Fimple Gets Sent Down, Starts Up With Trade Talk

VERO BEACH, Fla. — They call it Christmas in Dodgertown, an annual affair in which Santa Claus sets up shop pool-side and distributes gifts to all the good little sons and daughters of Dodger personnel. A fine time is had by all.

At least, that’s the plan. It didn’t quite work out that way Tuesday for catcher Jack Fimple.

All he wanted for Christmas, even if it was March in Florida, was a job with the Dodgers. Instead, he was optioned to the minors.

Merry Christmas, Jack.

Technically, Fimple was sent to the Dodgers’ Triple-A farm club in Albuquerque, where he had spent the better part of the last two seasons. But the Dodgers, who want 21-year-old Gilberto Reyes to play every day on the Triple-A level, want Fimple to play at San Antonio.

“(Manager Tom) Lasorda told me today that they want me to play in San Antonio,” Fimple said.

San Antonio is Double A. For Fimple, 26, it’s a giant step to Nowheresville.

So, Fimple took the Dodgers’ gift and threw it right back at them.

“I won’t play in Double A,” he said Tuesday night. “I’ll have to talk to my agent and see what happens. I’ll have more to say tomorrow.”

Fimple said he had known of the Dodgers’ plan for Reyes. His own options were limited to making the Dodgers or being traded. The Dodgers apparently are satisfied that Steve Yeager is recovering nicely from his broken left leg and can be Mike Scioscia’s backup. And, so far at least, no deal.

Asked if he thought the Dodgers would try to trade him, Fimple said yes, adding, “And now I hope they do.

” . . . The only place left was San Antonio, and that’s not me,” Fimple said.

The bright future that seemed to be Fimple’s in 1983, when he filled in for the injured Scioscia and Yeager and kept the Dodgers on course to a division title, has blown a fuse.

When Scioscia recovered from his rotator cuff injury last season and reclaimed the No. 1 catching job, Fimple went back to Albuquerque, where he hit .249 in 107 games. Yeager’s injury and age (36) pointed to Fimple’s being in position to make a strong challenge. But it didn’t work out that way, and Fimple doesn’t understand why.

“I don’t think I could have done any more than I’ve done,” he said. “I’ve probably worked harder this spring than I ever had. If this is what hard work gets you. . . . It’s a blow to the ego, I guess.”

But what had seemed like the promise of spring to Fimple failed to impress Vice President Al Campanis.

“Fimple hasn’t looked very good,” Campanis said. “He hasn’t been swinging the bat very well, and I think his arm is still bothering him.”

Fimple underwent nerve surgery last October in his right elbow, an operation similar to the one that Steve Howe had. When he first reported, Fimple said his arm wasn’t quite ready. That isn’t the case now, he said.

“My arm feels 100%,” he said. “That’s no excuse for them to use. The coaches have been asking me how my arm is all week.”

Might that have been a tipoff to Fimple that perhaps the Dodgers were looking for a reason?

“At the time I didn’t think so, but maybe so,” Fimple said.

Jerry Reuss played himself in a recent TV movie about a midget private detective. Springboard to a new career? Hardly.

“Based on what I did, I don’t think I have to worry about my phone ringing off the hook,” Reuss said.

Tuesday in Holman Stadium, Reuss played himself again in a role that has worn well, earning him mostly favorable notices for the last 15 years. And after winning just five games in an injury-plagued 1984, Reuss looks ready to resume leading-man status once again, which is what the Dodgers had in mind when they gave the left-hander a four-year, $4.4-million contract in 1983.

Reuss raised his spring record to 4-0 in the Dodgers’ 11-5 win over the Toronto Blue Jays, giving up three runs in six innings.

“The only thing I need is location,” Reuss said. “It’s a little slow coming around. All in all, I got my innings in, and when you look at it in that perspective, I still have some work to do.”

Reuss said he enjoyed his work on the movie. “I don’t treat it as a folly,” he said. “More important than the role was seeing how people treated their profession. I was really impressed with their professionalism.

“They’re very sincere about it. I just kept my mouth shut and listened to see what I could learn.”

Even though elbow surgery limited Reuss to 99 innings and just 15 starts last season, and surgery on his heels kept him on crutches during the off-season, Reuss said he didn’t come here this spring believing he had to prove anything.

“No need to,” he said. “I never thought about it that way.”

Reuss, who will be 36 in June, disputes the idea that an athlete’s prime is reached between the ages of 28 and 32.

“That used to be, but it definitely has changed,” he said. “There’s too many guys close to 40 still playing.

“There are still some guys who may have lost a step or lost a little bit on their pitches or other things they did in those prime years. But it doesn’t relate to everyone anymore.

“Medical care is so much better, conditioning techniques, players are more specialized in their training and they stay in shape all year round.

“In the past, salaries were such that players had to take a job in the off-season to make ends meet, or to get involved in a business when their career was over. Now players don’t have to.”

Reuss’ plans? “Go as hard as you can for as long as you can,” he said.

In the four seasons preceding 1984, that translated into a 58-32 record with 12 shutouts. That kind of performance in ‘85, and the Dodgers just might award Reuss an Oscar.

Dodger Notes Steve Howe is scheduled to pitch in a game here Monday, then again April 4. If all goes well, Howe will probably pitch in the Freeway Series against the Angels. . . . The Dodgers’ 11 runs Tuesday were their highest output of the spring. They had 16 hits, among them a triple and a double by Pedro Guerrero. Guerrero also made a nice stop of a backhand smash in the first inning and a throwing error later. Ken Landreaux, Steve Yeager and Bill Russell also had two hits apiece.