Steal of a Zeile

Dodger third baseman Todd Zeile’s career would be different, perhaps dramatically so, if he acted like a baseball player.

Or, if he looked like one.

Maybe if he had a beer gut, stubble on his face. Big ears, crooked fingers. . . .

But Zeile looks as if he should be posing for GQ. There is not a visible scratch or scar on his body. There’s never a hair out of place. His teeth are pearly white.

Even his clothes are pressed and hung in his locker, wrist bands neatly stacked.

“We never quite understood it ourselves,” said his father, Todd Sr. “He and his brother always had two separate rooms. One looked like the remnants of Pompeii. The other looked like a hospital.”

Even his personality doesn’t fit the baseball prototype. He doesn’t swear, chew tobacco, spit. Doesn’t even scratch.

He sits and chats with reporters, signs autographs, and each year buys 10 season tickets for children’s charities.

The strange consequence of all this is that Zeile is ostracized.

That’s why, as much as anything, Zeile is with his fifth team in the last 21 months.

“Certainly, I think that’s a large reason why I’m not in Philadelphia anymore,” Zeile said. “[Phillie President] Bill Giles likes fiery-type guys. He likes guys like they had on that ’93 team. He wants them living hard, playing hard and drinking hard. I don’t do that.

“The only thing that bothers me about that is that I shouldn’t have to apologize for my demeanor. Why should I have to put on any act or change my personality?”

But Zeile’s temperament has not wavered, and ever since 1986, when he was drafted out of UCLA by the St. Louis Cardinals, baseball has been trying to change him.

“He’s a good kid, he really is,” said Whitey Herzog, Zeile’s first major league manager with the Cardinals. “But he’s so damn laid back. We used to try to get him more fiery. We wanted him to throw helmets, cuss after he struck out, pump his fist, damn near anything to show emotion.

“But I’ll tell you what, he wouldn’t change. . . . You aren’t going to change Todd Zeile. But he’s going to help that Dodger team. Put him down for 20 to 25 home runs and 80 to 85 RBIs right now.

“I always thought the Dodgers had half a lineup. They’d have four good guys and four guys not so good. . . . Now, with him and [Mike] Piazza and [Eric] Karros, they got themselves one hell of a team.”

Zeile, 31, is expected to finally stop the Dodgers’ revolving door at third base. They have had 24 third basemen since the end of the 1986 season. The only time in the last 10 years that a Dodger third baseman hit more than 12 homers with at least 62 RBIs was 1994, with Tim Wallach.

Now, the Dodgers have a player who not only has been on the disabled list only once in his career but has more RBIs, 329, the last four years than any active National League third baseman other than Ken Caminiti of the San Diego Padres.

Even so, when the Baltimore Orioles decided to move Cal Ripken Jr. to third base and let Zeile depart as a free agent, his image nearly haunted him again.

The Dodgers had set their sights on free agent Dave Hollins, figuring he not only would come at nearly half the price of Zeile but that his fiery, wild approach to the game would be just what the team needed.

But Hollins chose to stay in the American League, and you can find him this summer in Anaheim.

Zeile, although very much in demand, was the logical next choice. And, he was in love with the Dodgers.

“The Dodgers contacted me first, and I told Fred [Claire, executive vice president], ‘I’m probably giving up my trump card, but you know, and I know, I want to play for L.A.’

“I just don’t believe it’s ethically correct to bid one team against another.”

Zeile might have cost himself a couple of million dollars, signing a three-year, $9.5-million contract, but he said it didn’t matter. A Newhall resident, he wanted to be home.

“I think it’s a dream for all of us,” said Todd Sr., who attended the first game at Dodger Stadium and recalls listening to Vin Scully announce Sandy Koufax’s perfect game the day Todd Jr. was born, Sept. 9, 1965.

The Dodgers, with their corporate-conscious image, figure to be the ideal team for Zeile. Displaying excessive emotion never has been a Dodger trait.

“Listen, there’s a lot of times when people think a guy is giving extra effort when all it is is false hustle,” Zeile said. “It’s just a show.

“I don’t like the rah-rah approach. I lead by example. I’ll say something when the time is right, but I’m not a guy who puts on a show for the adulation of fans.

“I have a temper, I really do. It just takes a long time for me to reach my boiling point.”

The way the Cardinals treated him in 1995, reneging on a contract, had him doing a slow burn and he eventually took a $500,000 pay cut to escape the team.

Zeile and the Cardinals had agreed on a three-year, $12-million contract just before the ’95 season. He said the Cardinals asked him to become a figure in the community, so he went out and put a down payment on a house.

Since he was opening the strike-delayed season on the disabled list because of a sore right thumb, the Cardinals decided to postpone the contract announcement. Zeile returned to the lineup, but there still was no announcement.

Then, finally, he was told that the Anheuser-Busch ownership group had changed its mind. There was no contract, but would he take a one-year deal? Zeile refused and the Cardinals telephoned at midnight, June 15, saying they wanted to trade him to the Chicago Cubs. The conditions were that Zeile had to accept a contract for $3.7 million--$500,000 less than he was seeking.

“It was worth a half-million to get out of there,” Zeile said.

“The breach of contract didn’t make me more bitter toward the game, by any means, but unfortunately it was a glaring lesson that baseball is a business. It’s a cutthroat, ruthless business.

“In some sense, the game loses some of its mystique.”

Zeile spent the rest of that season with the Cubs but was not offered a contract in the off-season. If the Dodgers had known Zeile would not be staying with the Cubs, Claire said, they would have gone after him. But by then, they already had signed Mike Blowers.

So Zeile signed a one-year deal with the Phillies, joining his best friend, Gregg Jefferies. Zeile figured he might be staying awhile when Giles announced that if he had a productive season he would be signed to a multiyear contract. Zeile was batting .268 and leading the team with 20 homers and 80 RBIs through August when he was put on the trading block.

The Dodgers tried to trade for Zeile but were shunned by the Phillies, who sent him to the Orioles.

Zeile, experiencing the thrill of a title race for the first time, flourished in Baltimore. He hit five homers and drove in 19 runs in September, and batted .364 with three homers and five RBIs in the American League championship series against the New York Yankees.

“I think that proved to people that he can play under pressure,” said Lee Thomas, general manager of the Phillies. “He’s going to help the Dodgers. He’s very average defensively, but offensively, he can really play.”

Zeile also gained respect after his critical throwing error in Game 4 against the Yankees had led to a 5-2 defeat. Zeile surprised reporters by waiting in the clubhouse and answering questions for nearly an hour.

“I was surprised the media was surprised,” Zeile said. “I’ve never hid. If you’re in the locker room when you hit the game-winning home run, why shouldn’t you be in there when you make an error that loses the game?”

That is how Zeile operates.

“People may knock my demeanor but no one wants to win, or tries more to win, more than me,” he said.

“It’s not necessary to put on an act. I don’t have to be like Rex Hudler and jump and scream and twist at every turn. I just have to be me.

“And believe me, I’m not going to apologize for being myself.”