Chemistry Never Their Best Subject

How’s this?

A Dodger clubhouse long considered to be devoid of chemistry now has a potential for combustion.

Tell me: What’s worse? Docility or demolition?

The acquisition of Gary Sheffield and Bobby Bonilla as part of a package that includes Charles Johnson, Jim Eisenreich and rookie right-hander Manuel Barrios should carry a warning:

“Flammable--Handle With Care.”

It’s this simple: Those who do not learn from history are destined to be burned by it.

History, in this case, shows that Sheffield and Bonilla are high-risk run producers who tend to march to the beat of their own egos and arrogance--often at the expense of their team, of which Bonilla has already been with four and Sheffield three.

Are the Dodgers pulling the trigger on a blockbuster trade by sending Mike Piazza and Todd Zeile to the Florida Marlins, those offending World Series champions, or running the risk of lighting a fuse?

Are the Marlins really including a player to be named--or a flame retardant?

Think Blue--or Think Blast?

Time will tell, of course, but as Baltimore Oriole General Manager Pat Gillick said when informed of the trade: “Fox certainly wasted no time changing the O’Malley image.”

Make no mistake: Dodger Vice President Fred Claire first discussed a form of the trade with Marlin General Manager Dave Dombrowski a few weeks ago, but Chase Carey, chairman and chief executive of Fox Television, negotiated the final composition after calling Marlin President and prospective owner Don Smiley to discuss Fox’s acquisition of SportsChannel Florida.

The Dodgers needed a shakeup and got an overhaul--with long-term impact.

Whether Claire remains part of an organization that excluded him from final negotiations on the players involved in the biggest trade in Dodger history is doubtful.

Whether Carey and President Bob Graziano weighed the proposed personalities and their impact on the clubhouse--as well as the ramifications of changing half the lineup seven weeks into the season--is uncertain.

Only Eric Karros and Raul Mondesi among the regular starters will have been with the team more than two years.

“That’s something you always worry about when you bring in that many new faces during the season,” San Diego Padre General Manager Kevin Towers said. “How do they jell, how do they fit in from a chemistry standpoint? Of course, from everything I’ve heard and read, chemistry has not been a real big plus there anyway.”

Whatever the definition of chemistry, it has been complicated in the Dodgers’ case by the diversity and the perceived lack of leadership among the players. Will Sheffield and Bonilla put a stranglehold on a struggling team or will they be more apt to be strangled?

There is nothing in Sheffield’s history to suggest he will be a leader.

He is a $10-million-a-year player who has had only two major seasons--he hit 33 home runs and drove in 100 runs with San Diego in 1992 and hit 42 homers and drove in 120 with the Marlins in 1996--and has otherwise averaged 18 homers and 62 RBIs. Last year, surrounded by a championship-caliber lineup of the type he often has lamented being without, he hit 21 homers and drove in 71 runs.

He is a $10-million-a-year player with a six-year contract who recently compared the Marlins to the Bad News Bears and only agreed to waive his no-trade clause and come to a more promising environment with the Dodgers if compensated, which illustrates what his priority is.

He is a $10-million-a-year player who once claimed he made errors intentionally to force his first team, the Milwaukee Brewers, to trade him. He showed similar disinterest with the Marlins this year, particularly in preparation and defense, where he tended to move at the pace of the Fred Sanford TV character to which he has compared his demeanor, often letting catchable fly balls fall, according to Marlin sources.

Sheffield’s consistent laments regarding his situation--at the expense of teammates and the organization--recently prompted an admonishment from Dombrowski, who said, “You work as hard as you can or you quit and go home.” Responded Sheffield: “I’ll quit and go home if they just send the checks to my house. I’ll just sit there and rot.”

A $10-million-a-year leader?

Only if Graziano, Claire and club counsel Sam Fernandez succeeded where others have failed, convincing Sheffield it comes with the territory when they met privately Friday.

Colleague Bonilla received the Good Guy Award from Marlin media last year, which may have shocked New York reporters. Once, while with the Mets, he got on the dugout phone to call the press box and complain about a scorer’s decision during a game his team was losing, prompting him to be pictured on the back cover of a tabloid in diapers under the heading “Baby Bo.”

He also reacted to a critical section in a book on the ’92 Mets by staging a loud clubhouse confrontation with co-author Bob Klapisch, delivering the menacing comment, “I’ll show you the Bronx”--a reference to the tough area in which Bonilla was raised.

In Baltimore, Bonilla constantly complained about his designated hitter role, and when asked Friday if he would ever want Bonilla on his team again, Gillick responded negatively. “Bobby Bonilla has a certain style. He wants to do his thing,” Gillick said. “If that style doesn’t fit with the team . . . well, I just don’t think he fits in a structured situation. His style was disruptive with us.”

Bonilla did hit 28 homers and drive in 116 runs for the Orioles in ’96 and hit 17 homers with 96 RBIs for the Marlins last year.

If the same liability at third that Sheffield is in the outfield, he represents the same production potential and, as a switch hitter, gives the Dodgers a left-handed presence they have needed.

Added to Eisenreich’s left-handed versatility and Johnson’s skills as one of baseball’s two best defensive catchers (Ivan Rodriguez of Texas being the other), the Dodgers might emerge as a better overall team--unless they implode first.