Not Much Has Changed for Dodgers in Past Year

One year ago Monday, Fox shook up the Dodgers--all of baseball, actually, considering the team’s conservatism during its first four decades in Los Angeles--by firing Fred Claire and Bill Russell and, three days later, announcing that coaches Reggie Smith, Mark Cresse and Glenn Gregson were also out.

Where are they now?

Claire teaches a sports business and media class at USC and consults on baseball projects.

Russell manages Tampa Bay’s double-A team in Orlando.

Smith runs baseball camps in the San Fernando and Simi Valleys.

Cresse runs baseball camps in Orange County.

Gregson is pitching coach for the Phillies’ triple-A team in Scranton, Pa.

The Dodgers? On June 22 last season, they were 36-38 and in third place in the NL West--12 1/2 games behind San Diego. Today, they are 32-35 and in fourth place--eight games behind Arizona. That’s progress.

If their chances of winning the division have improved, it is only because the Diamondbacks are less formidable than the Padres were a year ago.

The Dodgers have made two outstanding moves in the last year, neither of which Claire could have made under Peter O’Malley’s financial restraints.

Tom Lasorda, as interim general manager, acquired Jeff Shaw from Cincinnati for Paul Konerko and Dennis Reyes, prospects who, combined, aren’t likely to prove as valuable as the All-Star closer has been, and General Manager Kevin Malone signed Kevin Brown as a free agent.

The best you can say for the Dodgers’ other post-Claire moves is that it’s too early to call them failures.

Lasorda’s other trade, sending Wilton Guerrero and three prospects to Montreal for Carlos Perez and Mark Grudzielanek, was necessary last July if the Dodgers had any chance to remain in contention for a wild-card playoff berth.

Perez and Grudzielanek haven’t contributed this year, but Guerrero was no loss. He’s not a regular with the Expos.

This trade ultimately will be judged by whose prospects emerge. Lasorda is betting on second baseman Hiram Bocachica, a former Expo first-round draft choice who has reached base safely in 36 consecutive games for the Dodgers’ double-A team in San Antonio.

Wouldn’t it be ironic if the Dodgers, who are still being flayed for trading Pedro Martinez to the Expos for Delino DeShields, can eventually say that they got their second baseman of the future from Montreal?

It’s still possible that free-agent acquisition Devon White is at the end of his prime instead of beyond it, that Malone will be vindicated if Todd Hundley is the goods and not damaged goods and that Davey Johnson can play poker with the best of them if he has the cards.

So far, though, the Dodgers aren’t any better on paper than they were a year ago. I’m talking about the paper on which the standings are printed.

I’m not saying Claire, Russell and their supporting cast would have done better.

But they weren’t doing worse.

If ticket buyers feel ripped off, imagine how Fox feels. In player salaries, they were paying $1.3 million a victory last season. This season, they are paying $2.6 million.

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As hard as the NHL office tried to protect the Islanders, they were still taken by the Kings. . . .

They made the deal for Ziggy Palffy without having to sacrifice the player most coveted by the Islanders, center Justin Papineau. . . .

Papineau, 19, won the Wayne Gretzky Award as most valuable player of the Ontario Hockey League playoffs with 22 goals and 54 points in 25 games. . . .

The Islanders got a good young player in Olli Jokinen, but they don’t consider him better than a second-line center. . . .

As for Palffy, he won’t sell tickets to the Staples Center on his name alone as a Jaromir Jagr, Eric Lindros, Paul Kariya, Teemu Selanne or Brett Hull would have. . . .

But the Kings are a legitimate playoff contender with him. That should sell tickets as the season progresses. . . .

The bruised thigh suffered by Paul O’Neill when hit in the on-deck circle by a piece of Tino Martinez’s broken bat Sunday shocked the Angels. That’s the kind of injury that usually happens to them. . . .

The Angels’ delay in giving Terry Collins a contract extension leaves him twisting slowly in the wind. That makes him an easier target for disgruntled players. . . .

How successful is the Women’s World Cup? A crowd of more than 17,000 at the Rose Bowl on Sunday for games involving North Korea, Nigeria, Germany and Italy was considered a disappointment.

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While wondering if it wouldn’t be better to wait for Michael Grant to fight great before proclaiming him the next great heavyweight, I was thinking: John Daly is still his own worst hazard, it’s too bad that Hull’s greatest moment in hockey will be remembered as a tainted goal, Andy Murray is already a better coach than he was last week.

Randy Harvey can be reached at his e-mail address: randy.harvey@latimes.com