Pitcher Shakes Cutie-Pie Tag, Hopes to Make Cut : White Asks If Freeway Ends in L.A.

In little more than a year, Larry White lost seven miles off his fastball and gained more than two points in his earned-run average. That’s not what you call progress.

That may be why White had trouble believing he was bound for L.A. Thursday night, and not just to visit his parents in Pacoima. Six years after being drafted in the 31st round by the Cleveland Indians, White has arrived in the Dodger bullpen. This time, the one-time 120-pound pitcher for San Fernando High may be there to stay.

“I’m just happy to be on the plane,” White said on the United Airlines charter that was taking the Dodgers home for the opener of the Freeway Series against the Angels tonight at 7:30 in Dodger Stadium.

“I can go back home and say, ‘Hey, I made it.’ . . . But the Dodgers haven’t told me anything yet.”

It wasn’t long ago that the Dodgers may have been close to telling White to go back to San Francisco State and get his degree in criminal justice. It was becoming apparent that the Indians had committed grand larceny when they traded White, catcher Jack Fimple and outfielder Jorge Orta to the Dodgers for Rick Sutcliffe, a one-time National League Rookie of the Year who would later add a Cy Young Award to his credentials.

“I think he went through a tough period when he came over here from Cleveland,” said Larry Sherry, the Dodgers’ minor-league pitching instructor. “He looked like he had a good arm, he was a good physical specimen and the first year I saw him he had a major-league change-up, which is unusual in a young pitcher.”

That was in 1982, when White finished 12-5 for Albuquerque, won seven games in a row at one point, and was the winning pitcher when the Dukes beat Spokane for the Pacific Coast League title.

“Then it all came apart,” Sherry said. “He wasn’t throwing hard. He may have been feeling frustrated that he didn’t make the club two years in a row.”

When they first put the radar gun on White, the Dodgers clocked his fastball at 90 m.p.h. In 1983, he was down to 83, and no one was quite sure why.

“I had pitched a lot of winter ball--maybe my arm was tired and I needed a rest,” White said.

The Dodger minor league coaches had other theories.

“The problem he had was that he got cute,” Sherry said. “He was trying to be a cutie pie. For some reason, he thought that was the way to pitch.”

The ’83 season wasn’t entirely a wash for White. In a playoff series against Las Vegas, White pitched and won in relief one night, then came back the next night to pitch a complete-game victory.

“I’m going to tell you, I was scared,” White said. “After I won the first night, (Manager) Terry Collins asked, ‘How do you feel?’ You’re not going to tell him you don’t feel good.

“So then he said, ‘I’m going to call (Al) Campanis and see if it’s OK.’

“I knew I was putting a lot of pressure on myself, but I also knew that if I did well, I’d just shine more.”

White shone brightly enough to be summoned to L.A. for his big-league debut against the Houston Astros on Sept. 15, 1983. But the following spring, it was back to Albuquerque.”

“Larry had a great year for us in ‘82,” said shortstop Dave Anderson, the PCL’s player of the year that season. “But he got caught up in a numbers game.”

Sherry, a former Dodger reliever, could sympathize. “He’d been on the roster three years,” Sherry said. “I know what it’s like. In ’58 I pitched 26 innings in spring training and gave up one unearned run. They wanted me to pitch my way off the ballclub and I didn’t. But I still went back to the minor leagues. That takes a lot of air out of you.”

White admits to being similarly deflated. “I had a letdown,” he said. “The main thing is I had to go to Albuquerque and start all over again. I didn’t sulk, or act like a spoiled brat, but I started off bad, and it became the worst year of my professional career. I was getting hit .”

White was 7-12 with a 6.09 ERA for the Dukes last season, and was forced to watch the Dodgers promote other young pitchers, like Orel Hershiser and Ken Howell. The experience was not unknown in the White family: Larry’s brother, Michael, an infielder, spent five years in the Seattle organization before finally giving up and taking a job with the L.A. Unified School District.

Not that White begrudged Howell, who is now his roommate.

“The thing about it is Ken deserved it,” White said. “The hardest thing for me to admit to myself was that he deserved it and did the job, and I didn’t.”

White came up briefly twice for the Dodgers last season, and made his first big-league start in September against Atlanta, giving up three runs in four innings. Even though he saw limited action, pitching coach Ron Perranoski said he noticed a difference.

“I had a long talk with him last winter,” Perranoski said, “and by the end of last year I saw a change. He did a helluva job adjusting and going back to use his talent.”

This spring, White arrived in Florida out of options. Either he had to make the team, or the Dodgers would be forced to ask waivers on him. If he cleared, he would be frozen in Albuquerque.

“This spring,” White said, “was the most important of my career.”

That career had started years before, when White played every position, including catcher. “Then I got hit once and told my father I’d never catch again.”

Even when he was skinny and an inch shy of six feet, White attracted enough attention at San Fernando High to be drafted by the Oakland A’s in the 11th round. But instead, he went to college, first to Pierce in Woodland Hills, then to San Francisco State. It was there that he caught the attention of Cleveland scouts, including Mel Didier, now a scout for the Dodgers. By then, he had reached his present size: 6-5, 190 pounds.

The trade to the Dodgers came in December, 1981. This past winter, White chose not to play winter ball, instead returning home.

“It gave me a chance to think about things, to slow down and find out about myself, what I wanted to do,” he said.

The White the Dodgers have seen this spring appears more mature, less likely to get down on himself and less inclined to shake off his catchers.

Said Perranoski: “I told him to gain by their (the catchers) experience.”

White is throwing harder, though. The Dodgers clocked him this spring at 87 m.p.h.

Still hindering White, coaches feel, are a few maddening lapses. In a “B” squad game this spring against the Expos, White wasn’t sharp and gave up a game-winning home run to Jim Wohlford.

“He went out there with nothing,” one coach said, “and it’s hard to figure out why. Sometimes it looks like he doesn’t care that much, or isn’t trying.”

But the overall impression has been positive. “He’s had a helluva spring,” Perranoski said, alluding to White’s 1.50 ERA in exhibition play so far.

“I feel stronger and stronger,” White said. “I’m a person who goes from day to day. I have a goal, to make the big leagues, to stay in the big leagues.

“I’m not a guy who’s going to pop off, and then embarrass myself. I just want to do my job and be ready.”

At 26, White is ready to pitch. And one day, he may be ready to believe.