Where Howe Once Pitched, a Committee Now Works : Baseball: Dodgers have failed in attempts to find a left-handed stopper to replace drug-plagued reliever.

The Dodgers make no apologies for their previous decade, during which they won two World Series championships, kept stadium turnstiles whirling and promoted the manias--Fernando, Orel and Gibson.

It is interesting to wonder, though, what more there might have been had it not been for the Dodger bullpen, scarred by trauma and long overshadowed by the team’s starters.

It is simplistic, perhaps, to suggest that history would have been far different had Steve Howe never taken a first hit of cocaine and Tom Niedenfuer never thrown that fateful pitch to Jack Clark.

Or is it?

Howe was a budding superstar in the early 1980s, a left-handed stopper with an attitude, before cocaine addiction took him from the team in his prime.

“This guy was good,” Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda said. “This guy had great control for a youngster. And he had the moxie to be a great relief pitcher.

“Since Howe left, we really have had a problem with a left-handed stopper. We went after left-hander after left-hander, but have never been able to replace him.”

Dodger fans know. Marching in the parade of hopeful left-handed closers were Carlos Diaz, Ed Vande Berg and Matt Young.

Howe’s downfall also touched off a chain-reaction of counter-moves, beginning in 1983 when the Dodgers traded pitcher Sid Fernandez to the Mets for left-handed reliever Diaz and infielder Bob Bailor.

What a sober Howe might have meant to the Dodgers in the 1980s is the stuff of Dodger dreams.

“We got into the playoffs even without him,” pitching Coach Ron Perranoski said. “I definitely would say that he would have made a difference.”

Even without Howe, the Dodgers won a division championship in 1985 and the World Series in 1988.

With him, well, who knows?

While Howe was staggering with his drug addiction, the Dodgers were preparing a right-hander, Niedenfuer, another headstrong stopper who thought he could throw his fastball past anyone.

“He lived and died by it,” Perranoski said.

Niedenfuer was 26 in 1985, when he led the Dodgers with 19 saves. His future was bright.

But in the league championship series against St. Louis, Niedenfuer gave up consecutive game-winning home runs to Ozzie Smith and Jack Clark. Clark’s three-run homer in the ninth inning against Niedenfuer in Game 6 clinched the pennant for the Cardinals.

Niedenfuer was booed often in 1986, traded to the Baltimore Orioles in 1987 and has since taken the journeyman’s trail out of baseball.

Have the Dodgers ever recovered from the disappointments of Howe and Niedenfuer?

As the 1992 opener approaches, relief pitching remains a Dodger concern. The acquisition of right-hander Jay Howell from the Oakland Athletics in 1987 seemed the answer. He saved 21 games for the Dodgers in 1988 and 28 more in 1989. But arm problems the last two seasons have clouded his future.

Veteran right-handers Jim Gott and Roger McDowell probably left their best seasons with their previous teams, the Pittsburgh Pirates and the New York Mets, respectively. It remains to be seen how much more they can offer.

Historically, the Dodger bullpen has been a curiosity.

For all of their pitching--Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale and Orel Hershiser, among others--the Dodgers have never had a 30-save man.

This, in an age when 30-save men are almost standard equipment for pennant contenders. This, in an age when the great relievers--Dennis Eckersley, Bobby Thigpen, Lee Smith, Jeff Reardon, Bryan Harvey--can be expected to save 40 games a season.

Where is the Dodgers’ 30-save man?

“They had one,” Perranoski quipped. “But they let me go to Minnesota.”

Perranoski helped revolutionize the bullpen role with the Dodgers in the 1960s, but recorded his greatest save seasons, 31 and 34, after the team traded him to the Twins in 1968.

It sums up the Dodgers’ plight.

The Dodgers have had great names in the bullpen, dating to Brooklyn and Clem Labine. Larry Sherry helped them to a World Series championship in 1959. Perranoski was a dominant factor in the championship seasons of 1963 and ’65.

In 1974, Mike Marshall appeared in a record 106 games and won the Cy Young Award.

But relievers of that era were a far cry from the one-inning specialists of today. The game evolved in the 1970s with the emergence of Rollie Fingers, Bruce Sutter and Goose Gossage, relievers who would become regarded exclusively as closers.

In 1963, Perranoski had 21 saves in 129 innings pitched.

