Readers Call Dodgers Bush Leaguers

The Dodgers have gone from the team responsible for breaking the color barrier to a team of smug ingrates huddling in corners with eager sportswriters and making anonymous threats against a teammate.

Mike Busch was man enough to make a decision to try to insure the support of his family. He put his family in front of whatever angst he carried against the owners of baseball teams. That’s something the major leaguers haven’t figured out, especially Brett Butler, who not only has threatened a player, but also threatened the wives and children of replacement players. Great attitude, Brett! You should be the first baseball player inductee into the Bosnian Serb Hall of Fame.

STEVEN SPENCER

Santa Monica

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Top three things that were heard late Wednesday night at Dodger player meeting No. 508 of the year:

1. It’s Mike Busch’s fault that Jose Offerman committed his 31st costly error, leading to two runs.

2. It’s Mike Busch’s fault that Mike Piazza struck out three times with the bases loaded.

3. It was Mike Busch’s fault that Todd Worrell blew his second consecutive save and game Tuesday.

It is my avid belief that it is Mike Busch’s fault that there will be a World Series played this year.

PHILIP R. RIEGEL

Riverside

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When Team Underachievement reacquired Brett Butler two weeks ago, they stated that they had everything now except excuses.

Since then we’ve heard: The Mets won on a squeeze play because they had nothing to lose, Piazza’s pitch calling and defense are shoddy, Nomo has too many pregame interviews and it’s a replacement player’s fault.

The general manager has assembled a team that should be 15 games in front of a third-year expansion team whose best pitcher is continuously on the disabled list. I don’t blame Fred Claire, the talent is there.

Champions overcome obstacles. Losers find excuses.

MARK BERNSTEIN

Los Angeles

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When Darryl Strawberry was participating in his illegal activities, guys like Brett Butler were standing up for him. But when a guy like Mike Busch makes it to the Dodgers through honest perseverance and effort, guys like Butler berate and disdain the man. Well, guys like me would rather see a guy like Mike Busch in Dodger blues than a guy like Butler.

SCOTT McLEOD

Irvine

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By the way, Brett, thanks for the fine example of Christianity. Forgive and forget . . . until someone does something we don’t like.

STEPHAN M. SPINNER

Los Angeles

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What kind of a moronic executive vice president would create such a distraction in the middle of a hotly contested pennant race? From bad trades to bad player relations, Fred Claire is the real reason the Dodger have not offered a contending team in the postseason since 1988.

MICHAEL R. KITAHARA

South Pasadena

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How about a movie to describe the new lineup at Chavez Ravine: Mike Busch and the Eight Dwarfs (Gutless, Spineless, Spoiled, Pampered, Whiny, Gripey, Whimper and Greedy).

DAVID DIAMOND

Los Angeles

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What hypocrisy! Brett Butler says principle dictates his stand against Mike Busch, but where was Butler’s principle when he and his teammates crossed the major league umpires’ picket line in the spring?

MICHAEL STRYER

Pacific Palisades

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Let’s face it. You ballplayers have a time-honored tradition of crossing the picket lines of other strikers, be they umpires, hot dog vendors or beer truck drivers. You guys couldn’t care less whether someone else misses a paycheck.

JIM MALLON

San Luis Obispo

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Amid speculation that his outspoken involvement with the players’ union factored into the decision, Brett Butler was not re-signed by Fred Claire. When Butler was brought back to the Dodgers for the stretch drive, all was apparently forgiven. Within 10 days of Butler’s return, Claire suited up a scab.

Perhaps what Claire forgot is that Butler, of all people, is particularly sensitive to issues related to the strike. While some may boo, I commend Butler for his leadership and the players for taking a stance.

ANDY SCHWICH

Santa Monica

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Ostracize Mike Busch’s wife? Not back him up if someone intentionally hits him? What is the next extension of this: Not save him if he’s drowning or not help his daughter if she’s choking on a chicken bone?

The Dodgers are lucky that the majority of us are not as petty and childish as they are being, since we have largely chosen to forgive them for last year’s betrayal.

MITCHELL TAUBMANN

West Hills

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Forget the division race, it’s much more important to let Mike Busch know how we really feel.

“We’re not going to eat with you! We’re not going to sit next to you! And we’re going to be mean to your wife when she comes to our games!”

These guys don’t belong at Dodger Stadium. They’d be much more at home on the playground at my 5-year-old daughter’s school.

