A Team in Turmoil

The last time a Dodger player publicly cursed his general manager, the general manager put up his dukes.

It was 1990, in an office underneath the stadium, during a meeting between Kirk Gibson and Fred Claire.

Gibson, who wanted to be traded, loudly called Claire a naughty name. Claire yelled back, took off his glasses, and stepped toward Gibson with an obvious--if not utterly foolish--intention to fight.

Tom Lasorda stepped between them, but the point was made. Gibson was stunned into season-ending silence.

Although the previous Dodger administration made many mistakes that have played no small part in the humiliations of today, none of those mistakes involved control.

Back then, right or wrong, you knew who was boss.

For forever, it seems, you knew who was boss.

Today, I have no idea.

Raul Mondesi has just insulted his two superiors in a foul-mouthed and public manner unmatched in Dodger history.

Yet mere hours after many Dodger fans read those comments in bold, 12-point type, they could have turned on their radios Thursday and heard that Mondesi was in the starting lineup at Montreal.

It didn’t matter who won the game. His presence in it proved that Mondesi had won the war.

It’s not your team anymore, Fox.

It’s Mondy’s.

A day earlier, Mondesi told reporters, on the record, in words he knew would reach millions: “[Expletive] Davey and [expletive] Malone.”

Then he said it again, with different punctuation: “[Expletive] Davey. [Expletive] Malone.”

Then he said it a third time, in an abridged version, perhaps because he had run out of breath: “[Expletive] both of them.”

The team issued an apology from Mondesi on Thursday, but has he been suspended? No.

Has Mondesi been publicly handed any sort of punishment that would discourage similar behavior from him or his teammates? No.

Will Mondesi be held to any sort of standard that shows the Dodgers still care about the behavior of their supposed role models?

We should know that by now, but we don’t.

Isn’t anybody out there going to say, “[Expletive] Mondesi?”

“We’re not discussing it publicly,” General Manager Kevin Malone said Thursday. “Our best interest is to deal with it internally.”

That probably means Mondesi will be scolded and fined.

Which means nothing. And not only because fines are walking-around money to a man who is guaranteed $8.5 million this year, even if he hops into the right-field pavilion between innings and calls everyone there a foul name.

There needs to be more. There needs to be a statement, one that has been missing since Malone took over last winter.

These are still the Dodgers.

This team is still backed by 110 years of history and tradition that one ungrateful jerk cannot change.

This team is still bigger than any of its players.

Branch Rickey said it. Buzzie Bavasi said it. Al Campanis said it. Fred Claire nearly allowed himself to be beaten to a pale pulp because of it.

It’s time for Kevin Malone to say it.

Even if it no longer feels true, say it anyway. See how it sounds, he might be surprised.

For O’Malley’s sake, do something to curb the foolishness and selfishness that has overtaken a once-dignified clubhouse.

A player misses a start after showing up with a weird injury that sources say occurred during late-night partying.

Players routinely demand to be traded. Players rip management, rip each other. Players miss workouts, sit in the bullpen between innings.

And, although fines are levied, there is very little public accountability for any of it.

I would say that the Dodgers have officially become the Clippers, but that would be an insult to the Clippers.

Some feel this is entirely Manager Davey Johnson’s fault. Not so fast.

Johnson has made nearly constant lineup changes. He has been unafraid to bench even Gary Sheffield and Eric Karros, and ripped starting pitchers who have quit. At this point in his first season with these players, there is not much more he can do without undermining the rest of his career here.

That biting criticism of Mondesi by Lasorda a couple of weeks ago? Nice, but easy for him to say. Lasorda never publicly criticized any player like that when he managed.

These problems are in the lap of Malone, who must start giving more support to the organization and less to the players who are betraying it.

By protecting their players, the Dodgers are only damaging themselves. And nobody has been protected like Mondesi, whose off-field immaturity has long been overlooked because of his on-field potential.

Has there ever been a better time for all that to end?

Trading him is the easy answer. Working harder to help him grow up and become the player he can become--an MVP--is the tougher, but smarter answer.

Not that I’ll be around to see it. A year ago, after writing that Mondesi couldn’t be a leader when he was missing games because of late-night partying, he accosted me in the hallway outside the clubhouse.

Despite the pleas of a nervous Dodger official standing between us, Mondesi put his substantial fist into my chest and warned me never to write about his off-field life again.

“You write it again, I’m going to get you,” he threatened.

I told him that, as with any player, as long as he didn’t miss any games, nobody cared what he did after hours, and there would be no reason to write anything.

Until now, I kept my promise. Then this week, he broke his, not only to the team, but to the tradition.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.