Dodgers’ Perez Needs Wake-Up Call

So Carlos Perez is found passed out, drunk, behind the wheel of his car and now it all becomes clear. He is an alcoholic and his problem is getting worse over time. Now we can understand how his performance has dropped like a stone the last two seasons.

I’m hoping there is a clause in his contract permitting its termination for conduct that is adverse to the interests of baseball. Canceling his contract would serve two purposes, both of them good. It would give the Dodgers a way to get out from under a bad deal and it would strip Perez of the illusion that his status as an athlete somehow means that he doesn’t have to take his problem seriously (hello, Darryl Strawberry, Dennis Rodman, etc., etc.).

I suggest the Dodgers take this step immediately. It might save Perez’s life and the Dodgers’ season.

DAVID WEBER

West Hollywood

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When America Online acquires Time Warner later this year, maybe Bob Daly can impose on his former company and have them lose Carlos Perez in cyberspace.

HERBERT M. SCHOENBERG

Tarzana

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So Eric Young can’t see why the Dodgers wouldn’t be happy with his performance [March 11]. While he is able to recite his achievements, his memories of his time with the Rockies differ from this former Colorado resident.

Like the Dodgers, the Rockies did not feel that Young had the talent to start at second, and put him in the outfield, a move he grumbled about to the local media. When the Rockies acquired an all-star outfield, Young was out of a job.

As an outfielder, Young lacked the power expected from the position. After hitting the first home run in the Rockies’ history (to the ultra-short left-field porch at Mile High Stadium), Young didn’t hit his next until the last home game that year, also to left.

After that leadoff homer, Young was an immediate fan favorite, earning the horrible “E.Y.” moniker from a broadcasting team so desperate to lend a bit of big league sophistication to its programs it pulled out ancient terms like “can of corn.”

Young doesn’t remember the problems with Don Baylor as all that bad. They weren’t, unless you’re referring to a sulking ex-second baseman complaining that he doesn’t want to play center field. The local media may have played it up, but E.Y. wasn’t protesting that he was misquoted.

So long, Eric. I hope the door didn’t hit you on the way out.

GEORGE BRENNAN

Riverside

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In response to last week’s “Future Looks Cloudy in Anaheim,” a script of the upcoming Dodger season has hit the street:

* Kevin Malone will double-check with the commissioner’s office to verify the major league record for wins in a season.

* Devon White will leap over the center-field wall making a meaningless catch, not get hurt, and still hit .230 with 100 strikeouts and 15 errors.

* Gary Sheffield will turn numerous singles into triples--while on defense--then declare he’s misunderstood and demand to be traded.

* Dusty Baker and the Giants, with less talent and a lower payroll, will punk the Dodgers again.

* After a 65-97 season, Rupert Murdoch will announce that Fernando Valenzuela has been signed to replace Orel Hershiser as the team’s 2001 Myopia poster boy.

GREG VENA

Whittier

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If Dodger Chairman Bob Daly had taken as long to negotiate a contract when he ran a studio as he has with Adrian Beltre’s agent, his stars would have been cast in senior citizen roles.

BILL STEIN

Arroyo Grande