Great Expectations Weren’t a Great Thing for Mondesi

If you drove by Holman Field, the Dodgers’ home in Vero Beach, Fla., during spring training in the early to mid-1990s and saw the stadium lights on, you assumed it was because Raul Mondesi was taking batting practice.

Long after the other players had left, he would dig in at home plate, taking pitches from Tom Lasorda or Reggie Smith or Mark Cresse or whichever coaches would agree to postpone dinner to throw to him.

The Dodgers had rebuilt their farm system, producing players such as Mike Piazza, Pedro Martinez, Eric Karros, Pedro Astacio and Billy Ashley, whom they believed could become stars. Mondesi had the most potential of all.

Having let Roberto Clemente slip through their hands in 1954, the Dodgers looked at Mondesi as a second chance.

Lasorda called him a five-tool player, one who could hit, hit with power, run, throw and play defense. In fact, Mondesi was a six-tool player because he also had the kind of attitude you like to see in the great ones.

During spring training in 1995, the season after he was rookie of the year, he told a Times baseball writer that he would stay at Holman Field until 11 every night if he thought it would make him a better player.

“That’s why you see the difference between the great players and the good players,” he said. “If you’re a good player, you take your shower, go home and everything’s all right. If you want to be a great player, you work hard every day and don’t take nothing for granted. That’s what I’m trying to be.

“No, I want to be the best. I don’t want people to see me walking down the street and say, ‘That’s Raul Mondesi, he’s a great player.’ I want them to say, ‘There’s Raul, the best player in the game.’ ”

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So what went wrong?

Why has this potential Hall of Famer played in only one All-Star game? Why did the cheers of “Raaaauul” from Dodger Stadium fans turn into boos? And why was the team so relieved to ship him out of the country Monday?

Although former and current team officials advance a number of theories, they all come back to the same point. Mondesi hasn’t grown up.

On the field, his numbers are OK. Perhaps better, depending on the numbers you value.

In two of the last three seasons, he has produced at least 30 home runs and 30 stolen bases. He had 33 home runs, 99 RBIs and 36 stolen bases last season. But he had 18 of those home runs in the first two months. Besides a career-low .253 batting average, his .332 on-base percentage was seventh among Dodger everyday players. He also hit .253 with runners in scoring position.

Defensively, the two-time Gold Glove winner, who could win a third today, will be missed. Overall, however, he is a B player, according to the Elias Sports Bureau, whose ratings are endorsed by major league baseball. Shawn Green is an A player.

Mondesi was 16 when the Dodgers discovered him on the No. 2 field for the lesser prospects at their Campo Las Palmas training center in the Dominican Republic. They signed him for $2,000.

Two years ago, he signed a four-year, $36-million deal with options that could earn him $60 million over six years. As deals go today, many are more questionable. The one that the Dodgers signed with Green might be one.

But it was too much, too soon for Mondesi, who hasn’t adjusted to fame and fortune. No one ever accused him of not playing hard on the field, but questions persist about whether he also plays too hard off the field. On many more occasions than the Dodgers publicized, he was late arriving for meetings, batting practice and games.

Davey Johnson went to the Dominican Republic last winter to talk to Mondesi about taking a leadership role. Mondesi never showed.

In other seasons, when Mondesi was about to erupt, he had trusted friends, such as pitching coach Dave Wallace, Pedro Astacio or Ramon Martinez, to talk him down. They weren’t with the Dodgers last season, and, in August, Mondesi blasted Johnson and General Manager Kevin Malone, demanding a trade.

Teammates such as Devon White advised Mondesi to be careful what he asked for . . . but Mondesi didn’t, and today he’s a Blue Jay.

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I owe an apology to Laffit Pincay. Three days after I reported that he said he wouldn’t ride a horse trained by Bob Baffert, Pincay rode one Monday at Santa Anita.

According to his agent, Bob Meldahl, Pincay has never said a negative word about Baffert. Meldahl suggested that someone might have misinterpreted a conversation he had with Baffert, in which the agent told the trainer he was “looking to get the glory” in offering Pincay rides. But Meldahl said he wasn’t serious.

“We’re not stupid,” he said. “We would never turn anyone down, especially not someone with that magnitude of a barn.”

Pincay rode Cavonnier, a Kentucky Derby runner-up for Baffert in 1996, to a fifth-place finish Monday. But the jockey also had two winners for other trainers and needs 22 more to tie Bill Shoemaker’s record.

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