Club Quit on Scioscia, Sources Say

A loyal soldier to the end, Mike Scioscia has always claimed that his sudden departure from the Dodgers last September was his choice.

Sources say now that it was not.

In the wake of Scioscia’s striking success as manager of the Angels, sources say that General Manager Kevin Malone fired him because his staff didn’t think he could manage.

At the time, Scioscia had finished his first season as the Dodgers’ manager in triple-A Albuquerque. Despite being given one of the most wretched rosters in the league, he had kept them out of last place.

Yet shortly after the end of the minor league season, an announcement slipped into the middle innings of a Dodger broadcast informed listeners that Scioscia was leaving an organization he had served for 23 years.

Said Scioscia at the time: “It was my choice.”

Said Malone at the time: “He wanted the opportunity to see what else was out there.”

Yet sources now say the Dodgers were frustrated with some of Scioscia’s risky, Lasorda-like maneuvers.

By the end of the season, instead of ordering pitching rotations and lineup moves only before games as in most minor-league operations, Dodger officials were actually giving Scioscia directions during games.

Once, sources say, this even occurred when Scioscia was on the mound making a pitching change. He was ordered to summon a different reliever.

After the season, when asked if Scioscia could manage, one scout admitted that nobody knew, because the Dodgers rarely allowed him to try.

Two months after his dismissal, Scioscia was hired by the Angels, and has since become a candidate for manager of the year by leading a young team into the wild-card race.

The Dodgers still contend the firing was not actually a firing.

“I think it’s a matter of semantics,” Malone said Wednesday. “I don’t think Mike was fired because I could have had him doing something.

“But he wanted to be at the major league level, and we didn’t have room, so we agreed it was better for both parties if he seek other opportunities.”

Scioscia was traveling Wednesday night and unavailable for comment.