Dodgers Come Lumbering Home Looking for Some Big Sticks

May day! May day! The Dodgers are back, but need bats. Have hitters report immediately to 1000 Elysian Park Ave., Los Angeles, Calif., 90012, and ask for either Fred or Tommy. As Orel Hershiser advertised on his homemade sign from the dugout in St. Louis: “Hi, Mom. Please Send Runs.”

It is (a) much too soon or (b) never too soon to start worrying, depending on whom one asks. Some will contend that there are five months of play remaining, so siddown, relax, stick a Dodger Dog down your face and shaddup. Others will argue that adjustments must be made before it gets to be too late, before your team is so far out of first place, even Pete Rose wouldn’t put a nickel on your chances.

The Dodgers hardly need to push any panic buttons. Their pitching, for one thing, is still first-rate, and the left arms of John Tudor and Fernando Valenzuela could, conceivably, get stronger and stronger in the weeks to come. Against the Cardinals in his last start, Valenzuela may not have been fast, but at least he was loose. The guy might just get by on guts and smarts.

Defense is another area that should not be of concern to the Dodgers. Everybody in their infield can field, which is something one could not always say in seasons past. We will stack L.A.’s 6-4-3 double play against anybody’s, including St. Louis’, particularly when you consider who the Cardinals have at 3.

Nope, it is hitting the Dodgers need, and hope to find, with a nice little home stand beginning tonight against Pittsburgh. The company is seriously short on lumber.

Kirk Gibson has gone onto the disabled list. You definitely can tell baseball season has arrived, because Gibson, Paul Molitor and George Brett already have gone onto the disabled list. Gibson is great when he is out there, but ballclubs cannot count on his presence. Only three times in this decade has he appeared in more than 130 games. His body is 31 years old going on 41.

Gibson will come back, even if he has to use his bat for a cane. And Eddie Murray is hitting a ton, even though he sometimes uses April just to limber up. When those two guys are in the lineup, Mike Marshall can hit fifth and give the Dodgers a serious middle of the order.

When Gibson is out, though, things change. Either Murray stops seeing good pitches and gets intentionally walked a lot, putting added pressure on Marshall, or the manager switches their places in the lineup, as he did Sunday, having Marshall hit third. Which is not the end of the world, Marshall being a .273 lifetime hitter, but Tom Lasorda would much prefer to bat Marshall lower.

The manager is an optimist whose record entitles him to be. He just won a World Series, after all, and did it with players, not mirrors. Positive thinking alone can carry some teams beyond their apparent abilities.

Yet, Lasorda also is enough of a realist to concede that somebody in his infield, besides Murray, is going to have to do some hitting if the Dodgers are to keep from asking all of their starting pitchers to post earned-run averages of 1.99.

The Dodgers can afford to get Interstate batting averages from their shortstop and even from their center fielder if these two people are superior defensive players--as Alfredo Griffin and John Shelby are--and if they are surrounded by above-average hitters.

But, if the Dodgers also are going to have weak hitters at third base and second base, and if Gibson is going to become a part-timer at best, there is going to be trouble in Chavez City. On given days, Lasorda’s fifth-best hitter might be Tim Leary.

We do not mean to suggest that the Dodgers as presently constituted cannot hit. Griffin, Shelby, Willie Randolph, Jeff Hamilton, Mariano Duncan and Dave Anderson all have shown, some more often than others, that they are capable of considerable excellence at the plate. Shelby strikes out a lot, but swings big and occasionally connects. Randolph hit .305 as recently as 1987. He can still handle a bat.

As slumps continue, however, Lasorda will have decisions to make. As we said, he can afford not to fret over a couple of lightweight batting averages, but he will have only so much patience if his lineup card has to include four low-average position players plus a pitcher. Tommy doesn’t want to be bunting for runs in the first inning, out of fear that he had better scratch for every run he can get.

Chris Gwynn has arrived from Albuquerque to take Gibson’s place on the roster, and we expect Lasorda to look long and hard at the rookie to see if he can fill in on a regular basis. The way Gwynn hit in spring training, you would have thought San Diego had kept the wrong brother. Spring training, though, is spring training, and nobody is counting on Chris to be another Tony.

Anyhow, left field is hardly the worst Dodger worry, since Mickey Hatcher is always available for diving catches, headfirst slides and acrobatic somersaults into the dugout. The Mick still swings a good stick, and continues to be the ballclub’s head cheerleader, chief stuntman and resident Inspector Clouseau.

The Dodgers have both the time and talent to become--excuse us, remain--an outstanding club. We would like to see them score more, but then again, all they have to do is score more than the opponent. They have been known to do this in the past, and have the rings on their fingers to prove it.