October 16, 1985 : THE DAY THAT WON’T GO AWAY : TOM NIEDENFUER : If the Dodger Pitcher Finds Himself in the Same Situation Again, He Says He Will Play It the Same Way--Going Out to Challenge the Hitter Rather Than Giving Up a Base on Balls

When Dodger catcher Mike Scioscia came walking out to the mound on that Wednesday afternoon in October, he was stalling for time.

“We were waiting for the shadows,” Tom Niedenfuer said Saturday. “They were almost all the way across the plate.”

In the next moment, Jack Clark would step out of those shadows and eclipse a Dodger season. But first, Scioscia and Niedenfuer caucused.

“Mike came out and said, ‘I don’t know what they want us to do,’ ” Niedenfuer said. “Then he looked into the dugout. ‘They want us to go after him,’ he said. ‘Let’s go get him.’ ”

Two innings before, with a runner on third base, Niedenfuer had struck out Clark. The idea of walking him, Niedenfuer said, was never discussed, even though first base was open.

“Mike wanted me to throw a slider, I wanted to throw a fastball,” Niedenfuer said. “The last time I had thrown him five sliders in a row, then struck him out with the fastball.

“With first base open, I figured he’d be looking for the breaking ball to hit to right field. I wanted to throw a fastball by him on the outside part of the plate, then throw him a breaking ball away.

“I wanted to make a pitcher’s pitch, a fastball away. If I hit the corner, fine. If it missed, fine. In that situation, you try not to be too aggressive, but I guess I was.”

To Niedenfuer’s horror, the ball split the middle of the plate, and Clark swung. He didn’t miss.

“When it happened, when he hit it, I seriously thought he had become the third player in history to hit a ball out of Dodger Stadium,” Niedenfuer said.

Clark did not join Willie Stargell, who has done it twice, or Dave Kingman in propelling a ball out of the premises. But he did join Joe Morgan in the company of Dodger-killers of the ‘80s. Morgan had homered off Terry Forster on the last day of the 1982 season, knocking the Dodgers out of a share of the division title.

That was unforgettable. What few people remember is who the losing pitcher was in that game. It was Niedenfuer. He gave up a double to Champ Summers, who represented the go-ahead run, before Forster pitched to Morgan.

No one will forget the loser last October, although more fingers pointed at Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda for not ordering an intentional walk than at Niedenfuer for giving up the home run.

But one pitch obscured perhaps the best season of Niedenfuer’s life: 19 saves, most by a Dodger pitcher in seven years; a strikeout to walk ratio of 106 to 24, a yield of just 86 hits in 106 innings.

And it didn’t help that in the game prior to Clark’s crusher, Niedenfuer had given up a game-winning home run to switch-hitting Ozzie Smith, the first time Smith had ever homered left-handed in his life.

“I think even Ozzie would admit that was a fluke,” Niedenfuer said.

Forster, a long-time friend, called him the day after the Smith home run, Niedenfuer said. “He told me, ‘Don’t worry about it, at least it wasn’t like the last game of the season, like mine was,’ ” Niedenfuer said.

Two days after the Clark home run, Forster called again. “You’ve passed me now,” he told Niedenfuer.

But for Niedenfuer, the moment has passed, except when someone brings it up.

“I’ve only been asked about it 5,000 or 10,000 times this winter,” he said.

His first reaction, while Clark was circling the bases?

“Definitely numb,” Niedenfuer said. “I don’t even remember what happened with (Andy) Van Slyke (the next hitter). For a couple of days, I forgot that I even pitched to him.”

Niedenfuer had entered the game in the seventh inning and gave up an RBI triple to Ozzie Smith.

“Then I struck out Clark and Van Slyke,” Niedenfuer said. “That takes a lot of you right there. And it was only the seventh inning.”

By the time Clark came to the plate again, Niedenfuer had thrown 68 pitches, more than he had thrown in any game last season. Then he threw one too many.

But ask him if he’d do it again, and Niedenfuer doesn’t hesitate.

