National League : Now That Smoke Has Cleared, Is Chewing Out Next?

The Dodgers didn’t need to see the “60 Minutes” expose on smokeless tobacco to hear of its dangers, which, according to health studies cited by the program, include the possibility of oral cancer. Team trainer Bill Buhler long has voiced his disapproval of the habit, and his opposition has nothing to do with how distasteful it is to watch someone spitting all day.

Buhler believes that smokeless tobacco is as equally addictive as cigarettes. He can cite first-hand experience: His father, Dan, chewed tobacco, or “dipped,” as Buhler calls it.

“Anything that gives you that much of a high can’t be doing you that much good,” said Buhler, alluding to the effect of the nicotine in the chaw.

Several Dodgers, including Bob Welch and Bob Bailor, chew. Buhler says that even when players want to quit, they find it difficult to do so.

“It’s amazing,” he said. “A guy will stop in the off-season, but as soon as they’re in the clubhouse, they pick it up again. Dipping is addictive. I never see them (players who chew) without something in their mouths.”

Buhler said there may be hope in persuading players to give up the habit. “When I first started with the Dodgers over 30 years ago, 23 of the 25 players on the team smoked cigarettes,” he said. “Now there are four.”

The most overrated player in the National League West? According to Inside Sports magazine, it’s Pedro Guerrero of the Dodgers.

Guerrero, the magazine said, is a “poor fielder wherever they play him . . . and his numbers last year (.303 average, 16 home runs, 72 RBIs) were deceiving because he did most of his hitting after the team was out of the race.”

And from whom did Inside Sports solicit those opinions? None other than Jimmy Piersall, the ex-ballplayer who is now host of a talk show in Chicago. Fear lashes out.

Slimmed-down Sid: Sid Fernandez, one-time Dodger, has gone from 238 to 217 pounds, and he conceded that the extra fat affected his pitching last season as a rookie with the Mets.

“I absolutely think there was a connection between my weight and my performance,” he said recently. “I felt strong when I joined the club and won a few games. Then I got lazy. I just didn’t feel as good. Maybe I picked up a little weight. I was still throwing the same stuff, but it wasn’t as sharp. I have no doubt there was a connection.”

Fernandez joined a health club in Honolulu, his home, over the winter. “It’s a gymnasium and health club,” he said, “and they teach you how to eat, how to avoid fatty food, why it’s better to have vegetables and a baked potato or tuna in water, that kind of thing. It was important to me to control my weight, and I stuck to it.”

Get me Belize: Cub outfielder Gary Matthews is representing the team this weekend at a festival in the Central American country of Belize, where the Cubs apparently are big on cable TV.

“I had never heard of that place, what is it called, Belize?” Manager Jim Frey said. “When Dallas Green (Cub general manager) was talking to me about this idea the other day and asked me about Belize, I thought he was talking about another player he wanted to trade for. I said to Dallas: ‘I don’t believe I know this guy. What position does he play?’ ”

A blockbuster that wasn’t: Would you believe, Mike Schmidt of the Philies for Jim Rice of the Red Sox?

John Harrington of Boston said the Phillies made such an offer, but the Red Sox weren’t interested. Phillie President Bill Giles denies the offer was made.

“When they told me what Rice was asking for, I decided I wasn’t interested,” Giles told the Philadelphia Inquirer.

Schmidt’s guaranteed salary is $2,130,000, without bonuses, while Rice is making $2,090,000.

No more monkey business: Jerome Holtzman of the Chicago Tribune, quoting an unnamed owner on the subject of new Commissioner Peter Ueberroth: “We call him The Gorilla. “

Why? “Because he takes whatever he wants.”