THINGS ARE . . .LOOKING UP. . . FINALLY : Unappreciated by Giants, Deer Breaks Out Big

Rob Deer will long remember his three-run homer on Easter as the great equalizer, for reasons beyond the obvious.

Not only did it give the Milwaukee Brewers a 4-4 tie with Texas in the bottom of the ninth inning of a game Milwaukee incredibly came back to win, but the blast and ensuing celebration in County Stadium clearly made up for all those years Deer spent laboring in the minor leagues for an organization he thought didn’t want him.

The entire Brewer team--everyone--met Deer at the plate after his shot into the left-field bleachers. Then, after a walk and Dale Sveum’s two-run homer had given the Brewers a 6-4 win and their 12th straight victory, County Stadium erupted again.

Both Deer and Sveum took three curtain calls in response to the frenzied Brewer fans. Deer, the former Anaheim Canyon High School star, never experienced anything like this.

“It was the most exciting time of my whole life,” he said. “It made up for a lot of rough times I’ve had in baseball.”

It was the flip side to all those minor league summers in Great Falls, Mont., Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and Shreveport, La.

Deer spent seven long seasons in the San Francisco Giants’ farm system, wondering what he had to do to play in the big leagues. He hit 147 minor league home runs and developed into a fine defensive outfielder, but he never became an everyday player with the Giants.

Even more than a year after San Francisco traded Deer to Milwaukee, Deer still has some bitter feelings toward the Giants for not showing more confidence in him.

But the memorable events of April 19 , when Deer was on top of the world instead of watching it pass him by, provided balance to a career that had seen too many miserable days.

“It was just unbelievable,” said Deer, the 6-foot 3-inch, 220-pound slugger who is tied for the major league lead in home runs with eight. “It really made me appreciate the opportunity I have to be here.”

All Deer ever needed was a chance. He accomplished everything he could in the minor leagues, leading the California League (Class-A), the Texas League (Double-A) and the Pacific Coast League (Triple-A) in home runs in 1981, ’83 and ‘84, respectively.

But when he made the Giants’ roster out of spring training in 1985, then-Manager Jim Davenport decided to stick with Dan Gladden, Chili Davis and Jeff Leonard in the outfield.

Deer got stuck on the bench.

He filled in at first base and in the outfield but had only 162 at-bats for the season, hitting 8 homers and knocking in 20 runs.

Deer felt trapped. He knew he could start somewhere, but who would give him the chance?

Then came the good news. In December, 1985, Deer was traded to the Brewers for two Class-A pitchers, Dean Freeland and Eric Pilkington.

Smart move, Milwaukee. Deer, in his first season as a full-time starter, hit .232 with 33 homers--fourth best in the American League--and 86 runs batted in last season.

He’s off to a hot start this season with his 8 homers, 19 RBIs and a .383 batting average. He’s hitting .538 (7 for 13) with runners in scoring position.

“Getting traded gave me new life,” Deer said. “I was stuck in that organization, and I wasn’t going to get a chance to play in San Francisco. I wanted to get out of there as bad as anyone.”

Despite his statistics, Deer didn’t get much attention outside of Milwaukee last year. The Brewers finished sixth in the American League East, and Deer’s production tailed off in the final month of the season, when he hit only 3 homers and had 5 RBIs.

But with the Brewers winning their first 13 games of 1987 and tying the major league record, and with Deer on the cover of last week’s Sports Illustrated, throwing his fist in the air as he rounded the bases on a home run, he has become quite the celebrity.

Brewer fans are calling him the Deer that made Milwaukee famous.

“Everyone has been a hero--it’s just been an all-around great effort,” Deer said of the Brewers’ season, which continues tonight against the Angels in Anaheim Stadium.

“(April 19) was unbelievable. The night Juan (Nieves) pitched a no-hitter was incredible. There have been so many instances where we’ve come from behind to win games, it’s been amazing.”

Deer is caught up in the excitement. He’s a 26-year-old in his third major league season with the enthusiasm of a 21-year-old rookie.

“After he hits a home run in a clutch situation, I think it’s better staying clear of him, because he might dislocate your shoulder with a high-five,” Brewer third baseman Paul Molitor said. “He really gets pumped up, which is outstanding.”

But life isn’t all game-winning homers and curtain calls for Deer. There is a dark side to his success. Like most classic power hitters, Deer tends to strike out. A lot.

He set a team record with 179 strikeouts last season. That’s about six strikeouts for every homer. Although his present batting average might suggest that he has become more of a contact hitter this season, he really hasn’t. His 20 strikeouts in 60 at-bats put him right on last year’s pace.

“I’m still as aggressive as I’ve always been, but there’s a fine line between being aggressive and patient,” Deer said. “If I’m aggressive at good pitches, that’s great. If I’m aggressive at bad pitches, that’s where I get into problems.”

Whenever Deer ran into problems last season, Frank Howard, the Brewer batting coach and former Dodger slugger who knows a thing or two about strikeouts, was there to console him.

He always tried to put Deer’s bad days in perspective. For instance, if Deer struck out three times in a game, Howard reminded him of the time he struck out his first five times up in a doubleheader and grounded into a double play in his sixth at-bat.

“I’d be frustrated, and he’d say, ‘Hey, what are you worried about?’ ” Deer said. “We’d always sit down and talk about it. When I was going good, he’d never say a word to me, but when I was going bad, he’d always pat me on the shoulder and give me encouragement. He was one of my favorite coaches.”

Howard is with the Seattle Mariners this season so Deer must cope by himself. But he’s confident he can handle it.

“We have a real potent offense,” Deer said. “I’m not in a situation like last year, when I had to do more than I was capable of doing, like hitting a three-run homer off someone who wouldn’t throw me a strike.

“If I can’t do it, fine, someone else will. That takes a lot of pressure off me. No one can get a hit every day, and I’ve accepted that.”

That’s why he’s not getting too excited about his batting average. He knows he’s not going to hit .400 this year. Heck, he’d be happy with .270.

“Those things are great while they last, but I have to be realistic,” Deer said. “I just started off well. I’m sure I’ll strike out a lot this year, but I’ll put the numbers up, too.”

Don’t think the Giants and their general manager, Al Rosen, haven’t noticed Deer’s prosperous career with the Brewers.

“We don’t like to bring his name up around Mr. Rosen,” said Dave Nahabedian, San Francisco’s assistant director of minor league operations and scouting. “That was one of those tough trades, where we weren’t unhappy with Rob--he just didn’t fit into the club. It was a numbers situation.”

Deer didn’t see it that way. He figured his numbers should have warranted more of an opportunity than he received.

“I’m sure some people stopped believing in me, but I never stopped believing in myself,” Deer said.

For now, Deer is happy to be the Giants’ loss and the Brewers’ gain. As for the two pitchers San Francisco obtained in the trade, one is at Double-A Shreveport and the other is at Class-A Fresno.

Deer couldn’t even tell you their names.

“But they’ll probably be 20-game winners some day,” he said.