“I’d just make sure I’d throw the pitch a little farther outside,” he said. “It was one of those moments where we thought we could get him, and I’d do it exactly the same way.

“If you ask Clark about it, he’s gotten only one or two hits off me in the last five years, and Tommy knew that. I don’t like the word ‘owned,’ but I had great success against Jack Clark, and I expect to be able to continue to do that.”

Niedenfuer said he has not seen or spoken to Clark since that October day.

“Basically I don’t talk to hitters,” Niedenfuer said. “I know Pete (Rose), but once I’m on the field, I don’t talk to them.

“My job is to beat them. The less they hear about me, the better.”

Seldom, Niedenfuer said, has he ever felt as beaten as he was that day.

“It was tough,” he said. “I needed about a half-hour to think about everything, get my head squared on right.”

The next day, he awoke to discover that his entire body ached.

“Without a doubt, that was the sorest I’ve ever been,” he said. “My legs, all down my side, my back--everything hurt.”

Nothing was as bruised, however, as his ego.

“I played golf that day with Sandy Koufax and Rick Dempsey (the Baltimore catcher and a neighbor),” Niedenfuer said.

“Sandy told me that if it wasn’t for me, we wouldn’t have been there in the first place, that I was good enough to be in that situation and I had to look at my year as a whole.

“He said it was like a book. You don’t read the last chapter of a book and say the whole book stinks.”

A few days later, at a golf tournament organized by comedian Tim Conway, the load finally began to lift.

“Usually Tim rips you, but he started out being nice,” Niedenfuer said. “I told him, ‘This isn’t any fun.’ Then he says, ‘So . . . you’re not embarrassed to be in public?’ That’s when we started to goof around.”

Rose, another friend, ran into Niedenfuer at several golf tournaments.

“If I were Niedenfuer, I’d tell people, ‘Did you see how far I threw that pitch?’ ” Rose said. “He won’t let it bother him.”

Not all relievers have been as lucky. Kansas City’s Mark Littell was never the same after giving up a pennant-winning home run to Chris Chambliss of the Yankees in the 1976 American League playoffs.

“But it’s a personality thing,” Niedenfuer said. “Look at Goose Gossage--he gave up that home run to George Brett in the playoffs and one to (Kirk) Gibson in the World Series, and it hasn’t affected him.”

What effect would Clark’s home run have had if it had come earlier in Niedenfuer’s career?

“I’m glad it didn’t happen in an earlier stage, let’s put it that way,” said Niedenfuer, who once tore up Terry Forster’s chair in the Dodger clubhouse.

“Once a year, I may have a little blowup, but over the years I’ve learned not to take it home with me,” Niedenfuer said. “It’s real important over a 162-game schedule.

“The main rule is to never get too high or too low--Terry taught me that.”

Lasorda, Niedenfuer said, tried to call him a couple of days after the game.

“He wanted to make sure I didn’t jump,” the pitcher said.

“But I’ve blocked it out of my mind. It’s like a defensive back in football. He can do his job all the time, and nobody writes anything, but the first time he gets beat by a long bomb, they write, ‘so-and-so screwed up.’

“This year, the first time I face Clark, you’re all going to ask me if I remembered the last time I faced him. And I’m going to say, ‘Yeah, I remember how I struck him out in the seventh inning.’ ”

So how will Niedenfuer respond the next time it’s the ninth inning and a pennant’s on the line?

“I’d just as soon stay in there, if it’s a tie game, until the 15th inning,” he said. “I wouldn’t trade that for anything.

“When I look back at the year as a whole, it ended bad, but I’m only 26 years old, and there’ll be a lot more big games for me to be in. I did the job in the World Series in ‘81, the playoffs in ’83 and the regular season in ’85.

“You know what a lot of people forget? They forget that even if I get Clark, we still have to face Tudor the next day.”

The next day never came for the Dodgers, but don’t tell that to Niedenfuer. He’s already got a pitch for tomorrow.