Where Does Hershiser Fit in Sports History? : Just Call Him Incomparable

So, where best to place Orel Hershiser IV in his proper historical context?

Alongside an emperor, Napoleon, or a horse, Secretariat?

A rock band, the Beatles, or a pool player, Minnesota Fats?

The Harlem Globetrotters? Or Donald Trump?

Madonna, or Cosby? The Soviet hockey team?

Has anyone ever been on a greater roll, with more at stake, than the Dodger pitcher who kept on making history even after the World Series, when he went on “The Tonight Show” and became the first guest ever to stump the band by singing a hymn--a hymn --from start to finish, just as he had in the Dodgers’ dugout during Game 5.

“Praise God from whom all blessings flow . . . “ Has baseball ever seen the likes of Herr Hershiser and what he hath wrought in a phantasmagoric 8-week span that made the usual analogies about as useful as a Windbreaker in a hurricane?

Step aside, Sandy Koufax. Where have you gone, Don Drysdale. Adios , Fernando.

In his last 13 appearances, Hershiser won 9 games, lost none, saved another and had 3 no-decisions. He had 8 shutouts, a record 59 straight scoreless innings, and allowed 7 earned runs in 106 innings, for a microscopic earned-run average of 0.59.

Extrapolate those numbers over a full 300-inning season, and Hershiser would have given up 20 runs, or fewer than the San Francisco Giants scored in a single game this season.

He saved one game in the National League playoffs, won the deciding game, and was named most valuable player. He won Game 2 of the World Series, got more hits (3) than any Series pitcher in the last 64 years, pitched and won the clincher, and was named Series MVP, too. The Cy Young Award, given to the leagues’ best pitchers, will soon be in his possession as well.

On top of all that, no one accused him of scarfing a single steroid, sniffing a single substance, scuffing a single ball, striking a single false note. Amen, brother. Orel was going to Disneyland. And with a $1 million-or-so raise due this winter, pretty soon he may be able to buy it, too.

The rest of the nonbaseball-playing sports world was dutifully impressed, to be sure. But asked whether there were any precedents in other games for what Hershiser accomplished in his, they were not rendered as mute as the batsmen struck dumb by Hershiser’s deliveries.

How about trackman Edwin Moses winning 107 straight hurdles finals? Jesse Owens, another trackman, setting four world records in a single meet? Boxer Rocky Marciano vanquishing 49 foes without a loss? Swimmer Mark Spitz winning 7 gold medals in the Munich Olympics in ‘72?

Was it just a year ago that Magic Johnson led the Lakers to the first of two straight pro basketball titles, for which he was named MVP in both the regular season and the playoffs? Can all of Hershiser’s zeroes erase the majesty of one Magic junior, junior skyhook?

“Not to take anything away from Orel,” said Sid Gillman, the Hall of Fame football coach, “but I think the most brilliant achievement in the history of sports was Bobby Jones’ grand slam in 1930.

“There may have been greater athletes than either Hershiser or Jones--some of those who come to mind are Sandy Koufax, Babe Ruth, Jim Brown, O.J. Simpson and Joe Namath--but for sustained brilliance within one calendar year, over a short stretch of time, Jones’ grand slam was the greatest achievement.

“Within a period of a few weeks, Jones defeated all of the best golfers of his time in the four best tournaments of his time, the National Open and Amateur, Masters and British Open.”

Harry Sinden, general manager of hockey’s Boston Bruins, is a big baseball fan.

“What an inspiration Hershiser was to anybody playing pro sports,” he said. “He was so sincere about the damn thing. That’s the way he came across, anyway. It was not only a great performance, but he had such genuine feelings toward the team. This kid appears to be humble.”

The nearest thing on ice to Hershiser, a one-time puckster himself?

“Orr, Bobby Orr,” Sinden said. “He did it right through the Stanley Cup playoffs in 1972. The final game was 3-0, and I think he scored one goal and set up the other two.

“He played great the whole season, and was great in the playoffs, too. I guess Glen Sather could cite (Wayne) Gretzky, too, but Orr had a great year.

“He had a habit of coming to the rink at 2:30, 3 o’clock for a 7:30, 8 o’clock game. By game time, he had a subtle way of letting you know you’d better be ready, too.

“He’d say very little, but he’d walk around the room, and tap you in the shin pads with his stick. You knew you’d better be ready.”

John Robinson, the Rams’ coach, was sitting courtside at the Forum when the Lakers won their titles.

“I kind of remember Magic Johnson’s performance . . . as being one of those magical things,” Robinson said. “It was really something.

“I thought (Eric) Dickerson’s performance against Dallas (248 yards) in the playoffs was huge, that and Charlie (White) in the ’80 Rose Bowl. That was big.

“But the thing that was so phenomenal about (Hershiser’s streak) was that the games were so important. In the playoffs, all those games, he had to do it.”

