Shelby Breathes Fresh Air Into His Game : Dropped to the Triple-A Club, Dodger Outfielder Works on Hitting

From home plate here, above the 35 advertisements tacked to the outfield fence, John Shelby can see something he didn’t see much with the Dodgers.

It is the sky, against the backdrop of the Sandia Mountains, dwarfing Albuquerque Sports Stadium. Here, the players on the triple-A Dukes can see farther than they will ever be able to hit or throw.

The open spaces are just what Shelby has been looking for. While some come here from the major leagues to work on a pitch, others on a swing, the Dodger outfielder has come to take a deep breath.

“Right now I’m not sure what’s going on with me, but I know that being here will be good for me,” Shelby said. “The atmosphere on this team is what I need.”

The starting center fielder on last year’s World Series championship team was struggling this year with a .156 average when called into a meeting July 19 with Dodger Vice President Fred Claire. Shelby, in his seventh major league season, was given a choice.

“They said I could either come to Albuquerque . . . or be released,” Shelby admitted Monday. “I asked them, would they let me play there? Would they let me try to get better?

“He said they would. I told them I would come. And I thanked them. I thank God that I am here.”

This, then, is not the story of a moping, sulking, $550,000-a-year player who is mad at his demotion, the Dodgers and the world. This is the story of one who feels lucky things have not been worse, and is positive they will get better.

“This is a humbling game,” said Shelby, 31. “I have tried a lot of different things this year . . . so many things . . . and a lot of them didn’t work.

“The Dodgers have given me one more chance, and I will take it. And I will make the most of it.”

Only nine months ago he was making diving catches on national television. Now Shelby is framed in center field by The Man’s Hat Shop Billboard, featuring a wooden cowboy hat protruding above the fence. Once he once couldn’t walk around a batting cage without bumping into cameras and microphones; now he and Dukes batting instructor Von Joshua have the place to themselves.

Even when the batting practice pitcher quit throwing after a special session early Monday afternoon, Joshua and Shelby remained in the cage. With nobody on the mound, they continued breaking down his swing, building up his confidence. In his 10 days here, Shelby has attended early batting practice 10 times.

“I was reluctant to approach him at first,” Joshua said. “I was under the impression that since he was struggling so much up there, he must not be listening to advice, he must be hardheaded or something.

“But then I realized it was just the opposite. He was dying for help. He was dying to change.”

Some parts of him were plain dying. He said what happened to him with the Dodgers this year was so unusual, so hard to explain, that it couldn’t even be called a slump.

“In a slump, you hit the ball well sometimes, but I wasn’t hitting the ball at all,” Shelby said. “I came out of spring training knowing that I wasn’t hitting the ball.”

Considering Shelby hit .270 in his first two seasons with the Dodgers, with 31 home runs and 133 RBIs, his bosses figured the hits would start falling.

But it never happened. His batting average fell below .200 after 15 games and stayed there. When sent down, in 244 at-bats, he had more strikeouts (66) than hits (38) and walks (22) combined.

The Dodgers still think the hits will fall.

“You don’t do what John has, 1,000 or so at-bats in the National League (970) without having ability,” Claire said. “This year, in my view, it was a case of John trying to do too much. But we told John we haven’t given up on him, and we haven’t. He can still play in the major leagues.”

Shelby said he wasn’t thrilled when Claire gave him his options--”I didn’t have a big smile on my face, it wasn’t exactly the happiest day of my life,” he said.

But he said that, like many fans, he had been thinking about it.

“I wasn’t really surprised,” he said. “And I think I’m still an everyday player, so I took the assignment. If I didn’t, I would have taken the release. I know I can still play this game.”

Kevin Kennedy, the Dukes’ manager who is highly regarded within the organization for his communication skills, had played with Shelby in an instructional league in 1977 while both were in the Baltimore organization. He was waiting for Shelby when he joined the team July 22 in Phoenix.

While coaching third base, Kennedy watched Shelby strike out three consecutive times. Then, batting left-handed against hard-throwing Ernie Camacho, Shelby drove a ball to left field for a single. He stole second and went to third on an errant throw. There, during a pitching change, they had their first good talk.

“He looked at me and said it was the first time he had driven a ball to left field in a long, long time,” Kennedy said. “You could just see how good he felt. You could see the weight coming off his shoulders.

“So I told him about my career, and how for two years I hit .279, then .254 in triple-A, then the next year I hit .197. I thought I would never find myself again. But then the next year I hit .263 and everything was great.”

Kennedy, a former catcher, told Shelby he knows how these things affect the mind.

“Sometimes it gets so mental, sometimes you look out there and see 18 fielders,” Kennedy said. “I told John, ‘You just don’t lose that much ability that quickly. I told him to relax and have fun and it would come back.”

Among other things, Shelby is trying a new stance with his back foot firmly planted and his elbow closer to his body.

“The things he has to work on are things that should have been looked at a long time ago,” Joshua said. “He hit 21 homers his first year (1987) with the Dodgers and everybody forgets that pitchers would soon make adjustments to him. He needed to fix this then.

“He has really worked to fix it now. When he gets back, you’re going to see a different player.”

After 10 games here, Shelby is hitting .324 with two homers and nine RBIs. He said is doing this well by not thinking about coming back to the Dodgers before the rosters are expanded in September. He said he is not thinking about anything but this day, and the next day.

“If I go back up, I want to make sure everything is right with me,” Shelby said. “I’ve learned, we’re all blessed with ability in this game, but it’s hard to keep it up for long. I appreciate that. I’ll never forget it.”