In a Pitch of Fate, He’s Now a Cardinal : Baseball: As a Dodger in 1985, Niedenfuer gave up a home run that clinched a pennant for St. Louis. This year, the Cardinals helped salvage the reliever’s career.

Tom Niedenfuer appreciates the irony but is more appreciative of the opportunity.

Released by the Seattle Mariners just before the 1990 season, Niedenfuer has been thrust into a pivotal role in the St. Louis Cardinal bullpen, helping replace injured Todd Worrell.

He was promoted from Louisville Monday and accompanied the Cardinals to Los Angeles Tuesday. His presence in the visitors’ clubhouse at Dodger Stadium is a strange twist, indeed.

It was about 4 1/2 years ago that Niedenfuer, then with the Dodgers, threw a pitch that would forever link his name to the Cardinals and cause it to live in Dodger infamy. In the ninth inning of Game 6 of the 1985 playoffs, Jack Clark hit it for a three-run home run, lifting the Cardinals to a 7-5 victory and the National League pennant.

On Tuesday’s flight to Los Angeles, former Dodger teammate Pedro Guerrero couldn’t resist a little gallows humor. He reflected on that home run, on the fact Niedenfuer is now wearing a St. Louis uniform, and told Niedenfuer that if he pitches well against the Dodgers, “The fans are going to say, ‘We knew it was a set up, we knew it was a set up all along.’ ”

Prodded by Ozzie Smith, who also hit an unlikely home run off Niedenfuer in that playoff series, Niedenfuer related the anecdote and laughed.

He will never be allowed to forget, but time has eased the pain and dimmed debate over whether Manager Tom Lasorda should have had Niedenfuer walk Clark intentionally.

Niedenfuer pulled on a Cardinal warmup jersey and said: “Sure there’s some irony in this, but it would be more ironic if I was coming back in ‘86, just a year later. It’s been almost five years, and I’ve been with two other teams in the meantime. I don’t look on it as irony as much as another chance, and I’ll give 110% as I always do.”

The 30-year-old right-hander saved 19 games with a 2.71 earned-run average as the ace of the Dodger bullpen in ‘85, after saving 31 games in the previous three seasons.

Booed frequently in ‘86, he was 6-4 with 10 saves and a 3.07 ERA, spent most of August on the disabled list with a hamstring injury and was traded to the Baltimore Orioles in May of ’87 for John Shelby and Brad Havens.

Niedenfuer reflected, saying his confidence wasn’t shaken by the Clark home run, that his 1986 falloff wasn’t the byproduct of that hit, though the eventual change of scenery was probably beneficial.

“People are quick to (connect) what happened in ’86 with the Clark home run,” he said. “They can think what they want to think, but I don’t buy it. I pitched a lot of innings in ’85 (a career-high 106 1/3), there had been a lot of wear and tear and I got off to a slow start (in ‘86). Physically, I just never found a groove.”

Carrying what he calls great memories and friendships from his years with the Dodgers (“I had the opportunity to pitch in one World Series and three playoffs and we did win the division in ‘85, which sometimes gets overlooked”), Niedenfuer saved 13 games for the Orioles in ’87 and 18 in ‘88, when they won only 54 games.

“I was 18 for 19 in save chances and close to signing a two-year deal in September when I blew two in a row and the negotiations kind of fell apart,” said Niedenfuer, who then moved to the Mariners as a free agent, signing a two-year contract with a club option on 1991.

But in his final exhibition appearance of the 1989 spring, Niedenfuer suffered a broken left wrist when he was hit by a line drive off the bat of the Oakland Athletics’ Mike Gallego. Niedenfuer did not return to the Mariner bullpen until the first of June, by which time Mike Schooler had become the closer and Mike Jackson his setup man.

Niedenfuer was 0-3 with no saves in 25 appearances.

“In those two months I was out, everyone pitched themselves into roles and the only thing left was mop-up,” he said. “It was the toughest year mentally I’ve ever had, knowing I could still do the job but not getting the call.

“I mean, you don’t go from 18 saves in 1988 to zero in 1989 unless you’ve had an arm injury or don’t get the chance. And I didn’t have an arm injury, so there’s no reason to think I can’t go out and do it (successfully) again.”

Niedenfuer lives with his wife, actress Judy Landers, and their daughter, Lindsey, in Beverly Hills.

He prepared for the 1990 season by throwing regularly to Dodger catcher Rick Dempsey and said he would not have been surprised if the Mariners had traded or released him before spring training, considering that their bullpen seemed set.

But Niedenfuer went to camp and pitched six shutout innings, striking out eight, before giving up two runs in the two innings of his last appearance, leading to his release two days before the season started.

“It just proved that I never fit in their plans,” Niedenfuer said. “The timing couldn’t have been much worse. I mean, with the 27-man rosters every club seemed to have enough pitching.

“I made a list of the clubs that might need help and that I would prefer joining, and the first call my agent made was to the Cardinals.”

Worrell had surgery in December to repair an elbow ligament and again two weeks ago for a nerve impingement in the same elbow. He is out until at least midseason, a loss compounded by the early season inability of Manager Whitey Herzog to use the tender Ken Dayley or Scott Terry two days in a row.

Because the Mariners are responsible for the bulk of his $800,000 salary, Niedenfuer represented a minimal risk. He was signed to a triple-A contract and saved two games with a 2.45 ERA in 7 1/3 innings at Louisville before Monday’s recall.

“I knew I’d have to go to triple-A to show whatever club I signed with that I could still pitch,” he said. “I just didn’t anticipate being here this quickly. It’s a great opportunity, and I don’t just say that because some people are hurt. I’m glad to be back in the National League, with a contending club, a great park to pitch in (Busch Stadium) and a top-notch defense behind me.”

The Cardinals are still in the relief market, looking at Lee Smith of the Boston Red Sox, among others. Herzog, who has had previous success operating a bullpen by committee, said Niedenfuer could be used in any role, including that of the closer.

“You can’t win without a bullpen, and we haven’t had one,” Herzog said. “Tom is going to have to do a job for us. He’s throwing 90 (m.p.h.) again. If he gets it up to 90 in our ballpark, he’s going to get a lot of fly-ball outs. His problem has been that he tries to put everyone away with the high fastball. You’ve got to put it in a location where they can’t pull it.”

Jack Clark jumped on a high fastball in October of ‘85, and even Herzog couldn’t resist reiterating a dig he made at the time of the Niedenfuer signing, saying: “Considering everything Tom had done for us, we owed it to him.”