AT LAST, A LAUGH : Ken Howell Isn’t Bitter About Deal, He’s Better for It

Ken Howell walked into the Philadelphia Phillies’ clubhouse here Tuesday afternoon, three days after allowing the Chicago Cubs nine runs in two innings.

He was wearing a designer sweat shirt with the word Kamikaze emblazoned across the front. He was also wearing a smile that broke into a laugh.

“Hey, like my shirt?” he asked.

He paused.

“It’s in honor of Chicago.”

And so for Howell, it’s official. You can tell by the way he no longer considers one bad outing a death wish, by how he doesn’t consider failing to be failure.

Howell, as his grin confirms, no longer pitches for the Dodgers.

Not coincidentally, he has never pitched better.

“It’s so different here, it’s so much better for me here,” said Howell, 28, who was traded by the Dodgers last winter after spending his first seven pro seasons with their organization.

He has since become the Phillies’ ace and will start tonight’s game against the Dodgers with a 9-8 record, a 3.74 earned-run average and 120 strikeouts in 144 1/3 innings. In two starts against the Dodgers, he has been even more impressive, going 2-0 with an 0.60 ERA, allowing one run and seven hits in 15 innings.

“I don’t know if they try harder against me, but I don’t try harder against them,” Howell said. “I don’t have nothing to show them. I don’t have to beat them so I can say, ‘I showed you!’ I’d show them what? “

Howell says it was the Dodgers who showed him. They showed him how to be a pitcher, for which he says he is grateful. But they also showed him what he hates most about being a pitcher. It is a feeling he has escaped here in the land of low expectations.

“With the Dodgers, because their staff is always so great, you have so much tradition to follow, it’s very hard for the young pitchers,” Howell said. “There is always a certain pressure to follow them up. But how are you going to follow up a guy like (Orel) Hershiser? You want so badly to be like those people, you try too hard.”

Under those circumstances, inconsistency might be understandable. But Howell said the Dodgers considered it unacceptable.

“Sure, you could have a bad day for them . . . but you better follow it up with a good start right away,” Howell said. “You have to hang your shoulders after a bad start. You have to think about it all the time and not let it happen again.

“Here, everybody is in the same boat. We’re all experimenting. You can lose and learn from it and have fun anyway. You can learn how to win.”

Dodger pitcher Tim Belcher, who has learned to live with the expectations that frustrated Howell, agreed with his former teammate’s summation. “I don’t care who you are, the pressure on our pitching staff can affect you,” Belcher said. “Unless you are part of Orel’s game--and few are--you have to produce every day. Look at me, I had three shutouts and I was placed in the bullpen. No place else in the league is like that. Unless you’re Orel, you are only as good as your last outing.”

Before making Howell a leading man in their bullpen, the Dodgers had given him every chance to join Hershiser in the rotation. In 1985, his first full big league season, he appeared in 56 games. The following year, 62 games. The next year, 40 games. But during that time he had a 13-21 record with a 4.07 ERA and only 25 saves.

“I had my opportunity, I was an important part of the team,” Howell said. “But I didn’t come through for them. I just couldn’t do it.”

Pitching coach Ron Perranoski: “With our rotation, there’s no way he could crack it,” he said. “For young pitchers, it’s never easy.”

And so Howell was never happier than when he was traded.

Dealt to Baltimore as part of the Eddie Murray deal Dec. 4, he got so excited, he drove to the nearest sporting goods store and bought a $9.50 Orioles cap. Four days later, he was dealt from Baltimore to Philadelphia for Phil Bradley.

The Orioles jokingly sent him a check for $9.50 for his troubles, but he has not yet cashed the check.

“Coming to Philadelphia was good enough,” Howell said. “Right from spring training, I knew it was different. The Phillies just wanted us to get ready for the season. With the Dodgers, you don’t think about getting ready. You think about winning those exhibition games.”

It has been in this relaxed atmosphere, on the league’s worst pitching staff, that Howell has survived a series of up and down starts.

On July 28 against Pittsburgh, he allowed five runs with five walks in seven innings. In his next start, he threw a three-hit shutout against the Cubs.

On Aug. 7, against Montreal, he allowed no earned runs in 8 2/3 innings. Then came the Aug. 12 debacle, when he walked six in those two awful innings.

After which, he wasn’t afraid to laugh. Not coincidentally, he’s no longer afraid to win.

“Howell was fighting himself when he first came here, but he doesn’t do that anymore,” Phillie catcher Steve Lake said. “He’s not afraid to try things. He’s not afraid to be himself.”