Malone Denies He Challenged Fan to a Fight

Flanked by two lawyers and four huge placards of Los Angeles Times sports sections, former Dodger general manager Kevin Malone emerged from two weeks of seclusion Thursday to challenge the accuracy of Times’ reports of his run-in with a fan in San Diego on April 14, an incident that preceded his forced resignation by five days.

A tanned but tired-looking Malone, sporting a new salt-and-pepper goatee at a news conference at the Park Hyatt hotel in Century City, said that “hundreds of positive and supportive phone calls and letters from fans inquiring about the accuracy of the so-called incident in San Diego” prompted him to speak out.

“Was the account of the incident in San Diego accurately reported? The simple answer is no,” Malone said in a prepared statement. “No challenge to a fight was made by me. I never raised my voice. My son sat next to me, other Padre fans next to me, and I was calm and the loud, belligerent Padre fan was out of line.”

Malone and his lawyers, Eric Lampel and Jonathan Rivers of Irvine, contended that inaccuracies in The Times’ account of the incident at San Diego’s Qualcomm Stadium led directly to Malone’s forced resignation on April 19.

Malone and his lawyers have never contacted The Times to ask for a retraction.

Dodger vice president Derrick Hall Thursday declined to comment whether the San Diego incident in itself was the sole cause for Malone losing his job.

But in a conference call with reporters immediately after Malone resigned, Dodger Chairman Bob Daly said Malone’s demise was caused by “an accumulation of things.” The Dodgers said they did their own investigation of the San Diego incident.

“The San Diego thing was the reason to have a meeting and discuss a lot of things that [have occurred],” Daly said at the time. “It’s tough to deal with the distractions [Malone caused]. I don’t criticize people for writing about them because they happened, but that isn’t what we’re looking for. We’re looking for an organization that concentrates on baseball, winning baseball, and no person, even though they don’t mean to be, can be bigger than the organization as far as being a lightning rod.”

The Times first reported the incident in its April 17 editions and quoted Jim Esterbrooks and Steve Billings saying that Malone called Esterbrooks “Mouth” after Esterbrooks had jeered Dodger left fielder Gary Sheffield. Later, after Esterbrooks called Malone “Dodger Boy,” a self-imposed nickname, Malone reportedly challenged Esterbrooks to, “Come over here and say that.”

When contacted by The Times for the first report two days after the incident, Malone did not dispute Esterbrooks’ account--including that he challenged Esterbrooks to a fight. The Times’ report also quoted Malone as calling Esterbrooks’ behavior in the incident “loud, belligerent, obnoxious and rude.”

Reached at his San Diego home Thursday, Esterbrooks reiterated his contention that Malone told him more than once to “come over here and say that”--a comment Malone denied making Thursday.

“What does that mean, when someone says, ‘Come over here and say that?’ To me, that implies they want to fight,” said Esterbrooks. “It’s unfortunate that Mr. Malone has lost his job. His recollection of the events of that night don’t square with reality.”

Malone’s lawyers said their own investigation produced a witness who disputes The Times’ account, but did not identify the witness at the news conference. The witness was identified later Thursday by the Associated Press as George Palermo of San Diego County.

A transcript provided by Malone’s legal team quotes the witness: “I thought [Esterbrooks] was going to get up and go over to Malone and I’m thinking, ‘Gee, this poor guy [Malone] is sitting there with his kid and he is vulnerable, and the other guy is bigger than him.’ ” The transcript account added that Malone “didn’t do anything to aggravate the guy.”

The legal team said its witness left a phone message for The Times and never heard back.

Jason Reid, The Times’ Dodger beat writer, said Thursday from Cincinnati that he received a message from Palermo after Malone had resigned, and returned the call. Reid said he never heard back, and several messages left for Palermo Thursday were not returned.

At the news conference, Malone’s legal team used visual aids--30 feet by 38 feet reproductions of the Times’ front sports pages from April 17-20--in attempting to show a pattern of “misrepresentation” that began with the first accounts of the San Diego incident.

Rivers also said Thursday that area television anchors followed The Times’ lead in reporting that the San Diego incident was the cause of Malone’s resignation. Channel 2’s Jim Hill and Fox Sports’ Lisa Guerrero loudly disputed Rivers’ assertions as he was making them.

Malone left without taking questions and was interviewed on ESPN, where he said he was planning no legal action. He then briefly talked with newspaper reporters.

“I think what I’ve learned is that I’ve got to be careful of who I trust,” said Malone, who plans on staying in Los Angeles. “Because I’m open, I’m honest, and clear and I’m disappointed that maybe I said some things that were misunderstood because I am passionate, I do care a lot. I am very, very competitive, as competitive as [Dodger right-hander] Kevin Brown.”

Malone’s lawyers suggested that the first-place Dodgers’ recent run of success is due to his work. The team is 10-3 since he resigned.

Still, Malone continues to refer to the Dodgers as “we.”

Malone said he does not want his job back, only that he wants the truth to be known. But his lawyers wouldn’t let him directly answer whether he told Daly in their morning-after meeting that the San Diego incident, as reported by The Times, was false.

“The truth of the matter is, and you’ve heard that before, a lot of things I think I’ve said have been misunderstood or misrepresented,” said Malone, who received $800,000 from the Dodgers to terminate his contract.

“I’m just a blue collar guy that wanted the Dodgers to be the best and to win.”