DANA OLSEN

Burbank

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If you tank the rest of this season because of a replacement player, if you become distracted and blame it on Mike Busch, if you cost your fans another trip to the playoffs and hopefully the World Series, if you can’t do your job whether you like all of your teammates or not, then go back on strike now. Don’t lead us on and then break our hearts. Just go now.

MEL POWELL

Los Angeles

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While I sided with labor during the strike, I decided not to attend any Dodger games this year as a personal protest. As pennant fever set in, however, I have been wavering.

Thanks to the actions and words of shop steward Brett Butler and the rest of his whimpering teammates, I have found new resolve.

Dodger players are a disgrace to the American labor movement. If they had any real convictions, they would strike and fight.

They can’t quit; they did that already--last week in Philadelphia and this week against the Mets.

CHARLIE WATERS

Valencia

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When Butler was traded back to the Dodgers, I felt that he might be the missing piece to the puzzle. Now, I look forward to his departure in the off-season. Talk about a distraction. . . .

PAUL A. AUSE

Northridge

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Major league ballplayers continue to boggle the minds of us mere mortals with their endless capacity for selfishness, greed and cynicism. The same players who teamed with the owners to betray baseball fans a year ago now ostracize Mike Busch for “disloyalty.” This is somewhat akin to having Quisling call you a traitor. One day soon, Tommy Lasorda will fill out the lineup card and pencil in the name Busch . The rest of the Dodgers can spell it without the “c.”

ALLEN E. KAHN

Playa del Rey

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Mike Busch’s statements that he still “considers this the best day in my life” and that “I’m here to do business. I’m here to play baseball and help this team win,” show a level of class that Butler, and other players like him, lost long ago to greed.

To Mike Busch, I wish a long and successful baseball career. To Brett Butler, I wish a long overdue retirement. You’ve done enough to damage this great game.

CHRISTOPHER L. MAHAN

Newbury Park

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The always quiet and unassuming Tommy Lasorda was not heard from in stories relating to this situation. My guess is that this legendary man was experiencing deep in his soul an emotion that he would never have associated with Dodger Blue--shame.

JOHN M. CLARK

Valencia

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I hope the Dodgers win the pennant. I also hope they keep giving the scab the cold shoulder. I don’t think one precludes the other. But if I had to choose, yes, I’d choose worker solidarity over a pennant. I have no illusions that major league baseball players feel that strongly about organized labor, theirs or anybody else’s. But for heaven’s sake, they at least made a gesture in this case. Mike Downey couldn’t even tolerate that.

ROY BOGGS JR.

Culver City

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I like Brett Butler, but he needs to start acting a little more like Jesus and less like Judge Dredd--or worse, Darryl Strawberry.

GARY MOORE

Los Angeles

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The real scabs, in my opinion, are the ones that would rather destroy the game, cutting their source of livelihood in the process, in order to preserve their power.

GERRY CABALO

Lake Elsinore

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Dodger player representative Brett Butler is the embodiment of loyalty. His role in the strike earned him a banishment to New York, the loss of his house in Los Angeles and a major disruption of his family. Like a prisoner of war, he took his punishment but would not betray his teammates.

Mike Busch, on the other hand, fits the definition of a traitor. He broke the strike and betrayed the other players to serve his own ambition, and he now must take the consequences. A team is made up of people who can count on each other. Busch has proven that he cannot be trusted. No one should be surprised at his ostracism.

ABBY HAIGHT ARNOLD

Santa Monica

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Some free advice for Fred Claire: Go out and find 25 baseball players who actually want to win the damn pennant and let your existing bunch of distracted spoiled brats try to find the perfect world they feel they deserve. The only scabs the players should be worried about are the ones still covering the fans’ strike-induced wounds.

DON McLELLAN

Manhattan Beach

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I understand Mr. Butler’s reaction. After all, he makes millions of dollars a year to help support his family, while Mr. Busch makes more like what the average fan makes to raise his family.

CHIP RODDEN

Los Angeles

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I wonder if the current Dodger players ever wonder what they would have done if they were Dodgers when Jackie Robinson was brought up. Would they have called him names? Would they have been rude to his wife and child? Would they have pleaded with Branch Rickey to get rid of him for the sake of “team chemistry” and so as not to create a distraction?

Sadly, we now know the answer.

RICK A. SCHROEDER

Agoura

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The Big Dodger in the Sky turns out to be a mighty small guy after all.

CHARLES BOGLE

Sherman Oaks