Baseball : Here’s a Switch: Pitching Now Strikes Fear in Dwight Gooden

There was a time when Dwight Gooden intimidated hitters.

But when he goes to the mound at Dodger Stadium Monday night, Gooden will be the one carrying a degree of fear.

The New York Mets right-hander is nursing a sore right shoulder. It did not prevent him from pitching seven innings of a 13-6 victory over the San Francisco Giants Tuesday night. Nor should it prevent him from starting against the Dodgers Monday night. But the ache of self doubt and uncertainty seems to haunt Gooden.

“I’m scared. I’ve never had anything like this before. I can’t believe it’s happening to me,” he told Marty Noble of Newsday after Tuesday’s win.

The problem, the Mets believe, stems from an imbalance in the shoulder muscles. It’s in the area of the rotator cuff, but the cuff itself is not thought to be in jeopardy. Gooden, who calls himself the “laziest man in the world,” has begun a nightly exercise program and will apply ice to the shoulder after he pitches.

“I’ve never done anything, no exercises ever,” Gooden said. “I just played the game. Now I do 15 minutes a night and hate it. It cuts into my eating time.”

Gooden believes the condition developed about the time of the All-Star game, which he started for the National League after having pitched six innings four days earlier. He then started the third game after the break and believes the irregular schedule contributed to his problem.

“I always thought it would just go away, that I could throw one pitch and have it disappear, but it hasn’t gone away,” Gooden said. “I’ve had trouble in the bullpen and it’s carried over to the game each time. I read a story about Fernando Valenzuela, and it said how he threw a lot of pitches early in his career, and now he’s on the DL (disabled list). It’s a little scary.”

Gooden is 3-1 in seven starts since the All-Star break and 14-6 overall. His continuing success has diminished some of the Mets’ concern, but the fact that it’s Gooden, that the pitcher himself is harboring doubts, and that the fragile rotator cuff may be involved, has left management crossing its fingers.

“I don’t even want to think about the worst,” Manager Davey Johnson said.

The Mets might have enough pitching depth to survive without Dr. K, but the Boston Red Sox would never make it without Roger Clemens, the Lord of the Ks.

After making three straight starts with a strained rib-cage muscle, Clemens missed his first start in 2 1/2 seasons Friday. He is scheduled to face the Angels Wednesday night, then make 3 starts on an important 13-game Western trip that begins Friday.

“The race weighed in my decision,” he said of the decision to skip Friday’s start. “My teammates convinced me it was best for the club in the long run. I want everything right for September.”

Clemens has always pitched through injuries, and his attempt to do it again may have been counterproductive.

He lost twice to the Detroit Tigers and once to the Milwaukee Brewers. His refusal to skip a start only aggravated an injury initially suffered as Clemens moved furniture in preparation for the laying of a new carpet.

“People here (in Boston) are telling me I should hire people to do home chores,” Clemens said. “I don’t live in a glass house. I did something any normal guy would.”

The acquisition of John Tudor has solidified the Dodger rotation, but what if Fernando Valenzuela returns? What if Mario Soto regains his best form? What if Shawn Hillegas shows that he’s deserving of another chance?

The Dodger depth has already created speculation that even now, though Executive Vice President Fred Claire insists he will only be attempting to fine-tune the roster over the remainder of the season, that the club is offering pitching in search of a right-handed hitting first baseman with power.

Pedro Guerrero fits the description, but that’s now a St. Louis story. The headline in the St. Louis Post-Dispatch Wednesday read: “Fear Sparked Guerrero Deal.”

Wrote Rick Hummel: “Fear that they might be shut out in the free agent market in their quest for a bombardier to replace Jack Clark was the motivator in the Cardinals’ acquisition (of Guerrero).”

Said Manager Whitey Herzog: “He’s one of the few hitters in baseball who fits our need. He’s an impact player, like Jack Clark.”

