Dodgers’ New Shortstop Has Come to Play

On a chilly day in Chavez Ravine, Alfredo Griffin buttoned a Dodger jersey over his blue pin-striped suit, which was all it took to infect Tom Lasorda with baseball fever.

“Everybody tells me I’ve got a weight problem!” Lasorda shouted, about 10 inches from his new shortstop’s ear. “Well, they’re right! I can’t ‘wait!’ I can’t wait to get started! Let’s get that plane to Vero Beach right now! I’m tellin’ ya! We’re gonna cause some havoc down there! Right, Alfredo?”

“Right,” Griffin said.

“This guy right here, I’m tellin’ ya, he plays baseball like my wife shops!” the Dodger manager rolled on. “All day long! Right, Alfredo?”

“Right,” Griffin said.

“This guy plays 162 games a year! Four seasons out of five, he did that!” Lasorda boomed. “When I hear some guy say, ‘I’m tired,’ I ask him: ‘When you were a kid, didn’t you play ball all day long?’ And he’ll say: ‘Yeah.’

“So, I ask: ‘When your mother wanted you to come home for dinner, didn’t you ask if you could stay out a little longer to keep playing?’ And he’ll say: ‘Yeah.’

So, I say: ‘Then how come, now that you’re gettin’ paid all this money for what you used to do for nothing, how come you’re so tired?’ Right, Alfredo?”

“He is right,” Griffin said. “I really do not see why young players can’t play every day. You have to love this game. No reason you can’t play 162 games a year. Or, maybe not 162, but 160.”

Right, Tommy?

“Right!” Lasorda said. “If you’re too tired to play, you’re just wastin’ my time out there! And this guy right here next to me, Alfredo Griffin, well, he’d rather play baseball than eat arroz frijoles ! Right, Alfredo?”

“Right, Tommy,” Griffin said.

In a Dodger Stadium dining room Tuesday, Thomas Lasorda, man with a wait problem, had lunch with his new “triple-A” ballplayers--outfielder Mike Davis, relief pitcher Jay Howell and Griffin, all procured from the Oakland Athletics.

They ate steak and ice cream, which was too bad. Knowing Tommy, he would have preferred having fettucine with Alfredo.

Everybody was merry in time for Christmas.

Griffin was volunteering to play every day, saying, “I don’t know if I’m that great, but I know I can be there for 162 games.”

Davis was thanking the Dodgers “for latching onto me, and I hope I impress you.”

Howell was saying he was the right right-hander for the Dodger bullpen, saying: “You can forget all that past history stuff. I’m the right guy for the job.”

And Jesse Orosco, acquired from the Mets, was on a long-distance phone line, saying he was so excited about joining the Dodgers, he jumped through the roof. “There’s still a hole in it,” Orosco said.

And the kidding kept coming.

Somebody asked Orosco, on behalf of Orel Hershiser, who happened to be sitting nearby, how many innings the starting pitcher would have to work before he could safely turn over the ball to the new relief man.

“Probably nine,” Orosco replied.

“Same old story,” Hershiser said.

Then it was Howell who wanted to know what a save was worth to the Dodger starter.

“Hey, $5,000 a save,” Hershiser promised.

“You heard it!” Lasorda yelled. “That’s on record! Of course, Orel Hershiser’s a wonderful person, but he’s got one problem. He lies a lot.”

The Dodgers were in a giddy mood because they had gone out and done something about retooling an outfit that finished fifth in a six-team division, two years running. They got the shortstop they sought, an all-new bullpen and a surplus outfielder with some zap in his bat.

They admitted they needed the help, Lasorda saying: “For the last two years, we have been totally dissatisfied with the performance of our ballclub.”

They also were sensitive to allegations that the Dodgers had been indecisive when it came to making trades, General Manager Fred Claire saying: “There were people who accused us of being afraid to pull the trigger (at the winter meetings) in Dallas. Well, we pulled the trigger when we had in our sights the players we wanted.”

The big catch was Griffin--because he can catch. The Dodger double-play combination of Mariano Duncan and Steve Sax was an eccentric one, and is kaput. Duncan is working out at second base in winter ball, and Sax probably is going to hear from Lasorda any day now that he is a third baseman.

“I know what I’m going to do,” Lasorda said. “I just don’t want any of my players reading it in the papers before I can tell them.”

Griffin is a good guy to have around. He has been an American League rookie of the year and an All-Star. He played every game of the 1982, ‘83, ’85 and ’86 seasons, for Toronto and Oakland. At 30, he has good years ahead of him, and he knows the Dodgers need him.

“They need a solid shortstop,” Griffin said.

He is certainly that, according to ex-teammate Davis, who said: “I don’t know if Oakland realized that Alfredo is one of the smartest players there is. He sits on the bench by the manager and picks up signs, picks up little clues. He’s a real student of the game. I know he’s taught me. He was the MVP of the whole club, as far as I was concerned.”

And Howell said: “As a pitcher, it’s comforting to look around and see Alfredo there. He’s one of the best.”

Lasorda certainly thinks so. And Griffin reminded him that he had once approached the Dodger manager at a Florida instructional league and asked him to arrange a trade, saying he always felt he belonged here.

“I was a Dodger before I was a Dodger,” Griffin said.

“Attaway, Alfredo!” Lasorda said.

About the only thing the team couldn’t do for him was give him his old number, 3, because Sax already has it. And Lasorda has 2. And the Dodgers have retired 1 (Pee Wee Reese) and 4 (Duke Snider). And Mike Marshall has 5. And Steve Garvey might return and get his 6 back.

So, when the little shortstop buttoned up his new jersey, it had 44 on the back. Hank Aaron’s number. Reggie Jackson’s number.

“This number a little too heavy for me,” Griffin said.

“Nahhh, you look great in it!” Lasorda assured him.

He’s right, Alfredo.