Hershiser Faces Long Road Back to Mound : Baseball: He is finished for season and his future is clouded. Jobe says shoulder injury came from pitching too many innings.

Orel Hershiser’s 1990 season ended and his baseball future was placed in doubt Friday when doctors, finding major damage, reconstructed the major ligament structure in his right shoulder.

“We found more damage than was evident on the MRI exam,” said Dr. Frank Jobe, referring to the Magnetic Resonancy Image examination, which revealed Hershiser’s problem Thursday. “The decision was mandatory to reconstruct.”

In a 3 1/2-hour procedure at Inglewood’s Centinela Hospital Medical Center, three surgeons reconstructed a torn anterior labrum and anterior capsule, a structure that keeps the shoulder stable.

Jobe said some parts of the shoulder were in such bad shape, “It was as if somebody had pounded them with a hammer.”

The procedure has never been performed on a major league pitcher, and Hershiser has been ordered not to throw a ball for four months, nor pitch competitively until next season. Jobe said it will take even longer for Hershiser to regain the form that enabled him to win the Cy Young Award in 1988.

“A year is required before he can return to a game,” Jobe said. “But it will take longer than that for the shoulder to reach its maximum ability.”

Hershiser, whose career record is 99-65 with a 2.71 earned-run average, had not missed a start in his seven-year career, a span of 195 starts. He has led the National League in innings pitched each of the last three seasons, pitching 788 1/3 regular-season innings over that time.

But Jobe said the stress of those innings resulted in his problems.

“Pitching a lot was his problem,” Jobe said. “After a while, there is a limit to what people can tolerate. It may have been better not to pitch so much. But sometimes, I guess, the team needed him to do things (the shoulder) really didn’t want him to do.”

With those innings, an uncomplaining Hershiser has helped the Dodgers to two West Division titles and a World Series championship.

“I think it shows how well we take care of our pitchers that he lasted as long as he did,” trainer Bill Buhler said. “I don’t see how we can be any more conservative than we were.”

Said Manager Tom Lasorda: “It’s like watching a tire and trying to guess when it’s going to blow. If Orel or anybody ever told me their arm was hurting, I would take them out of the game immediately. If anybody says a lot of innings can hurt somebody, I would ask them to look at Nolan Ryan.

“Each person is different and, unless somebody tells me they are hurting, it is impossible for me to guess.”

Pitcher Mike Morgan added: “They do more stuff to help pitchers here than any place I’ve been. I think it goes to show, when your arm is ready to go, it goes, no matter what. I want to pitch until I drop, and I know a lot of guys feel that way.”

Jobe said the factors exist for Hershiser eventually to pitch normally.

“I know Orel will get his full range of motion back and his strength back and his rhythm back,” Jobe said. “So the principals are all good. We think he can pitch again. . . . We just don’t have any precedent to base it on.”

Jobe said the operation has been performed on minor league pitchers, none of whom have made the major leagues.

The procedure, which Jobe said will leave Hershiser with a 4 1/2-inch scar near his armpit, involves using new, smaller instruments to bypass the muscle and operate directly on the ligaments. Jobe said Hershiser had to accept the procedure, because to operate on the muscle would have ended his career.

“I guess the question is, why do this new procedure on a major league pitcher if it’s never been done before?” Jobe said. “Well, the alternative was to do an operation we have done for 50 years that had a 100% failure rate.

“We can’t promise success here, but we really think we got it all. We really think this gave us a good chance.”

Jobe said Fernando Valenzuela may have required the same surgery during his shoulder problems of 1988, but said Valenzuela refused even to undergo an MRI exam to determine the damage.

“He chose to go the rehabilitation route, which is fine and seems to have worked out OK,” Jobe said.

At least one Dodger is wondering if Hershiser has second thoughts.

“I’m sure there are a lot of things Orel is thinking about, maybe about some of the times he stayed in a game,” said Tim Belcher, who referred to his own performance of Thursday, during which he allowed St. Louis six runs in 6 1/3 innings that included a three-run homer by Pedro Guerrero after walking two batters in the seventh.

“I know I’m thinking about it from Thursday night,” Belcher said. “I walk two batters in the seventh inning and red flags are going up all over the stadium. But no way am I going to put up that white flag myself. When we get competitive, we get stupid. No way would I ask to come out of that game.

“Looking back, maybe I should have told Perry (pitching coach Ron Perranoski), ‘I’ve got to get out of here.’ But it’s so hard to say that. I think restraint has to exercised by somebody independent of the athlete himself.”