Watching a Season Wash Out : But Dodger Wetteland Can Smile as a Storm Ends His Rookie Year

As his rookie season was being officially washed away Saturday, Dodger pitcher John Wetteland still showed his best stuff.

Wetteland stood outside the dugout at Atlanta-Fulton County Stadium and signed autographs in the pouring rain.

“Wasn’t it supposed to be Fan Appreciation Day here?” he asked before the Dodgers and the Atlanta Braves were rained out for a second consecutive day. “Well, I wanted to tell the fans that somebody appreciates them.”

There was much appreciation in both clubhouses for the guy in charge of the weather, because two consecutive postponements meant that only two of three games in this meaningless final series can be played. If that many.

As a simple rainstorm escalated into flash-flood warnings, with no let-up in sight, the Braves rescheduled Saturday’s doubleheader for today at 10 a.m., PDT. The Dodgers will use the pitchers scheduled for the first two games in this series, Fernando Valenzuela and Orel Hershiser. That means today’s scheduled pitcher, Wetteland, has made his last start.

“Mother Nature has denied me,” he said. “It’s a shame, too. I was just putting things together. I would have liked to see how it all came out.”

After two consecutive fine performances against National League West champion San Francisco (five runs in 12 2/3 innings), Wetteland finished at 5-8 with a 3.77 ERA. Perhaps more important, he also finished one wild pitch behind the club record of 17 set by Sandy Koufax in 1958.

“I guess it’s good I didn’t have a shot at that record,” Wetteland said. “Who knows, they get a guy on first and we have a five-run lead and I uncork one . . . somebody might get suspicious.”

Wetteland, who will join the Dodgers’ Licey squad in the Dominican Republic on Oct. 15, isn’t upset about getting the extra rest. He said that since his start Monday in Los Angeles, his shoulder has been sore. But he said he didn’t require medical attention.

“I probably just slept on it wrong,” he said. “I’m not even going to think about it for a while.”

Both Wetteland and Ramon Martinez ended their seasons with impressive victories over the Giants. Combined, they accounted for a 3.48 earned-run average with 185 strikeouts and 75 walks in 201 1/3 innings.

Whether those arms will be together again next season is another matter. It’s not likely, as the Dodgers will probably be forced to trade one to acquire the centerfielder-leadoff hitter they need.

‘I don’t take anything for granted,” Wetteland said. “Even when I came up from the minor leagues this year (May 31), I kept wondering about going back down. Nothing in this game has surprised me. And nothing will surprise me.”

Which is the same way the Dodgers and their fans have come to think about him.

Dodger Notes

Ellie DeLury, 56, wife of longtime Dodger traveling secretary Bill DeLury, died Saturday morning at their Monterey Park home after an extended illness. Funeral arrangements are pending. DeLury, who now works in the Dodger ticket office, handled the Dodger travel plans for 10 seasons. . . . The first game of today’s doubleheader will match the Dodgers’ Orel Hershiser (14-15) against the Braves’ Marty Clary (4-3). The second game will pit Fernando Valenzuela (10-13) against Gary Eave (2-0). Originally, the Dodger probables were the same as Saturday’s, with Valenzuela pitching the first game, but they were switched because Hershiser and his family need to catch an early-evening flight to Vero Beach, Fla., where he will spend most of the winter. Hershiser needs four innings to tie Cincinnati’s Tom Browning for the National League lead in innings pitched (249 2/3). Valenzuela needs 3 1/3 innings to reach 200 innings.