DODGERS : Faces Change, but Tradition Remains Same

The lineup card taped to the wall in the Dodger dugout Monday had Juan Samuel in center field and Hubie Brooks in right.

The pregame ceremony included Hall of Fame pitchers Sandy Koufax and Don Drysdale throwing out first pitches.

Some things change but some remain the same.

On opening day of the Dodgers’ 100th season, it was evident again that pitching is the foundation for all else.

Koufax and Drysdale are legendary reminders of a tradition that began with Brickyard Kennedy in the 1890s and was sustained in the delayed start to the 1990s by Orel Hershiser.

True, a crowd of 48,686 that watched the Dodgers defeat the San Diego Padres, 4-2, at Dodger Stadium probably will remember the three-run homer hit by Brooks in the eighth inning. But what is muscle without the backbone that is--and has always been, it seems--Dodger pitching?

With Joe Carter and Fred Lynn joining a lineup that already included Tony Gwynn and Jack Clark--along with the maturing Roberto Alomar and Benito Santiago--the Padres were 12-2 in the abbreviated spring, averaging 6.6 runs.

Against Hershiser, they scored one run on three hits in six innings before John Wetteland and Don Aase wrapped up the seven-hit Dodger victory.

Later, catcher Mike Scioscia seemed to have both feet on the ground as he called the 1990 Dodger pitching staff the best in baseball.

“When you look at it from top to bottom, the only team that compares is the (New York) Mets, and I’m not looking at the future, I’m looking at now,” he said. “I think Wetteland is ready. I think (Ramon) Martinez is ready. I think Fernando (Valenzuela) is going to be a 15- to 20-game winner again.”

The senior Dodger in continuous service, Scioscia was asked if it was the best Dodger staff since his arrival in 1980.

“It’s tough, putting a label as to which is best, but this staff can be every bit as dominant, and we had some great staffs in my first few years,” he said.

“I mean, we had Valenzuela coming into his prime at a time when guys like (Bob) Welch and (Bert) Hooton were still here and Jerry Reuss was one of the dominant pitchers in baseball. We had guys like Steve Howe and Tom Niedenfuer in the bullpen.”

Only Valenzuela remains, but the tradition lives.

A Dodger staple. Then and now.

“The organization prides itself on pitching, and this is another very deep staff,” said Hershiser. “Put it this way . . . a lot of teams are searching for a fourth and fifth starter, and we’re trying to decide which of our starters to put in the bullpen.”

Hershiser had moved from the bullpen to the dugout when Koufax and Drysdale delivered their ceremonial pitches.

“I tried to block out all of the pregame stuff, but the one thing I did think about was that this was the start of the club’s 100th season, and it was kind of nice that I would be making the first pitch,” he said.

“I knew that pitch would make a lot of highlight films, and that my kids and grandchildren might get a kick out of it some day. I’m kind of a historian that way.”

There was a feeling during the early innings Monday that history might be in the process of repeating.

Hershiser went 15-15 last year despite a 2.31 earned-run average, the National League’s second best. In his 15 defeats, the Dodgers scored 17 runs and were shut out five times.

Monday, as Lynn hit a second-inning change-up into the bleachers in right field, and Bruce Hurst continued to turn the Dodgers away without a hit--let alone a run--Hershiser said he attempted to relieve the growing pressure in the Dodger dugout by joking that this suddenly seemed to be a replay of last year.

The joke, however, seemed on the verge of becoming an 0-1 reality when Brooks made everyone aware that it’s 1990.

Hershiser smiled later and said it was great for Brooks, great for the Dodgers and a step in the right direction for himself in that he emerged without a decision from a game of the type he and the Dodgers lost so often during the 77-83 collapse of 1989.

That overall record included a 31-51 mark in games decided by two runs or fewer. Hershiser said the shakedown comes over 162 games, that more will be known after the first month.

One thing seems certain:

Pitching, as always, will be a key, and the Dodgers, as always, seem to have it. The rebuilt offense will get its chance to turn other games around. And Hershiser might be the pitcher of record when it happens.

This time, coming off the strange spring, he made 70 pitches and said he could have gone one more inning.

“As a critique, I’d take one run in six innings every time,” he said, heir to a legacy that is likely to be the story of this season no matter what the lineup card reads.