Controlling Interest

Dodger followers returning home from vacation this weekend--OK, me--stumbled through rooms apparently rearranged by vandals in blindfolds.

Davey Johnson is out.

Kevin Malone is in.

Let’s step back outside and think about this a second.

If this poorly constructed team doesn’t make the playoffs, the veteran manager will be fired?

While the young general manager who constructed it will not?

A phone call was made to the man making the decisions.

He called back in two minutes.

“Sorry for the delay,” he said.

It is Bob Daly, and he is everywhere.

During the day, he works in his Dodger Stadium office.

“I don’t have any other job, they’re stuck with me,” he said.

In the afternoon before home games, still in his pinstripe suit, he roams behind the batting cage, talking with everyone from coaches to utility infielders.

“I have a very good logical brain,” he said. “I ask a lot of logical questions.”

After batting practice on Monday, he even stepped into the stands behind home plate and chatted up agent Scott Boras.

“I’m in on every meeting,” he said. “I participate in every phone conversation.”

Watching and listening to Bob Daly since Fox made him the Dodger front-man last fall and you realize, all this rearranging isn’t just about Kevin Malone and Davey Johnson.

It’s about George Steinbrenner.

That’s who Daly wants to become.

A West Coast version of The Boss.

Call him The Producer.

Kevin Malone gets a vote of confidence despite struggling with most of his major-league maneuverings?

Of course he does.

Because sooner or later--heck, maybe already--The Producer will be the general manager around here.

Just like The Boss.

The Producer doesn’t need some John Hart or John Schuerholz who will demand total control and fight him on big decisions.

He needs a good player-development and scouting guy to build up the farm system that he will eventually trade away for pennant-race talent.

And Malone is certainly that.

Just like kid Brian Cashman in New York.

Who’s that? The Boss’ general manager, silly.

Steinbrenner has built the Yankees with stars on the field and role players in the front office.

So, too, will Daly.

Now for Davey Johnson. If Daly wants to be Steinbrenner, does that mean Johnson is . . .

Yep. Billy Martin. Bob Lemon. You remember.

Daly wants to win now. He thinks he has built a team that can win now. He has little patience when it doesn’t happen.

It’s clear who will take the fall.

Daly said it again Monday, noting, “I think Davey is a wonderful baseball man. But do I think we need to get more out of this team? Yes. We do.”

About Malone, his tone was again decidedly different.

“I don’t think fans understand what a general manager’s job is,” Daly said. “I think Kevin has shown tremendous strength in evaluating people. He’s done a great job reorganizing the minor league system.”

He added, “I think Kevin Malone is going to be here next year.”

So an organization once run by Peter O’Malley is now being run by somebody imitating O’Malley’s greatest rival.

“I have nothing but the deepest respect for [Steinbrenner] and what he’s accomplished,” Daly admitted, but quickly added, “But I’ll never go down to the clubhouse and say why not start this guy or that guy. I don’t do that.”

Steinbrenner never actually does that either. But the word trickles down, just as the word trickled down last week as Daly pounded his stake and raised his flag.

Nine months into his unique role as the minority owner with the majority voice, the Dodgers are his.

“I’m certainly taking a bigger role than Peter O’Malley,” he said.

Not that all of this, or any of this, is so bad.

After all, Steinbrenner has evolved from a shipbuilding buffoon to perhaps the best owner in sports, a man who places winning--thus, his fans--ahead of all else.

The Dodgers lacked this in their later years under the increasingly penny-wise O’Malley, then crumbled under the heavy hands of Fox executives who cared only about making a splash.

Daly, while still more of a fan than an expert, is at least one voice. And because he stays so close to the team, that voice is often shared by others.

Take Johnson, for example. Some say that in recent weeks, Johnson has lost some of the energy and nerve that has made him such a great manager in the past.

His former players have marveled that he could get blood from a rock.

His current players grumble that at times, he has become that rock.

Maybe Daly is attempting to stoke the fire that, as soon as Johnson’s medical problems clear, will once again appear.

And about overseeing the personnel moves, well, he gave away too much in the deal that sent Ismael Valdes and Eric Young to the Chicago Cubs for Terry Adams and some minor leaguers.

But he did extend the contracts of Eric Karros and Mark Grudzielanek, and put the stamp on signing reliever Mike Fetters, and paid to keep Adrian Beltre.

Subtract Raul Mondesi’s clubhouse problems from his fine stats in Toronto, and even though Shawn Green is struggling, that deal is still about even.

With two weeks remaining until the trading deadline, and the Dodgers still in sight of a playoff berth, we will watch what Daly does next.

Despite his October heroics, Steinbrenner always did do his best work in July.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: [email protected].