He Blazed the Trail Back for Hershiser : Dodgers: Tommy John, who had similar operation in 1974, is confident right-hander has toughness to return.

When Orel Hershiser underwent reconstructive shoulder surgery on April 27, there were concerns that his pitching career had ended. Even Hershiser acknowledged that he feared for his baseball future during an emotional news conference a day before his operation.

However, an expert on returning to the mound after a major operation is confident that Hershiser will also return.

“I think Orel will pitch again and pitch better than before, if that’s possible,” said former Dodger pitcher Tommy John.

“He’ll be fine. Of the pitchers on the Dodgers I know, if anybody had to have an injury like that, he would be the one who could come back from it because of his toughness.”

John’s optimism is based in part on the fact that two of those who were instrumental in his comeback are now helping Hershiser.

“When I heard he was going to be operated on, I thought two good things,” said John, who was in Los Angeles last weekend for the Dodger old-timers’ festivities.

“He’s in L.A. where (Dr.) Frank Jobe is and has good medical people with the ballclub. (Dodger trainer) Bill Buhler worked with me every day.”

John was the Hershiser of 1974. On July 17, his 13 victories topped the National League. But in a game against the Montreal Expos, he suffered a ruptured medial collateral ligament in his left (pitching) elbow. On Sept. 25, in an operation never before performed before on a pitcher, Jobe transplanted a seven-inch strip of tendon from John’s right arm to his left.

“I would have been apprehensive if he would have said, ‘We’re going to do a surgery on you that’s never been done before, but I know I can do it,’ ” John said. “But he never said that. He said, ‘We’re going to do surgery on you that’s never been done before, and I don’t know what to expect.’ He said, ‘I want as many good people in that operating room that I can have with me to give me guidance and counsel.’

“When he said that, it indicated right there he was merely a human being who was going to give it his best effort. I knew right then I had chosen the right doctor.”

The injury sidelined John until the start of the 1976 season. When he returned, John--who never had won more than 16 games in a season--became a 20-game winner in 1977 as the Dodgers won the National League pennant. He won another 17 games in 1978, helping the Dodgers repeat as National League champions.

John’s success continued when he signed as a free agent with the New York Yankees after the 1978 season; he won 21 games in 1979 and 22 in 1980. In all, John won 174 games after his operation for a total of 284 in a career that ended when he was released by the Yankees May 29, 1989, a week after his 46th birthday.

Hershiser enjoys several advantages John did not have. The operation Hershiser underwent, a reconstruction of a torn anterior labrum and anterior capsule (a structure that keeps the shoulder stable) had been performed on other pitchers. Magnetic Resonance Image examinations allow better diagnosis of injuries while rehabilitation techniques have advanced since the mid-1970s.

“They didn’t know what to expect in my case,” John said. “I was in a cast or splints for 16 weeks. Now guys are in and out real fast and start doing therapy as son as feasible. Back then, they weren’t real sure of the exercises they do now.”

To John, the key to a Hershiser comeback is patience.

“The biggest thing that I see guys do wrong is they put a time schedule on their recovery,” John said. “A timetable is like trying to sell a house by a certain date. Maybe the only way you can sell your house by then is to put it too low.”

Hershiser is heeding that advice.

“The whole rehab process in based on patience,” Hershiser told Times columnist Allan Malamud last month. “What would ruin the patience is a timetable.”

Hershiser’s rehabilitation consists of exercises involving free weights designed to increase range of motion and strength in the shoulder. Hershiser spends at least an hour to 90 minutes on the program each day.

“We’re real pleased with his progress,” Buhler said. “The goals are being met and surpassed. The range of motion has been remarkable.

“The biggest problem is try to hold him in. He feels so good and thinks everything has healed, but there hasn’t been enough time.”

“There is a fine line between how hard to work and how hard not to work, where you push it past the point where you get a setback,” John said. “With Orel’s competitiveness, that’s what he has to work at. Work hard, but don’t work past that point. The hardest thing is when you come back throwing all out knowing you won’t reinjure. Once you can overcome that special barrier, then you’re fine.”