No Laughs Behind the Mask : Dodgers Have Competition for the Starting Catcher Role for the First Time Since the 1970s

The only real battle for a starting role on the Dodgers, so far anyway, takes place daily on Field 2 at Dodgertown. There, Mike Piazza, Carlos Hernandez, Lance Parrish and Don Wakamatsu put on their catchers garb and go through drills--blocking balls in the dirt, blocking the plate, even blocking Manager Tom Lasorda, who pretends he is a runner.

“He’s pretty strong,” Piazza said after he wrestled Lasorda into the air one day and deposited him halfway to the mound.

This expository operation is run by coaches Mark Cresse, Joe Ferguson and Hall of Fame catcher Roy Campanella, who coaches quietly from his wheelchair. It draws one of the largest crowds daily, including Lasorda, who plays loudly to the fans with his quips and antics.

For these players, however, this is no joke.

For Hernandez and Piazza, this is the spring of their life. For Parrish, this could be the last spring camp of his life. For Wakamatsu, who has labored in the minors for eight seasons, it is finally a spring when he has stopped worrying just where his life is going to be.

And for the Dodgers, it is yet another experiment, this time with youth. They are hoping that either Piazza, 24, or Hernandez, 25, both products of their farm system, are ready to be the club’s starting catcher, a position that has been filled the past 11 seasons by Mike Scioscia, whom the Dodgers did not re-sign.

Said Cresse: “It’s important for the organization itself for one of those two kids to step up and show that we are back on the right track, rather than an organization of a bunch of mercenaries, filling your holes with free agents.”

Wakamatsu, 30, has excellent defensive skills and last season improved dramatically offensively. He played for the Chicago White Sox and was signed as a free agent before

the 1992 season.

“I used to go out and hit until my hands bled to get better, but I was pressing so much that I got worse,” Wakamatsu said. “I’m finally not worrying anymore. I’m playing hard and my best but we’ll let the cards fall where they may.”

Parrish, 36, has played 15 years in the majors and has a chance of making the club if Piazza and Hernandez don’t work out, or if the Dodgers carry three catchers. But Parrish’s goal is the starting role.

“I don’t have the time to worry about it, I just have to go out and play,” Parrish said.

Piazza hits for power and average. At Albuquerque last season, he hit .341 with 16 home runs, 22 doubles and 69 runs batted in over 94 games and was chosen the Dodgers’ minor league player of the year. When he came up to the Dodgers in September, he hit .232 with one home run, three doubles and seven RBIs in 21 games.

He is also the godson of Lasorda, who grew up with Piazza’s father, Vince, in Norristown, Pa. When the younger Piazza was in junior college and expected to be a low draft pick, Lasorda suggested that he convert from a first baseman to a catcher.

“I was desperate to play, and he and my father felt that it was one of the fastest ways to the major leagues,” Piazza said.

Piazza was a late-round pick in the 1988 free-agent draft and was sent to instructional league as a catcher. He has taken a lot of kidding and heard of the talk about having an advantage because he is Lasorda’s godson.

“I’m told people talk about nepotism and I say, ‘What people? Why don’t they talk to me?’ ” Piazza said. “I am definitely confident in my abilities and if I wasn’t, I don’t think I would be here.”

Hernandez, who is from Venezuela, signed with the Dodgers when he was 17 as a third baseman and was also converted to a catcher. He played in a few games with the Dodgers before last season, when he did a solid job in 69 games while filling in for and then platooning with Scioscia.

He is solid defensively and batted .260 with three home runs and 17 RBIs with the Dodgers last season.

“Piazza probably has the strongest throwing arm since Steve Yeager, his ball really carries,” Cresse said. “It’s straight as a string and comes right over the top. He probably by far is the least agile footwork-wise, but he’s got good footwork, but not as quick. He can still get the job done, and makes up a lot with his strong arm.

“Carlos did a real respectable job for us last season,” Cresse said. “He is not a real conventional catcher and has a lot of different frills to his game that you are not going to change. Such as when he fields a bunt he does a lot of things fancy, just like a lot of Latin infielders field differently, they have a flair to the game. And he has extremely quick feet, which is probably his forte. His big plus is his quickness with a good throwing arm.”

Still, both have limited experience behind the plate, with Piazza having the least. He has caught only about 200 games, 21 games in the majors at the end of last season. With this in mind, the Dodger pitchers might look a little like bobbing-head dolls on the mound next season.

“Yes, I think we will be shaking them off a little bit,” Orel Hershiser laughed. “I think it is easily said we are going to miss Mike, but that isn’t a cut to Fred or Tommy or whoever made the decision not to re-sign him.

“I don’t think it was a coincidence that the staff was number one or number two in earned-run-average when Mike Scioscia was here. Ron Perranoski and Tommy get a lot of credit, but I think Scioscia gets a lot of credit, too. He’s the one behind the plate calling the pitch selection.

“Catchers have a tremendous amount to do with the success of a staff. You can’t have 10 pitchers and say they are all smart. You just can’t. Human nature says that all 10 aren’t smart.”

The last time the Dodgers had a battle for catcher was in the 1970s, when Steve Yeager and Joe Ferguson fought for the job. “People tried to make a big deal about it like there was some kind of hatred between Steve and I, but we were the best of friends,” Ferguson said.

Hernandez says he and Piazza are also good friends. Both also say they are not feeling the pressure. Not yet, anyway. “I’m just glad to have the opportunity,” Hernandez said.

For Lasorda, this is not a bad problem to have. He says the competition brings out the best in the players.

Said Piazza: “It’s everyone else who tries to make something out of this between Carlos and me. I have to look at it like I am so happy to be here and get the chance to play baseball. It will be icing on the cake if I make the club and if not, I will go back and play hard at Albuquerque.

“But I know that is easier said than done.”