them with Tom Lasorda and Glenn Hoffman, respectively.

Lasorda, the longtime former manager, gets his dream job on an interim basis and improves his standing in the organization. There appears to be some confusion among Fox Group and Dodger executives about the status of Hoffman, who was promoted from the Dodgers’ triple-A farm team.

Graziano said Hoffman has the job on an interim basis as well, but a Fox Group official said the former Dodger infielder received a one-year contract typical of the team’s policy. Regardless, Hoffman is understandably pleased with his status.

“Tommy told me I’d be a manager one day,” he said, “but I didn’t think this day would come so soon.”

Claire and Russell didn’t either.

Claire, 62, assumed control of player personnel decisions in 1987, shortly after his predecessor, Al Campanis, was fired by former owner Peter O’Malley for saying that blacks lacked the “necessities” to manage in the majors during an ABC “Nightline” interview. Ironically, Campanis died Sunday.

Russell, 49, was promoted from the team’s bench coach to manager in 1996 after Lasorda suffered a heart attack. The Dodgers finished second in the National League West last season and missed the playoffs for the first time in three seasons.

They were the first officials to be sacrificed because of the team’s mediocre on-field performance. Claire last year signed a three-year personal services contract with O’Malley before the Fox Group bought the team. Russell is owed the remainder of his $350,000 contract this season.

The Dodgers have struggled this season because of injuries and ineffectiveness, failing to meet the expectations accompanying a $57-million payroll. Going into Monday night’s interleague game against the first-place Angels, the Dodgers were in third place in the National League West, and they trail the division-leading San Diego Padres by 12 1/2 games.

That was not what Graziano expected, and the people he reports to aren’t accustomed to failure.

Graziano figures the Dodgers’ performance should improve now that Lasorda and Hoffman have assumed their new roles in the Changing Dodger Order.

At least, that’s the sunny outlook preached by the president and his excited new underlings.

“With the way the team has been playing, I decided that a change was necessary,” Graziano said. “The team just wasn’t performing up to it’s capability, and I wasn’t comfortable staying with the status quo.

“We needed to get back on the right track, and I feel optimistic about that happening now. The move was made with the future of the organization in mind, and it was simply time to move forward.”

So Graziano made the boldest move of his four-month tenure as president Friday, informing Chase Carey and Peter Chernin--co-chief operating officers of Fox Group’s parent company News Corp.--that he was going to pull the plug on Claire and Russell after only 74 games.

Lasorda retired in 1996 after 20 years as the Dodger manager. Graziano said Lasorda will help conduct a national search for a permanent general manager, and Lasorda will continue to have significant input in player-personnel decisions, something the vice president didn’t have when Claire occupied the general manager’s chair.

Lasorda remained among the Southland’s most popular sports icons even when factions within the organization reduced his power over the last few years. And if Lasorda is perceived by some as white knight riding to the team’s rescue in its time of need, then that’s fine with him.

“I told Bob Graziano that I would always be there for him in whatever he needed me to do, and this is what he needs me to do now,” Lasorda said. “There is a lot of talent on this team, and I’m going to challenge every one of these players to do everything they can to help this team.”

Hoffman doesn’t have as much rah-rah enthusiasm as Lasorda--few do. But he’s not far behind.

“This team has the talent,” Hoffman said. “All we have to do is go out there and play and stay competitive.”

Sounds simple enough. But Hoffman might begun learning that things aren’t as rosy as he believes when the dodgers blew a 4-0 lead and lost to the Angels, 6-5, when Jim Bruske walked in the winning run in the ninth inning Monday night.

Russell could have told him.

* RANDY HARVEY: C5

* GLENN HOFFMAN PROFILE: C5

* J.A. ADANDE: C6

* FAN REACTION: C6

* TEAM REACTION: C7

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

FOX MAKING HEADLINES

A look at the biggest news of an eventful Dodger season:

MARCH 20: Fox Purchases Dodgers for Record $311 Million

MARCH RECORD: 0-1

APRIL 1: Piazza Complains About Contract in Opening-Day Loss