Sheriff Is Under Gun

There was once a fine Dodger general manager named Al Campanis who said brutally ignorant things about blacks.

For that, he was fired.

There was then a fine Dodger general manager named Fred Claire who said brutally honest things about his new bosses.

For that, he was fired.

Now there is a struggling Dodger general manager named Kevin Malone who says one brutal thing after another, outrageously bragging one minute, accidentally leaving a nasty message on a teenager’s answering machine the next.

He has compared Gary Sheffield to Bill Clinton. He has asked people to call him “Dodger Boy.”

Most recently and quite absurdly, he picked a fight with a fan.

For that, should Malone also be fired?

It would not be without precedent. It would not be without cause. It would not be without community support.

It seems inevitable.

Against all public opinion during the off-season, Dodger Chairman Bob Daly supported two seasons of questionable and often plain lousy baseball decisions by his general manager, saying that Malone would be given another chance as long as he stopped running his mouth.

Telling a jeering San Diego Padre fan to “come over here and say that” on Saturday night at Qualcomm Stadium would not appear to fall under that directive.

While many have wanted Malone ousted strictly on the basis of baseball decisions that have left the team weak up the middle and empty on the bench, Daly has so far tolerated a lack of Dodger tradition in the dugout as long as it is maintained off the field.

Today, it can be found in neither place.

Malone’s habits being consistent with those of a hard-working scout, he has never quite fit into the executive suite of one of the richest operations in sports.

He’s that wild-throwing reliever being asked to start. He’s a cackling old third base coach being asked to manage.

He’s playing out of position.

Saturday’s confrontation could finally cause Daly to tear up the lineup card.

The fan baiting itself, of course, will not be cause for the firing.

After all, Padre fans have jeered the Dodgers for years, and the Dodgers have always jeered back. Profane exchanges between Tom Lasorda and the folks behind the dugout would fill a book.

When it comes to actually confronting fans, well, how many Dodger players did precisely that last year at Wrigley Field in Chicago? And nobody fired them.

Malone didn’t hit anybody. He didn’t hurt anybody. He didn’t do anything illegal or immoral.

He just did something incredibly stupid.

This, after two years of doing and saying numerous things considered incredibly stupid.

He again damaged the organization’s image, while again distracting those players who are trying to repair it.

So a fan with a 6-year-old in his lap calls Gary Sheffield a disgrace just before Sheffield hits a home run.

Why does Malone, sitting unnoticed nearby, have to respond? Wasn’t the home run enough of a response?

So the guy, who later gained attention by contacting Times columnist T.J. Simers, continues to banter with Malone.

Why does Malone have to make his day by challenging him to fists?

Fred Claire sat in the stands for many road games during his 12-year tenure as Dodger general manager. With his sportswriting background, he was a far larger clay pigeon than Malone.

Yet not once did he engage a harassing fan with anything stronger than a shrug.

Can you imagine Branch Rickey calling any fan “the mouth”? Can you imagine Al Campanis even looking away from the game long enough to notice the fan?

With few exceptions, the big-target Dodgers have a tradition of enduring the abuse and responding in the box score.

Beginning in 1947, with a guy named Jackie Robinson.

Even though the firing is inevitable, some might question the timing and wish the Dodgers to wait until the off-season.

But in the world of general managers, there is no off-season.

If there is any slow time in that job, it is the time between the end of spring training roster decisions and the start of midseason trade talks.

You want to make a general manager change, now is the time, as witnessed by the recent “retirement” of John Hart, the guru of the Cleveland Indians.

Which brings us to the topic of Malone’s replacement, and another reason the timing is important.

Why not John Hart?

While he won’t formally leave the team until the end of the season, Hart is available and looking for new challenges, and he should be pursued. Besides being the architect of one of the most unlikely transformations in baseball history, he has the knowledge of Campanis and the professionalism of Claire.

If Bob Daly is going to move, he needs to move quickly.

If not now, when?

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.