He Never Had Chance for a Fond Farewell

This was a tough week in what has been a tough few years of the post-O’Malley Dodgers. I am really starting to despise my favorite team. Oh, I have been on the bubble more and more but after the release of Orel Hershiser I have about had it.

Of course Orel has had a poor season, but the whole way it was handled was terrible.

I would rather my team lose if it were my team than have the Dodgers win and be a team I hate. I don’t like Davey Johnson, the team should have kept Charles Johnson from the Piazza trade, and I refuse to watch this year’s All-Star game because last year’s had so many ex-Dodgers. Even when they lost 99 games back in ‘92, I could take it because it was still my team. It doesn’t feel like the same team now.

I cannot even imagine it after Vin Scully is gone. I hope Hershiser goes to another team, even if he falters, just so he doesn’t finish with these Dodgers.

To me the current Dodger situation is a perfect ending to a bad decade in L.A. sports in which too many people died--from Don Drysdale to Jim Healy to Allan Malamud--football left, and so did the Dodgers.

MASON MALUGEON

Huntington Beach

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Yes, like almost everything else in the past three years, the Dodgers could have handled the Orel Hershiser situation better and with a greater degree of class. But for Bill Plaschke to criticize them for giving Carlos Perez “chance after chance” while Hershiser flopped around between the bullpen, the starting rotation and the minors is silly.

Cut Carlos some slack. Yes, he may be “enigmatic,” but last I checked, his ERA was nearly eight runs lower than Hershiser’s, and not substantially worse than that of Eric Gagne or Darren Dreifort. And wasn’t it Perez who came in on Monday night after Hershiser and held the Padres scoreless for several innings, while allowing the Dodgers to get back into the game?

Orel Hershiser seems to be a fine human being, and was certainly a great pitcher at one time, but these days I’d much rather see Perez on the mound for the Dodgers.

DAN EPSTEIN

Los Angeles

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After Jeff Shaw blew his second game in as many chances after regaining his role as the closer, Davey Johnson said, “We could see it coming, but there wasn’t anything we could do about it.”

Funny, that’s the same reaction I have whenever I see Shaw warming up in the bullpen.

CHAD JONES

Studio City

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I wouldn’t trust Jeff Shaw to close my car door, much less another Dodger game.

DAN EPSTEIN

Los Angeles

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