Last season, Eckersley recorded 43 saves in 76 innings.

In the 1980s, everyone rushed to secure their one-man stopper. The Cubs had Lee Smith. The Twins offered Jeff Reardon. The White Sox had Thigpen.

The A’s struck gold when they converted Eckersley from starter to reliever.

Everyone had a savior except the Dodgers, who never fell in line. In 1981, a championship season, the Dodgers’ leading save man was Howe with eight.

In 1988, they won the World Series with Howell getting 21 saves.

Is it by choice or circumstance that the Dodgers operate without a superstar stopper?

“It’s due to personnel,” Perranoski said. “Then it becomes design.”

The Dodgers of the 1980s took the committee approach to relief pitching and made it work well enough to hang two more banners. Of course, there were four losing seasons along the way, too.

Had circumstances been different, most agree Howe or Niedenfuer might have become the first 30-save Dodger reliever.

The Dodgers always had the means.

The organization developed John Franco in their minor league system, but traded him to the Cincinnati in 1983 for Raphael Landestoy.

Franco has 211 saves since, with the Reds and Mets. No one has heard much from Landestoy.

Alejandro Pena had some good seasons with the Dodgers from 1981 through ‘89, but saved his best for the Atlanta Braves, who got him from the Mets during the 1991 stretch drive.

Pena saved 11 games in 11 opportunities in Atlanta.

Fred Claire, Dodger vice president, already is covering himself for dealing John Wetteland to Cincinnati in the trade for outfielder Eric Davis.

Wetteland quickly was traded to Montreal and now is being touted as their next great stopper.

“I think Eric Davis is going to be a force for us this year,” Claire said. “I tried like heck not to put John Wetteland in the trade to Cincinnati, but that seemed to be what that trade was coming down to.”

The Dodgers, who run their bullpen independent of prevailing trends, don’t think there’s anything magical about 30 saves.

Claire said he is comfortable with the Dodger system. He said the team is not in dire need of a superstar stopper.

Drysdale, a Dodger broadcaster and Hall of Fame pitcher, believes save totals are misleading.

“So many managers will manufacture saves for their closer,” Drysdale said. “I’ve seen it happen numerous times, where you don’t have to bring a guy in.”

Drysdale, who used to broadcast for the Chicago White Sox, said he watched a manager hand a stopper 15 of his 30 saves one season by putting the pitcher in unnecessary save situations.

“And damn if the guy didn’t take the club to arbitration and win,” Drysdale said. “It cost the club two or three hundred thousand more because the manager let this guy have 15 (meaningless) saves.”

Claire said you don’t need a 30-save man to be successful.

“If you do, you’re really, to some extent, fighting the odds,” he said. “If you look at history--there are exceptions to this--but there are people who have had big save years and then vanished from the scene. If you have several people who can do the job, there are more chances for continuity and longevity for that player’s career.”

Lasorda put it more succinctly: “You’ve seen some teams with a guy that has 40 saves and they don’t win.”

The 1991 Angels with Bryan Harvey’s 46 saves come to mind.

Of course, if Thigpen walked into Vero Beach with no strings attached, the Dodgers wouldn’t let him off the grounds.

But in the real world, Claire has three pitchers--Howell, McDowell and Gott--who have saved more than 25 games in a season. Claire expects no one man to carry the entire load.

Another reason the Dodgers have not produced big save men has to do with the dominance of their starting staff, which regularly ranks among the league leaders in complete games.

Perranoski noted that Koufax averaged 8 2/3 innings a start one season.

Then there is Lasorda, who never has been conventional when it comes to his bullpen.

Unlike Oakland Manager Tony La Russa, who has a calculated progression from starting pitcher to stopper Eckersley, Lasorda relies more on instinct and a hot hand to get him through a game.

He manages each game as if it were the last, with little regard for tomorrow, and he has been criticized for overworking his bullpen.

“If he can pitch one inning, he can pitch two innings,” is Lasorda’s theory.

Claire doesn’t spend much time wondering what might have been with Howe. He is too busy trying to find Howe’s replacement.

“I don’t think it’s fair to put that on the shoulders of Steve,” Claire said. “We’re in the business of developing players. A player can go down with an arm injury at any time. If you can only look to one left-hander in ‘X’ number of years, then we haven’t been able to do the things we’re trying to do.”