Clark left St. Louis as a free agent after the Cardinals offered only a two-year contract. Guerrero got three years for almost twice as much as Clark was seeking. General Manager Dal Maxvill said times have changed, that several clubs have recently signed players to three-year contracts of the magnitude Guerrero received.

Times have definitely changed for the anemic and injury-riddled Cardinals, who signed Bob Horner to replace Clark and saw Horner go out with a shoulder injury after driving in 33 runs in 60 games. His replacements then drove in only 11 runs in the 58 games before Guerrero’s arrival.

Said Herzog, by telephone: “I don’t care if we had five John Tudors, we were never going to be anything again until we were in position to generate some offense. I know that people in Los Angeles are now saying that Guerrero is a bad apple and a cripple, but they’re always saying that in Los Angeles. All of their players are great while they’re still there, but then they give them up and they’re . . . (awful). I’ll take my chances with Pete.

“I don’t think he’ll hit 35 home runs like Clark did (in 1987), but I don’t expect that. I think he’ll hit 20 to 25 homers and, with our rabbits in front of him, drive in more runs that he did in L.A. last year (87).”

Rickey Henderson says he won’t talk with the media until the New York Yankees move into first place. One of his last comments was this tribute to himself:

“I have the ability to do it all and there’s not a person right now who does it all. I don’t know if they (the Yankees) can win the pennant with me, but I know they can’t win it without me.”

The latest episode in the Toronto Blue Jays’ tumultuous season involves pitcher Dave Stieb, who needs to pitch 225 innings for his 1989 salary of $1.5 million to become guaranteed. The Blue Jays can buy him out for $200,000 if he doesn’t pitch the 225.

Stieb, with an 11-8 record and 150 innings, has been moved to the bullpen and has no shot at the 225 innings. He was taken out of his last start against the Yankees despite a 3-1 lead in the third inning, and he is being deprived of his next scheduled start, which would have been against the Chicago White Sox, against whom he is 15-4 in his career. Stieb has asked to be traded, and the Blue Jays have said they will do their best to accommodate him.

Surrounded by mediocrity, Chicago White Sox shortstop Ozzie Guillen continues to have a fine season, but he may be drummed out of the players union after saying he doesn’t want his next contract to include incentive clauses.

“I don’t want incentives to play because I like to play,” he said. “I don’t want to go to the All-Star game because of money. I want to go because it’s an honor.”

When the Houston Astros’ Bob Knepper missed a start against the Cardinals because of a groin pull Tuesday night, it was only the second time in his career he had missed a start because of injury and the first time since 1978, when he was with the San Francisco Giants and sliced a finger cutting grapefruit.

Dave Meads pitched six shutout innings against the Cardinals, and Knepper asked: “Was Wally Pipp a pitcher?”

The Kansas City Royals’ George Brett went 8 for 43 over a 12-game span, his average dropping to .322.

“This is as tough as any stretch I’ve had all year,” Brett said. “I’m swinging at balls over my head. I’m swinging at balls in the dirt. It’s not like I’m facing Sandy Koufax. I’ve been facing mediocre pitchers with losing records. Those are the guys you have to hit.”

The umpires are apparently showing no mercy as Texas Rangers left fielder Pete Incaviglia piles up the strikeouts for a third straight year.

“The pitch that’s 6 inches outside or 6 inches inside, the pitch that for other guys is called a ball, for me it’s a strike,” Incaviglia said. “But it’s my fault. I swung at those pitches a lot and made the umpires feel they’re a strike. The umpires don’t feel I know the strike zone, and they’re not going to give me respect until I prove I do.”

Amid the Eastern heat and the Mets’ inconsistency, the second half has been a struggle for Darryl Strawberry.

No time for the weary to rest.

“What can I do?” Strawberry asked. “It’s hard to do all you’re capable of doing when your body is broken down. It’s been hot, I’ve been tired and yet I’ve played.”

Said Keith Hernandez: “The guy is exhausted. You can see it just looking at him. His legs are shot, and when they go, everything goes.”