Hershiser Says He Is Pleased by Progress : Baseball: Dodger star is upbeat despite facing a long road to rehabilitation after surgery on his right shoulder.

The only certainty about the rehabilitation process that Orel Hershiser has begun is that it will be comparable to an amusement park thrill ride.

Same highs, same lows--an emotional roller coaster, Hershiser said Monday.

“I’ve seen John Tudor go through it and I’ve seen Gibby (Kirk Gibson) go through it,” Hershiser said. “One day Gibby thinks he can fly, and the next day he isn’t sure that he can walk.”

Three weeks after a new form of surgery designed to reconstruct his right shoulder, Hershiser is riding the first high.

“Dr. (Frank) Jobe seems to think I’m making rapid--if not remarkable--progress,” Hershiser said in his first public comments since the surgery April 27 left the 31-year-old Dodger right-hander on a 12-month recovery program.

Speaking at Dodger Stadium, Hershiser said everything has been positive, that he is making great strides.

“Of course, even if I’m ready to pitch in November, I don’t know who will be playing baseball then,” he said.

“Even if I set a land-speed record, we have nothing but time. It’s not like the operation was done on the last day of the season to get me ready at the All-Star break. It was done early in the season to get me ready at the start of next season.”

It was done, of course, with more than 1991 in mind.

Hershiser’s career rests on the success of the surgery.

The chances that he would be able to pitch again without it were slim, Jobe has said.

“I told Frank that I had 99 wins and didn’t want to be stuck on that, so do it right,” Hershiser said, laughing. “I want to get 100 at least, and I’m confident I’m going to be able to pitch again. Not because of the way my arm feels now but because all the people who know think I’ll pitch again.”

Among them, Hershiser said, are Jobe and the Dodgers’ physical therapist, Pat Screnar, who will supervise his recovery. At this point, therapy consists of isometrics four times a day, elbow extensions and the use of a light barbell.

“It’s strange,” he said. “Everything I’ve ever done was to stretch and get loose. This rehab is entirely the opposite. . . . Let’s tighten up and get it healed before stretching it again.”

There is no definitive timetable, but Hershiser said he hopes to be able to throw a baseball within three months. He made a windmill motion with his right arm, raised it at a 90-degree angle and said he has to be cautious and not take it back farther in the motion required to throw a fastball.

The obviously chipper Hershiser said he agreed with Jobe’s opinion that the physical damage stemmed from a long period of wear and tear, that his loose body structure led to a pounding of the soft tissue by the shoulder bones, that the pain didn’t really develop until this year and that for a long period he felt it was normal spring training discomfort--a result, perhaps, of the short spring--until he realized the pain was not diminishing.

He said he had no regrets about not speaking up sooner or requesting a break in his string of 195 consecutive starts.

“I love to compete, and Mr. (Peter) O’Malley pays me to go out and pitch,” he said. “He pays Tom Lasorda and Ron Perranoski to decide who pitches and when. If I feel I can pitch, I’m going to do it. I’m not a hero because of that, nor am I the only pitcher who has pitched with pain occasionally.”

Hershiser said that he has not, and will not, dwell on the possibility that his career might be over.

He said his energies and thoughts are on complete recovery and that he is not concerned about the physical regimen because he has always worked hard.

The toughest part, he said, will be sitting and watching, and he has tried to avoid that, knowing his competitive juices will flow and that he “will get the itch to pitch.”

“I’ve been tuning in to see how my friends are doing out of curiosity,” he said. “But once I get the score, I turn it off because I know I’ll just get frustrated. The toughest thing about pitching has always been the four days in between.”

The frustration has increased because of the Dodgers’ current struggle, but Hershiser said he didn’t think an injured player should dissect his team’s performance.

“I agree with the theory that a person on the disabled list is still part of the team but not really part of it,” Hershiser said, knowing he faces a long process until he feels part of it again.