I’m all for team loyalty, but when does loyalty to one’s team supercede another — especially if it’s from the same player?

Last week, the Los Angeles Dodgers, in acknowledging its 1988 World Series team, honored pitching great Orel Hershiser with not only throwing out the first pitch against the Arizona Diamondbacks, but his very own bobblehead.

Hershiser, who broke former Dodgers great Don Drysdale’s league record for consecutive scoreless innings pitched (58), had an interesting but thoughtful request. He wanted former Dodgers teammate Kirk Gibson to catch the first pitch.

Sounds nice enough. Gibson, an outfielder, was voted National League MVP that year despite driving in just 76 runs. He’s famously known for his hobbling home run trot against Oakland A’s hurler Dennis Eckersley to win Game 1 of the 1988 World Series.

Gibson, it so happens, is now the Diamondbacks manager so it would have been perfect for the two players to share the moment, right?

Wrong.

Respectfully, Gibson declined the offer from Hershiser.

“I’m a Diamondback. I’m the manager of the team,” Gibson said. “I respect Orel tremendously. He knows that. It’s not disrespect towards him. If I was out of baseball, I would have done it, but I’m in baseball and I’ve got different colors on tonight and tomorrow.”

Sounds nice, but I doubt that Gibson crouching down and catching a pitch from a fellow retired player would have stopped the Earth spinning.

Maybe Gibson thought it would send a wrong message to his players, but what message would that be? The idea of honoring a former teammate with whom you shared a championship?

I’ll admit, I’m a Gibson fan. I loved his demeanor and attitude as a member of the Detroit Tigers’ World Series championship team of 1984. I followed that team feverishly. With cousins growing up in the Detroit area, I’ve always kept an eye of them.

When the Tigers went 35-5 to open the season, you knew that was a special team. Gibson was the heart and soul of that team.

Then, as a Dodger, he pulled that team together when he joined Los Angeles in 1988. His fire has always been a big part of his game.

However, Gibson needs to know the game is still bigger than he is. When athletes start believing they are bigger, they lose respect from their peers and are left behind as the games roll on. No one would have lost a speck of respect for him, yet somehow deep down inside, he thought it would.

Gibson would go on to be a broadcaster and an assistant coach, but he got his shot when the Diamondbacks fired A.J. Hinch in midseason of 2010. Gibson has enjoyed success with the Diamondbacks and the game ... as well as the fans ... has continued.

Still, baseball can always use moments that could have happened last week. And what will happen later this summer when Arizona returns to L.A. and it’s Gibson’s turn to be honored with his bobblehead?

That will be interesting, but there is still honor in baseball. Gibson had the chance to show it, but his poor choice last week was a black eye to the Dodgers and to baseball. That hard-nosed attitude that helped him thrive as a player may hinder him as a former teammate and an ambassador of the game.

Sam Tallarico is a staff writer for the Butler Eagle.