Dodgers Pay the Price for White Sox’s Wisdom

Three years ago, Chicago White Sox ownership had to make a decision, and so it passed over assistant GM Dan Evans, and promoted Ken Williams, the team’s farm director, and made him general manager.

Evans quit, and the rest has become more Dodger wretched history.

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On July 1 -- 30 days before everyone else waited for the trading deadline-- Williams made deals for Roberto Alomar and Carl Everett. The White Sox were in third place at the time, and writing a day later in the Chicago Sun-Times, reporter Toni Ginnetti said, “Both deals drew positive reaction from the Sox who have seen their playoff hopes revived in the last two weeks.”

The White Sox were seven games out of first place July 17, but re-energized, they were tied for first Friday, and are the hottest team in baseball.

Williams traded seldom-used reliever Gary Glover and eight minor leaguers to acquire Alomar from the New York Mets, Everett from the Texas Rangers and Scott Schoeneweis from the Angels. The Mets agreed to pay $3.75 million of Alomar’s $3.9-million salary, and the Rangers picked up a portion of Everett’s pay, so Williams did not dramatically increase the payroll. There is a way to get things done.

MLB.com’s Jim Molony wrote this week that the White Sox “gave up a few solid prospects in the bunch, but this is a team with a chance to go far in the postseason and Williams wasn’t about to hold back.”

Chicago apparently knew what it was doing when it selected its GM.

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EVANS, MEANWHILE, has overseen the biggest collapse this season -- the Dodgers even with the Giants on June 21 and holding a big lead for the wild card -- now behind San Francisco by 13 1/2 games, and trailing Philadelphia, St. Louis, Arizona, Chicago, Florida and Montreal for the wild card.

Evans waited and waited, while he consulted with his staff. The Dodgers have an unusually large number of scouts because Evans doesn’t have a strong scouting background, and obviously doesn’t have an eye for talent.

Need proof: James Baldwin, McKay Christensen, Mike Trombley, Tyler Houston, Fred McGriff, Todd Hundley, Terry Mulholland, Daryle Ward, Chad Hermansen, Rickety Henderson and Jeromy Burnitz.

Oh, add one more name: Robin Ventura. The way things have gone lately, Evans has passed Donald Sterling as the biggest waste of executive space in town.

Gary Sheffield, Mark Grudzielanek, Eric Karros and Marquis Grissom -- all shipped out of town by Evans, are hitting above .300. No Dodger hitter is hitting. 300 or better. The team that needed hitting desperately received no significant help.

The Dodgers might be sold. Maybe Evans’ hands are tied. Maybe it’s bad luck. Maybe he didn’t have the prospects to deal, but whatever, he has failed miserably to answer the alarm.

And the Dodgers/51s have become a big local turn off -- falling below .500, and on the heels of Kevin Malone’s induction, the Dodgers’ Hall of Shame is getting pretty crowded these days.

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WE RECEIVED another side-splitting Charger press release: “Kids 14 and under will have an experience to remember when they join the entire San Diego Chargers team and the Charger Girls, the NFL’s hottest dance team ... “ for FanFest.

I’ll bet those kids will never forget the experience.

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NEVER MET the Pump Brothers, Dana and David, before. Somebody, please cut off their caffeine. Everyone in the high school, collegiate and pro basketball worlds know about the energetic red-headed identical twins, who for more than a decade have staged camps, which draw the top players and coaches.

This week they entertained more than 170 teams at Loyola Marymount, including some prep stars ticketed for the NBA, UCLA sensational recruit Jordan Farmar and an interested observer in Arizona Coach Lute Olson. This is summer basketball central, but it’s not the best work the Pumps do.

A who’s who of basketball coaches will be here for a retreat -- more than 650 guests meeting Thursday to pay honor to Harold Pump, the twins’ late father, to raise money for Northridge Hospital’s Cancer Center.

“The night my sweetheart died, my boys made a promise to their father that they would give back,” said Carol Pump. “The hospital had done extremely good by us. They would come in and see my boys at midnight, and the boys would tell them they were doctors, and they’d let them stay with their father.”

The Pumps pledged to raise half a million dollars in five years. It’s going to take four -- culminating with Thursday’s dinner.

One of the jabbering Pumps, and since they look alike and talk so much, does it really matter which one? -- said, “This is not a one-year deal. This is for our father, and as long as we’re living, we’re going to try and make a difference -- in his name.”

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BLOOMBERG NEWS reported Denver will have $18 million under the salary cap next year “when All-Stars Kevin Garnett and Kobe Bryant are free agents.” Kobe might be in Denver next year, but not because he’s being paid to be there.

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WHEN I heard UCLA receiver Tab Perry had been declared academically ineligible, my first thought was he’ll probably try to enter a school where he’ll have a better chance to compete academically, although I think USC already has a number of good receivers.

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TODAY’S LAST word comes in e-mail from Kevin Hill:

“Dodgers Get Ventura ... imagine the disappointment when I read this headline and found out it didn’t involve the former Governor of Minnesota.”

But imagine how relieved Gray Davis must be.

T.J. Simers can be reached at [email protected].