Hershiser Still Cautious After Throwing : Dodgers: He takes step forward in workout but says he won’t pressure himself to pitch by opening day.

The faces plastered against windows of the Dodgers’ executive offices were smiling. On the field below, after catching another hard throw from this town’s most watched right arm, Chris Gwynn was wincing.

“Dang,” Gwynn said. “His pitches feel pretty good to me.”

But Orel Hershiser was not fooled. After taking another strong step in the rehabilitation of his reconstructed right shoulder Friday, Hershiser issued an equally strong warning.

“I will not consider it a setback if I am not ready to pitch opening day,” he said after 90 long tosses with teammate Gwynn at Dodger Stadium. “My ultimate goal is to pitch again, I don’t care if it’s not until the All-Star break or until the last day of next season.”

Hershiser said that his short-term goal is to be ready for the Dodgers’ opener April 9 in Atlanta but that it is no more than a goal.

“I’m not going to put that goal out there and say, ‘If I don’t get it, the surgery didn’t work,’ ” he said. “Sure, if I was ready by the start of the season, that would be a great script, wouldn’t it? But I have no idea if the surgery is going to go by that script.”

Hershiser added that, although his recovery continues to proceed nicely, he hopes Dodger management will not consider him a member of the rotation when carrying out its winter game plan.

“This is not a reflection on my rehabilitation, but I think it would be great if the Dodgers would not plan on me being here,” he said. “That way, when I am healthy, we will have all these extra cards to play. That way, we will get even stronger.

“It’s the cliche of cliches that you can never have enough pitching. But really, I would like to see us get more pitching.”

Beginning today at the annual winter meetings, Dodger Vice President Fred Claire will be following Hershiser’s advice. Expect the Dodgers to make bids for remaining free-agent starters Zane Smith and Kevin Gross, then listen to offers of starting pitchers for outfielder Kal Daniels.

Meanwhile, back at Dodger Stadium, Hershiser will continue to work with team therapist Pat Screnar three days a week, nearly three hours a day.

As if the rehabilitation weren’t difficult enough, they are essentially doing it blindfolded. Because Hershiser’s shoulder operation involved a landmark procedure, there are no case histories they can follow.

“Orel being the first pitcher at this level to have that procedure, we’re basically going through uncharted waters,” Screnar said. “Everything is going extremely well to this point, but we can’t predict opening day, it is just too far away.”

Hershiser began throwing Wednesday for the first time since the end of the season. He hopes to be throwing off a mound by the middle of December.

Then, at the Dodgers’ mid-January workouts, he hopes to reach the first real milestone of his comeback: facing live hitters in batting practice for the first time since the surgery on April 27.

If he is to have any chance of making the opening-day roster as a starter, he should be throwing batting practice by the start of spring training.

“If I want to break camp with the team, I’ve got to be able to get my competitive legs against other teams during spring training . . . it can’t just start happening during the season,” Hershiser said.

While Hershiser threw several balls very hard Friday, he wonders if or when he can throw every ball hard.

“Yes, I might have thrown 10 balls in the mid-80s (m.p.h.) today,” he said. “But the question is, can I throw 90 of those pitches with just a three-five minute break between 12 of them. And can I do it 35 days a summer?

“I just don’t know. Nobody knows.”