BASEBALL / DAILY REPORT : DODGERS : Worrell Says Fans Deserve a Bit More

The Dodgers are elated that the 1995 All-Star game will be played, believing this may help entice fans back to the ballparks.

“This is a step in the right direction,” veteran reliever Todd Worrell said. “The fans don’t need to be kept in the dark and wonder whether the game will go on. There’s got to be some sense of the two sides working together.”

It’s this type of goodwill that baseball needs, Worrell said, and not the gimmicks many clubs are using to combat the backlash from the players’ strike.

“I think we all want the fans back,” Worrell said, “but there has to be a time for healing, and for fans to vent his or her frustration.

“Some of the things going on now . . . I mean, the Giants had [Barry] Bonds and [Matt] Williams in the stands before one game signing autographs. When’s the last time you saw that?

“Let’s don’t be phony. The fans aren’t dumb. Don’t insult their intelligence. Fans will know if we’re doing this just because baseball is in a bad state.

“Let it take time, don’t force it down their throats.”

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Dodger infielder Garey Ingram, who played third base on opening day for the first time since Little League, now is storing a catcher’s mitt and shin guards in his locker.

“Hey,” Ingram said, “you never know when you might need this stuff.”

Although Ingram has not caught a game since junior college, Manager Tom Lasorda said that he would have been the Dodgers’ catcher if they had tied the game in the ninth inning of Thursday’s game against Pittsburgh.

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Third baseman Tim Wallach, who has been sidelined because of a herniated disk in his back, will be activated today. The Dodgers will make room for him by optioning Eddie Pye to triple-A Albuquerque. . . . Second baseman Delino DeShields had a magnetic resonance imaging test on his hip and lower back, but the result was negative. . . . Outfielder Chris Gwynn was kept out of Friday’s lineup because of tendinitis in his right knee. . . . Right fielder Henry Rodriguez, who hit a ball off his right shin Wednesday night, ran on a treadmill for 30 minutes and expects to return to the lineup today.