GETTING TO KNOW SOUTHLAND’S NEWEST...MAJOR PLAYERS

At an introductory news conference in Anaheim on Wednesday, new Angel first baseman Mo Vaughn said he was tired of controversy, reluctant to burn bridges and would not leave the Boston Red Sox amid a barrage of inflammatory statements.

On the phone from Long Island on Wednesday, new Dodger catcher Todd Hundley expressed similar thoughts about the New York Mets, but he did voice dismay and disappointment that his reputation continues to be damaged by anonymous insinuations from a Met official last season that he has a drinking problem and by a comment from Bobby Valentine in August 1997 when the Met manager wondered insidiously if his catcher was getting “enough sleep.”

“It’s ridiculous what I’ve had to go through because of all that,” Hundley said Wednesday. “I don’t have a drinking problem, I’ve never received a DUI, and no bar ever called the Mets to say I was keeping late hours.

“The bottom line on this should be that I met [last May] with Dr. [Allan] Lans [director of the Mets’ employee assistance program] and gave him permission to release a statement through my attorney in which he said I do not have a problem and the rumors are baseless.

“I want the fans in Los Angeles to know my concentration is on the field and that I’m not out and about, running around. My elbow is 100% and so is my head. I’m looking forward to a fresh start.”

With 71 homers in 1996 and ‘97, the switch-hitting Hundley represents the left-handed power the Dodgers have lacked.

He has weathered a difficult two years during which his recovery from reconstructive elbow surgery has been only part of the burden.

His mother has been battling liver cancer, his wife endured a difficult pregnancy and his father (former big league catcher Randy Hundley) had hip replacement surgery.

All of that in addition to Valentine’s questioning his sleeping habits and an anonymous Met official telling reporters that the club felt he had a drinking problem.

That story broke two days after the Mets had traded for Mike Piazza, a trade made three days after General Manager Steve Phillips, responding to the rumors of a deal, assured Hundley that the Mets believed he would recover from the elbow surgery and that they were not trading for Piazza.

“I don’t think it’s any coincidence that once Mike Piazza got there, I suddenly had a drinking problem,” Hundley said Wednesday. “They created this scenario in which the reason for getting him and keeping him was that he is a better person and player than I am.

“I know where it was coming from and the fans knew where it was coming from, but to prove to the Mets, the fans and Bobby Valentine, I met with Dr. Lans and he agreed to go on the record, that I didn’t have a problem. Here I am trying to come back from elbow surgery and all of this is going on. It was infuriating. I had to defend my reputation.”

The Dodgers cleared Hundley’s physical status through conversations with doctors and an MRI exam.

General Manager Kevin Malone revealed Wednesday that he also talked with coaches, players and managers familiar with the intense Hundley and came away convinced that his alleged drinking problem was a non-issue.

“For whatever reason, he and Bobby Valentine didn’t get along, but you can ask Valentine and I’m sure he would admit that Todd Hundley shows up to play. He may have a drink or two after a game, but it’s not a problem or issue. We’re not concerned. If it is an issue, we ought to look at guys on our own team and every team in baseball should look at their own players. We may have one or two who are out far more than Todd. I mean, it’s hard to hide in New York. People see him, know him. Situations get embellished, but the people pointing fingers at him should look at themselves. It’s malicious, maybe even libelous. It’s definitely unfair.”

Said Hundley: “I don’t think it’s any secret that Valentine and my relationship wasn’t good. I’m an honest, straightforward person who doesn’t make excuses. Some people can handle that, some can’t, but I think I left New York on good terms and good relations. A new group took over and the last two years have been rough, but I grew up in that organization and every penny I’ve made in baseball came from the Mets. I can’t say anything bad. I had a great time in a tough city.”

Like Vaughn in Boston, Hundley gave a lot back. He raised money for the autistic children’s society and research into liver cancer. He sponsored 150 underprivileged children at every Saturday game at Shea Stadium. He also played through a barrage of injuries, yet absorbed a series of hits from his manager.

Valentine, among other things, questioned his defense and enforced a clubhouse smoking ban that seemed aimed at Hundley, who admittedly was having a tough time coping with his mother’s illness and his wife’s pregnancy problems in August ’97 when Valentine seized on a difficult and inopportune time to question how much he was sleeping, creating a perception that Hundley was chasing neons when, in fact, according to Hundley, he was home, wrestling with his family problems.

Hundley said Wednesday that he questioned Valentine and learned he was being made a scapegoat for the club’s struggle and negative headlines in the wake of a recent trade that had sent Mark Clark, Lance Johnson and Manny Alexander to the Chicago Cubs for Mel Rojas, Brian McRae and Turk Wendell.

“Bobby’s explanation was that he was using me to take the heat away from the trade,” Hundley said. “I told him that if he had given me some warning I might have played along, but this came out of left field and I had to defend myself and my family. My reputation was at stake. I wasn’t going to let anything come between me and the fans.”

The tabloids exploded with the ensuing exchanges, followed by an uneasy peace and the September surgery that sidelined him for most of the 1998 season. The elbow, he insists, is 100%. So is the power stroke.

At 29, he said, he is looking forward to joining a team that has playoff capability and spending the summer in “God’s country.”

It is ironic, in some ways, that he lost his job to Piazza in New York and now follows Charles Johnson as a potential successor to Piazza in Los Angeles.

“We’re two different catchers with two different styles,” Hundley said. “I’m not coming to fill Mike Piazza’s shoes because I feel I can stand in my own and have the numbers to back it up.

“I also expect to be as good as I was, if not better. I don’t believe I have anything to prove except to myself and my teammates, but I have never been so motivated.

“When something you love most, as I love baseball, is ripped out from under you, you learn to appreciate it that much more.”

In the aftermath of last May’s drinking accusations, Hundley and his attorney, Seth Levinson, negotiated a limited no-trade clause out of fear, the agent said Wednesday, that “Valentine might have shipped him to Siberia.”

The Dodgers were not among the clubs Hundley approved, but given the quality of their personnel, he said, and the hiring of Davey Johnson, for whom he played briefly in 1990, he did not have to be convinced to accept Tuesday’s trade.

“It’s a fact,” Hundley said, and he seemed to be laughing over the phone line, “Davey Johnson wins everywhere he goes and Bobby Valentine hasn’t won yet. The way I look at it, I’d love to finish my career in L.A.”