Butler Looking to Future

Center fielder Brett Butler conceded Thursday that it will be impossible for him to return this season but added that he strongly is considering returning for one more season.

“I’m going to go into the winter with the mind-set that I will come back,” Butler said. “Then, sometime this winter, I’ll decide what I want to do. I know I don’t want to go out this way [with a broken left hand], but I realize I’ve got to go out on God’s terms, not my terms. . . .

“I was more ready to retire when I came back [after cancer surgery] with the thought process of winning than I am now. It would have been easy to tip my cap. But I don’t want to go out that way.”

Butler said he was physically and emotionally drained when he returned to his Duluth, Ga., home for a week and that he came to the painful realization that he won’t be able to return for the playoffs.

“The answer is, I can’t play,” he said.

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Manager Bill Russell realizes just how much Mike Piazza has meant to his team, but if he had a vote for the most-valuable-player award, he would cast it for San Diego third baseman Ken Caminiti.

“It’s not just the numbers,” Russell said. “You hear all of the stories of Caminiti. The IVs in his arm . . . wow! He’s got my vote.”

Caminiti is playing with a torn rotator cuff in his left shoulder but is batting .324 with a career-high 37 homers and 125 RBIs.

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Even though left-hander Fernando Valenzuela was starting for San Diego, Russell didn’t hesitate starting veteran second baseman Delino DeShields rather than Chad Fonville or Juan Castro.

DeShields is in the worst slump of his career--three for 46--and his batting average has dropped to .221.

“I couldn’t ask kids to play with this kind of atmosphere,” Russell said. “You need veterans in there. Everybody knows he’s struggling. He knows it. Maybe he’ll get started here.”

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Davey Lopes may be part of the famed Dodger infield along with Steve Garvey, Russell and Ron Cey, but he’s weary of all the questions posed to him about the Dodgers.

“Don’t take this the wrong way,” Lopes said, “but I don’t care what’s going on over there. They don’t pay my checks.”