It’s Time to Make One Thing Claire

Now that the Dodgers have retired No. 2, it is time to retire something else.

The idea that No. 2 should be No. 1.

Tom Lasorda would make a wonderful general manager, but not here, not now, no matter what those thousands of fans were saying at Dodger Stadium on Friday night.

They gave Lasorda a standing ovation that lasted more than a minute.

They booed Fred Claire.

That sort of reception, warranted once, is now as stale as whatever it is Claire puts in his hair.

Sure, it has been 11 years, and the Dodger general manager still does not look or talk like a baseball guy. His short speech during uniform-retirement ceremonies was the emotional equivalent of an elevator conversation.

Certainly, Claire has made horrible trades, ignored team chemistry, walked around with a tightly buttoned shirt and lips, represented everything that Lasorda is not.

But for the fourth consecutive year, he has put a contending team on the field.

That is his job, his only job, and with the acquisition of Otis Nixon, he has finished it.

The Dodgers are not great, but their roster is better than the one in San Francisco, good enough to make the playoffs, deep enough in pitching to scare those folks in Atlanta.

If none of that happens, the blame should be spread around the field, into the dugout, away from a man whose team could learn from his nerve.

Look no further than last week, when Claire became the first person in the history of the organization to tell Lasorda to button it.

He was probably overreacting a tad--relax, Tommy is just a guy trying to figure out his life like anybody else forced into retirement--but Claire sensed a distraction and moved to end it.

By the time they met on the field Friday, there was a chill in the summer air, but the sideshow was over.

Lasorda said he loved Manager Bill Russell “like my own son.”

He thanked Claire “from the bottom of my heart.”

And not once did he mention Bobby Valentine.

It was justifiably Lasorda’s night. Enveloped in such cheers, he said he will hear them forever.

But this morning belongs to Claire.

And as long as Peter O’Malley has any control around here, the top baseball job always will belong to Claire.

This is not a bad thing.

Lasorda is a wonderful evaluator of talent, with much to offer. Those who want him to end his days as a punch-drunk casino greeter insult productive senior citizens everywhere.

But is it really fair to give Lasorda his dream job at the expense of a man who:

* Refused to give away bullpen-exiled pitcher Tom Candiotti at the start of spring training despite pressure from the media and fans.

“You can never have enough pitching,” Claire said repeatedly.

It took a couple of months, but Ramon Martinez’s shoulder eventually proved Claire correct. Without Candiotti, there is no division race.

* Had the nerve to demote young stars Todd Hollandsworth and Antonio Osuna to triple-A Albuquerque.

Sure, Hollandsworth stunk, but let’s see you publicly humiliate the reigning NL rookie of the year like that. And then upset every Latin American scout in your system by making one of their best discoveries disappear.

You know what happened next. Both were humbled, both learned.

Osuna has returned to become the Dodgers’ hottest reliever, and Hollandsworth, before he was injured, had regained his focus and could be playing every day again in September.

* Stood firm in support of his new manager when faced with complaints by some of his veteran players.

What, you don’t think guys go into Claire’s office complaining about their boss? It happens everywhere. It happened here, particularly this year after Russell enforced some rules that had long been ignored.

The only difference is, here, the general manager doesn’t listen.

It is still uncertain whether Russell and this team will be a good fit. But it will not be because he has been back-stabbed by his superiors.

* Restrained himself when presented with the option of trading Eric Karros when the first baseman was struggling.

As usual, Claire decided to sleep on it a couple of weeks, wait until Karros got hot, which he did, just as he promised, and won’t the Dodgers be lucky to have his 30 homers and 100 RBIs at season’s end?

* Didn’t blink at spending $650,000 of O’Malley’s closely watched money to grab Otis Nixon.

Besides the bucks, it only cost Claire an average catching prospect, Bobby Cripps, who was valuable to the Toronto Blue Jays because he is from British Columbia.

Nixon was with the Dodgers all of two days before he won a game. He will do this again.

It has not been all good. Claire fell too deeply in love with Wilton Guerrero, blew out too much of his valuable bench last winter (Chad Curtis, where are you?), again forgot that baseball clubhouses need as many Mickey Hatchers as Mike Piazzas.

But he deserves to return for a winter of Eric Karros trade talk, of Greg Gagne free-agent talk, of what-do-you-do-with-Todd-Worrell talk.

All with the help of special major league assistant Tom Lasorda.