Bob Welch

After four starts this season, Bob Welch was 1-2. In 23 innings, he had given up 28 hits and 20 runs. The Oakland Athletics were wondering if they made a mistake when they sent shortstop Alfredo Griffin to the Dodgers for the veteran right-hander. But Welch has since become the ace of the staff. In winning his seventh in a row, Welch held the Baltimore Orioles to three hits and an unearned run in eight innings Wednesday at Oakland as the Athletics won, 8-1.

One of the reasons the Dodgers let Tommy John get away a decade ago was the realization that in Bob Welch they had an outstanding young pitcher in the wings. Welch is now a 31-year-old veteran. Surprisingly, John, who will be 45 Sunday, is still around. The former Dodgers hooked up Friday in New York, and youth prevailed. Welch, now with the Oakland Athletics, was backed by a 14-hit attack and improved his record to 7-2 with an 11-3 victory.

In the proper light and with a little imagination, you might have thought that was Bob Welch, not Tim Leary, on the mound Monday night for the Dodgers. Sure, the style and appearance were different, but the result on this night bore a striking resemblance to some of Welch's best Dodger performances. With Welch wearing Oakland's garish green and gold uniform after an off-season trade, Leary has tried to lessen that loss by providing the Dodgers with as many wins as possible.

A fan at Angels Stadium in Palm Springs was watching Bob Welch pitch in an exhibition game against the Angels last month when he turned to a companion and said: "He still pitches the same, but he just doesn't look right in that green and yellow uniform." Welch spent his first 10 reasons in the majors in Dodger blue, of course, and admits he was shocked when he learned that he had been traded to Oakland last December. He also admits to being a little hurt and a lot disappointed . . .

Well, it looks like the Dodgers have done it again. Every time the Dodgers stoop to a new low, they do something else to top it. Now they have traded Bob Welch. You'd think they had learned a lesson after getting rid of Steve Garvey. Bob Welch was with the Dodgers for almost 10 years, and he's been reliable and always gave his best. In my opinion, he's the best pitcher the Dodgers ever had, and they have made a giant mistake in trading him. At least Al Campanis never gave away one of baseball's premier pitchers.

It was one of the great moments in baseball history, the kind the game lives on. At the bat was the most exciting player in the game, Mr. October himself, Reginald Martinez Jackson, in person, not a recording, black bat poised behind his back, waiting confidently for the fastball he knew was coming, ready to hit his seventh home run in five consecutive World Series games. It was the ninth inning, two were out and the New York Yankees, trailing by one run, had two runners on base.

Baseball general managers like to say that you can't trade for pitching, that it's the one commodity no one will give up. The winter meetings in Dallas showed that to be an excuse, an alibi. Pitching is available to any club willing to pay the price. There were 10 trades involving 24 major league players, 17 of whom were pitchers.

Bleary-eyed but clearly seeing a better future, Executive Vice President Fred Claire of the Dodgers completed a three-way trade with the Oakland A's and the New York Mets early Friday morning, fulfilling the team's persistent pursuit of an everyday shortstop and a proven relief pitcher. Six days after his arrival at the winter baseball meetings and almost two days after the meetings had officially ended, Claire emerged shortly after 2 a.m.

The Dodgers' search for a quality left-handed relief pitcher, among their most pressing off-season personnel priorities since their problems with drug-troubled Steve Howe several years back, has led them to the risky trading market once more. For the fourth straight winter, the Dodgers have traded for a left-handed short reliever whom they hope will be as effective as Howe had been during his salad days.