Barney’s Block Stunned Scully

It was only the spring of Vin Scully’s second year as a Dodger broadcaster. Yet in the ensuing 46 years on the job, he has never seen anything like it.

And the death Tuesday of former Dodger pitcher Rex Barney brought it all back to Scully.

It was 1951. Barney, having completed six seasons with the Brooklyn Dodgers, was struggling to overcome control problems and make it into a seventh.

But he wasn’t doing very well. His inability to throw a strike had become a psychological problem.

Barney was scheduled to start an exhibition game for the Dodgers against a Class-A team in Asheville, N.C.

Four people were sitting in the clubhouse before the game--Barney, Scully, Dodger Manager Charlie Dressen and Harold Parrott, the club’s traveling secretary.

“Dressen instructed Parrott to get a brown paper bag across the clubhouse,” Scully recalled. “When Dressen got his hands on it, he pulled out a small bottle of brandy and told Barney to take a few sips.”

Barney was going to pitch to a catcher named Bruce Edwards.

“I remember,” Scully said, “that Dressen told Barney, ‘This is a Class-A team. All they have is a bunch youngsters and some old guys. Don’t worry about location. Don’t worry about anything other than throwing to Bruce.’ ”

It was good advice, but, as it turned out, futile.

The bats in that old park in North Carolina were lined up against the dugout wall. Barney’s first pitch sailed into the dugout and knocked over one of the bats.

It didn’t get much better. He never did find the plate, throwing ball after ball. He was soon out of the game and out of baseball.

“It was,” Scully said, “one of the saddest things I’ve ever seen in baseball.”

*

Manager Bill Russell has a new routine for the rest of the season. He will put Raul Mondesi in right field and newly acquired Otis Nixon in center.

Then he’ll look at who is on the mound for the opposition, who is hot for the Dodgers and who needs a rest, and then pick either Brett Butler, Roger Cedeno or Todd Hollandsworth, when his fractured arm is healed, to start in left field.

“Nixon is the center fielder,” Russell said.

*

The pregame activities involved the entire Dodger family. It was the Dodgers against their wives, kids and Casper, pitcher Tom Candiotti’s sunglasses-wearing dog.

Singing the national anthems were Lesley Boone (Canadian), third baseman Todd Zeile’s cousin, and Abbi Butler (American), Brett’s daughter.

TODAY’S GAME

DODGERS’ ISMAEL VALDES (6-10, 2.94 ERA) vs. EXPOS’ PEDRO MARTINEZ (14-5, 1.72 ERA)

Dodger Stadium, 1 p.m.

Radio--KABC (790), KWKW (1330).

* Update--Martinez, the former Dodger, has prospered since going across the border in a 1993 trade for Delino DeShields. He is 38-25 in his three previous seasons with the Expos, and is enjoying his best season this year. A measure of Martinez’ excellence is that he has more than twice the number of complete games the Dodgers have as a team. In the age of 100-pitch counts and quick hooks, Martinez has 11 complete games, the Dodgers five. Martinez has 207 strikeouts in 173 innings. Valdes has a 1.76 ERA over his last six starts, but has only a 3-2 record to show for it. In his career, Valdes has a 1.96 ERA against Montreal, but only a 3-2 record to show for that.