Dodgers Go About Business as Usual, With a Few New Twists

As is the custom for players just before spring training, pitcher Mike Morgan stopped by Dodger Stadium last Friday to gather his gloves.

“My snowmobile gloves,” Morgan said. “The owners don’t want us to play. I’m going back to my winter cabin in the mountains.”

As usual before spring training, pitcher Ray Searage began studying baseball videotapes.

“Tapes of my kids,” he said. “The only good thing about the lockout is, it will let me see them play Little League baseball for the first time.”

And also as usual before spring training, catcher Rick Dempsey is looking forward to leaving Dodger Stadium and working out on a new field.

“A high school field,” Dempsey said. “All the local guys are invited. A lockout won’t stop us. We’ll just play when the kids are in class.”

A lock and chain apparently are nothing to those who feel armed with principles. And so the Dodgers, many of whom should be at Dodgertown today for the start of 1990 spring training, aren’t too worried that they’re not. Being locked out of training camp by their owners is bothering them a lot less than, say, being locked out of their cars.

This morning, at about the time Dodger pitchers, catchers and previously injured players should be stretching and throwing, they will be busy with other matters.

Pitcher Tim Belcher will be running down to the corner YMCA at Mt. Vernon, Ohio, to renew his six-week membership.

“It expired just when camp was supposed to start,” Belcher said. “No big deal. Just get another one.”

Kirk Gibson will be working in his Detroit-area real estate development office.

“I’ve got plenty to do,” Gibson said. “I’m not going to sit and cry about it.”

John Wetteland will be working out at his old high school in Santa Rosa, then speaking to one of the classes about something on which he is becoming an expert.

“Real life,” Wetteland said. “I put on a coat and talk about real life.”

“Hey, it’s not the end of the world,” said Gibson, who can use the extra time in recovering from leg surgery. “We’ll just wait for the owners to come to their senses.”

The Dodger players’ cavalier attitude is based on a question they’ve spent the last few days asking each other on the telephone: Hey, what’s a couple of weeks?

“Everybody knows spring training is too long anyway--just about two weeks too long,” said Belcher, the team’s interim player representative. “We really think by that time, they’ll have things worked out.”

At least one Dodger even said he wouldn’t worry if the lockout went longer.

“After a winter of pitching, I need two weeks and I can be ready for the regular season,” said Wetteland, who pitched in the Dominican Republic. “A lot of guys in my situation feel that way.”

Between shrugs, the players admitted their concern over a couple of darker realities. This spring training, once it begins, will be different from others, from the way the players live to the way they practice.

Because most players canceled Vero Beach living arrangements, when the lockout ends they might be unable to find condominiums or even hotel rooms within 15 miles of training camp. For most, this means spending a month or more in the Dodgertown hotel-type rooms, where families are not allowed.

“In a small town like Vero, housing becomes a major problem,” said Bill DeLury, the team’s traveling secretary. “No landlord is going to hold his place for a player when, if that player doesn’t show up, it could cost that guy $5,000. All the places the players usually had could be gone.

“A lot of (players) will have to stay on the base, which will be hard for those guys who are used to being with their families. But they just won’t have a choice.”

Said Lucy Marine, Dodgertown baseball secretary: “We could put them in hotel rooms, but they will be filled with fans. You see, the fans don’t cancel.”

Belcher said that problem could be solved with a simple attitude adjustment.

“I’ve lived in Dodgertown every year, and it’s the most relaxing six weeks of my season,” he said. “You are 30 steps from the clubhouse, 30 steps from where you eat, and nobody can get in at night and bother you. I miss my wife, but guys will find out that staying there can be great.”

A bigger problem is what happens on the field when training camp finally opens and the players must prove they can really prepare for a 180-day season in what could be less than a month. Rookies are predicting missed opportunities, while veterans talk of needless injuries.

Mike Hartley, 28, has spent eight years preparing for this spring. He has played for 10 teams in two organizations, and finally, the right-handed pitcher believes he is on the verge of winning the last spot in the bullpen. “This is not going to be good for me,” said Hartley, who allowed one earned run in six major league innings last year. He is one of the few locked-out Dodgers whose chances could be hurt by inactivity. Others are pitcher Pat Perry and outfielder Chris Gwynn, both of whom need to prove that they are physically sound.

Lamented Hartley, who had a good winter season in Puerto Rico: “This was going to be my most important spring. I was planning on coming in and winning a job. If they don’t see me, they are going to have to go on hearsay. And my chances aren’t as good.”

Thus, Hartley noted, his most important activity during the lockout does not involve a baseball.

“I watch ESPN for news,” he said. “And I hope.”

Searage, who might be helped by a lockout because he is the leading candidate to be the team’s left-handed reliever, remembers when his situation wasn’t so secure.

“Last year, if spring training was just one week shorter, I wouldn’t have made the team,” Searage said. “People like me, I can see where they would be worried.”

Perhaps because of players such as Hartley, most are predicting that the delayed workouts will be impassioned. Many translate that to mean somebody could get hurt.

“The minute everyone gets back, it will be very, very intense,” predicted Billy Bean, an outfielder who begins Dodgertown workouts today with 63 other nonroster players and minor leaguers. “It will be strange. People will have to be careful. Nobody will know what is going to happen.”

Dempsey can guess.

“The injury factor will be very big,” he said. “This is why players should come in very prepared. They should not delay getting their work in during this lockout.”

But enough about work. Although the players realize they should treat the lockout as the unfortunate product of a labor dispute, most are simply looking at it as a vacation.

“I’m even going to my kids’ Little League practices,” said Searage, referring to his sons, Ray Jr., 9, and Ryan, 7. “And you bet I’m filming everything. Now that I’ve finally got a chance to be a tacky parent, I’m doing it all the way.”