After a Year and a Half, Zeile’s Dream Is Over

Todd Zeile should have known better.

Now in his 10th big league season, he should have known that, according to an old baseball superstition, the surest way to get shipped out of town is to set down roots. Buy a house and be assured you won’t be living in it long.

Sure enough, Zeile, born in the San Fernando Valley and living with his wife and two kids in Valencia, just moved into a house in Westlake Village.

Of course, Zeile knows all about moving. The Florida Marlins, to whom Zeile was traded Friday night, will be his sixth team.

After playing in St. Louis, Chicago, Philadelphia and Baltimore, Zeile was thrilled to come back home where he played his high school ball at Hart in Newhall and his college ball at UCLA.

Zeile, who was batting .253 for the Dodgers in 40 games with seven home runs and 27 runs batted in, chose not to come to the ballpark Friday after being informed Thursday night that his days with the club were probably over after only a year and a half.

Zeile, who signed with the Dodgers as a free agent before the 1997 season, found it difficult at first to put aside the distractions and the high expectations that come with playing at home. He struggled, batting .137 in his first 73 at-bats.

But Zeile soon learned how to balance his life outside the lines with his life between them, ending up with 31 home runs and 90 RBIs along with a .268 batting average.

Perhaps no one can relate better to what Zeile went through than Dodger relief pitcher Scott Radinsky. A graduate of Simi Valley High, Radinsky pitched for the Chicago White Sox for six years before finally making it back to Los Angeles.

“I waited for a long time to come home and play,” Radinsky said. “It’s got to be a shock for him [Zeile] to wake up this morning.

“It’s pretty cool if you come up and play 10 years with the same guys. But it’s not happening anymore.”

Especially if you try to move into a new house in the middle of the season.

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Times staff writer Eric Sondheimer contributed to this story.