When Elgin Baylor tore up his knee in the first 5 minutes of the Lakers’ opening game of the 1965 playoffs, broadcaster Chick Hearn recalled how Jerry West had to do it, too.

“Jerry stepped in and took over,” Hearn said. “He was second in the league in scoring to (Wilt) Chamberlain in the regular season, 31 points a game, but in the playoffs, he averaged 40.6 points. Think of it. Forty-point-six points. “

West scored 49 points in the first game of the division finals against Baltimore. He had 52 points in Game 2, and made 20 of 21 free throws. He made 20 baskets in a 2-point loss in Game 4, and led the Lakers to a deciding 2-point win in Game 6.

Against Boston in the finals, West set records for most points in a 5-game series (169), most field-goal attempts, most free throws made.

Problem is, the Lakers, unlike the Dodgers, lost.

West, who was a part of pro sports’ greatest team roll--the Lakers’ 33-game winning streak in 1971-72--counts himself among Hershiser’s admirers. But for his money, Wilt Chamberlain’s scoring feat in 1961-62 may be its equal.

“He averaged 50 (50.4) points for an entire season,” West said. “That’s unbelievable. “You know, I’ve never played baseball, but to me it’s not that difficult to hit a baseball. The thing about Hershiser, I think, is that you look at him and you see he uses his athletic ability. But he also uses his mind. That’s a powerful combination.”

For sustained brilliance, the Laker win streak was just as rare as Hershiser’s.

“He was great,” West said of the Dodger pitcher, “but don’t forget that in baseball, one guy can dominate. If it’s the pitcher, you don’t even have to have a good team. All you had to do was have one key guy. And Orel Hershiser was the one key guy who dominated.”

While West never played baseball, Ara Parseghian, the former Notre Dame football coach, did. He was a pitcher in college.

“I’m a big baseball fan, and I’ve never seen anything like this,” Parseghian said. “I’ve seen an outstanding performance in one football game, but never seen where a guy performed like that over (12) games.

“It was just one of the most remarkable performances. I really thought he would lose his stuff, being used as much as he was. He surprised me that he came back like that . . . Just unbelievable.”

Football’s Gillman nominated one precedent: Jerry Rice’s touchdown binge last season for the San Francisco 49ers. The wide receiver caught touchdown passes in a record 13 straight games. In all, he caught 22 TD passes in 12 games last season. No other receiver ever caught as many as 19 in a single 16-game season.

“For sustained brilliance over a short period of time,” Gillman said, “I’d put Rice right with Hershiser.

“But I yield to nobody in my admiration for Orel Hershiser. . . . The Dodgers would have won a lot easier in that last game if they’d let Hershiser be his own designated hitter.”

The closest thing on wheels to Hershiser, according to auto racing mogul Roger Penske, was his driver, Danny Sullivan, who won the CART Indy title this season.

“It’s his first championship,” Penske said. “It’s Hershiser’s first championship, too, isn’t it?”

Sullivan started slowly, placing 23rd at Phoenix and then crashed at Indianapolis after leading at 91 laps. But then he took off, stringing together finishes of 2-1-3-2-4-1-DNF-5-4-1-1, with 9 pole positions. That tied A.J. Foyt’s record of 10 set in 1965.

Like Hershiser, Penske said, Sullivan has a special feel for his sport.

“His ability to understand the car and communicate what it’s doing has been part of his ability to win,” Penske said.

Tennis, anyone? Racket great Jack Kramer couldn’t come up with anybody to rival Hershiser.

“The Grand Slam (Australian Open, French Open, Wimbledon and the U.S. Open) takes you damn near a year, or at least 9 months, and they’re not the only tournaments you play,” Kramer said. “What Orel did began in August. In tennis, I can’t recall anybody who started winning tournament after tournament and didn’t ever lose. That’s what it would take to equal what Orel did.

“I guess you could make a case for Steffi Graf, who won the Grand Slam. But she also held form from Paris all the way through the Olympics. She never lost a match, I don’t think.”

Martina Navratilova had a 74-match win streak and Ivan Lendl had a 66-match indoor win streak, but in tennis, the better players meet the weaker players in the early rounds. Hershiser had no soft touches.

“Tennis, because of its structure, may be a little easier,” Kramer said. “If you have a 64-draw, the top 16 players are going to have 3 rounds of playing people who are not among the 16 best in the tournament.”

A team game and a solo sport can’t really be compared, Kramer said.

“But that shouldn’t make a difference in how we feel about Orel,” Kramer said. “It was phenomenal, and we’re all thrilled by it. He played at super-championship form over a long period of time and that’s the real test of greatness.”

A Bulldog, by any other name, in any other sport, is still a Bulldog.

Times staff writers Thomas Bonk, Chris Dufresne, Shav Glick, Richard Hoffer, Maryann Hudson and Bob Oates also contributed to this story.