A New Hershiser, Old Tricks : Dodger Pitcher Is Enjoying Himself Too Much to Be a Bulldog

Brett Butler first noticed it Sunday, after Orel Hershiser struck out one of the New York Mets with a drop-dead sinker, vintage 1988.

Butler noticed, even though he was standing more than 300 feet away in center field.

The hip movements. The curling of the lower lip. The cock of the head.

“Orel had that sway ,” Butler said. “The thing that used to make everyone hate him. That way he walks around like, ‘Heyyyy. ‘ “

Darryl Strawberry first noticed it a couple of weeks earlier, when he was facing Hershiser in batting practice.

Hershiser was simply trying to throw the ball down the middle, but still Strawberry noticed.

“The ball moved. The ball did things,” Strawberry said. “Last year, it was flat. This year, it ain’t flat.”

Hershiser noticed it before either one. He noticed it on days like that chilly February morning at Dodger Stadium.

A steady rain was falling. Sand bags lined the field. A tarp was crumpled in front of the bullpen mound.

From behind that tarp, Hershiser pitched.

“It was strange,” Hershiser said at the time. “I couldn’t feel the rain or the cold. Iwas so happy to be throwing without pain, I couldn’t feel anything.”

Orel Hershiser, the pitcher, might be back.

Two years after reconstructive shoulder surgery, one year after his celebrated comeback stalled, Hershiser has a 3.00 earned-run average in 12 spring innings. He has given up only seven hits and has struck out eight.

“I don’t know much about baseball,” said Dr. Frank Jobe, who performed the surgery, “but he looks pretty close to being back where he was. Real close.”

Hershiser sits in front of his locker here, wiping his glasses on his shirt, writing notes to his children, and shrugs.

In many ways, he believes his pre-operation ability has returned.

“There’s a small circle of us who believe, and I’m in the center of that circle,” he said.

But he knows there is a part of him that will never return.

The pitcher may be here, but “Bulldog” could be gone forever.

“It’s funny, but because we have so many new players, hardly anyone calls me Bulldog anymore,” Hershiser said. “I respect the nickname, because Tommy (Lasorda) gave it to me. But, well. . . .”

Those expecting Hershiser to lead the league in innings pitched again will be mistaken. Those expecting him to suddenly begin pitching complete games for the first time since 1989 will be disappointed.

“I told him, I don’t want him pitching as much as he did in 1988,” Jobe said. “I don’t want him to want the ball every inning. I don’t want to see him burn himself out.”

So Hershiser, who averaged 5 1/3 innings in his 21 starts last season, the fewest among league starters, would be thrilled if he averaged one more inning per start this year.

“In the past, I would stay in the game an extra inning if I knew the bullpen was worn out and needed a rest,” Hershiser said. “Not anymore.”

Besides, Hershiser said, who throws complete games anymore anyway?

“In this age of specialization, I’m not going to be different than anyone else,” he said. “Remember, back when I was throwing all those innings, I was like, the throwback.”

Hershiser is also different off the mound.

The surgery did more than clean out Hershiser’s shoulder. It did something to his temperament.

“Every one of my senses has been heightened,” Hershiser said. “Touch, smell, feel. It’s like I notice everything that maybe I used to miss.”

At any moment when discussing the surgery, he can break down and cry, as he did while addressing a baseball writers’ banquet.

“That happens all the time--when I’m talking to other players about the surgery, when I’m talking to Dr. Jobe,” Hershiser said. “I get all choked up over this gift of a new shoulder. I still pinch myself.”

He can barely walk past Jobe in the hallway without hugging him. He even shook Jobe’s hand while leaving the field Sunday after pitching five hitless innings against the Mets.

“Orel is a lot less tense than he has ever been,” Jobe said. “It’s like he appreciates everything more.”

He proved that this winter when, for the first time in many winters, he did not make any paid public appearances.

Instead he preferred to remain close to home so he could drive son Quinton to school, and roller skate in the driveway with his sons after school and read to them at night.

Every time Hershiser left his house, he realized what role the operation has played in shaping his public perception.

“I carry this with me more than I carry 1988,” he said.

Even though Hershiser was in the rotation after May 29, fans ask when he’s coming back.

“In the back of a grocery line, one guy asked me if I was going to pitch this season, and I wanted to say, ‘You know, I did win a few games last season,’ ” Hershiser said. “But you can’t say that.”

Hershiser said the surgery also reminded him to watch his tongue, especially around teammates.

“I can be pretty sarcastic, but not anymore, because I learned how even the smallest remark can hurt somebody,” he said. “When I was rehabbing, I would be throwing in the outfield and somebody would say, ‘Oh, you’re really throwing hard,’ and that would deflate me.”

He has become so conscious of players with injuries, particularly shoulder injuries, many go to him.

Brian Holman, the Seattle Mariner pitcher who is recovering from a similar operation, phoned him this winter when Holman was hurting. Other players phone him regularly.

Sunday, Hershiser met with the New York Mets’ Dwight Gooden, who also is recovering from a shoulder injury.

“I didn’t have any other player to help me,” Hershiser said.

Hershiser still has nobody to help him. Even though it is obvious he will begin the season as a starting pitcher, he has not stopped the routine that included a workout in empty Dodger Stadium on the day after Christmas.

“This rehabilitation program has become a part of his life,” therapist Pat Screnar said. “As long as he pitches, it will be there.”

As will the specter of his comeback.

Few Dodger pitchers have received a standing ovation that accompanied their every step down the right field line while leaving Holman Stadium. Hershiser heard that Sunday.

And perhaps no Dodger pitcher has received the greeting given Hershiser by former teammate Eddie Murray, who felt so out of character he whispered to Hershiser through his glove as the pitcher passed first base Sunday: “Awesome. Just awesome.”