Players Not Worried About Security

Dodger players said the incident in which a fan was shot and killed in a Dodger Stadium parking lot Friday night did not make them feel uneasy about the security of their relatives and friends at games.

“The security here is top-notch,” right fielder Shawn Green said before the Dodgers played the Giants on Saturday. “It’s something that could have happened anywhere. It was one individual who made everyone look bad.”

Dodger infielder Robin Ventura said he hoped the tragedy was a one-time occurrence. “You don’t want to see that happen anywhere else,” he said. “It’s awful.”

Major League Baseball executives, including Sandy Alderson, vice president of operations, attended Saturday’s game in the wake of the incident, which Dodger players and coaches said they believed was unprecedented. Don Newcombe, who played for the Brooklyn and Los Angeles Dodgers in the 1940s and 1950s, said he had never heard of a similar episode in all his years in baseball.

“It’s really not a subject you thought you would come out here as the manager of a major league team and be talking about prior to the start of a game,” Dodger Manager Jim Tracy said. “No way. I don’t really know how to correlate that into words. It’s somewhat beyond my comprehension.”

Doug Duennes, vice president of Dodger Stadium operations, was taking the matter seriously.

“All of our personnel have been thoroughly briefed about what happened last night and to be extra vigilant to make sure we’re staying on top of these types of things,” Duennes said.

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Roy Gleason, the former Dodger who doubled in his only major league plate appearance, threw out the first pitch and, in a surprise, received a replica 1963 World Series ring in a pregame ceremony. Gleason, the only Los Angeles Dodger to earn a Purple Heart, lost his ring while serving in Vietnam.

“This World Series ring is something I never expected,” Gleason said, fingering his new jewelry. “It’s a fantastic surprise to me. It brings back some fantastic memories.”

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Odalis Perez, who skipped his last start because of a broken fingernail on his pitching hand, threw a bullpen session Saturday and is scheduled to make his next start Monday against the San Diego Padres. If Perez is unable start, Tracy said, rookie Edwin Jackson would again take his turn in the rotation.... Paul Lo Duca suffered a strained chest muscle Friday while fielding a foul ball and did not start Saturday, though Tracy said the catcher was available to pinch-hit if necessary. Tracy said Lo Duca is expected to start today and would have taken a day off this weekend regardless of whether he was injured. “Paul, the last few days, has shown a little bit of fatigue and understandably so with as hard as we’ve ridden him,” Tracy said.