Sheffield the Key to Chain of Events

The Dodgers are gambling on Gary Sheffield, betting the come line.

This is how it has been during a nine-year career in which the promise has often surpassed the production, the controversy often exceeded the contribution.

If it is that way in Los Angeles, the trade that sent Mike Piazza and Todd Zeile to the Florida Marlins will be a loser.

If it is that way in Los Angeles, it won’t matter what Bobby Bonilla provides as a left-handed hitter in the middle of the lineup or how many Gold Gloves Charles Johnson wins behind the plate.

Sheffield is the key.

He has to perform and behave.

He is in the first year of a six-year $61-million contract.

At 29, he has already been traded three times.

As a National League general manager said of Sheffield and Bonilla the other day:

“The Dodgers better be right. I don’t think they’ll be able to trade those guys again. They may have swallowed a bitter pill.”

For now, of course, the sweet hope is Sheffield brings the offensive punch to right field that previous budget restrictions prevented the Dodgers from adding to left and/or center field. It has been less than a week, but Dodger batting instructor Reggie Smith said he sensed that Sheffield looks on this opportunity as a chance to elevate his career, stamp it in a way that has eluded him.

“I’ve been really impressed with the way he’s conducted himself,” Smith said. “It’s not that he’s come out and said he’s the leader, but his teammates know he’s here to help them win, and that’s what a leader does.”

Said Bonilla, who shared with Sheffield the ecstasy of the Marlins’ World Series victory last year and the agony of that team’s disassembling:

“I don’t think Gary has to stamp his career. He’s had some great years. His career is already stamped. I do think he’s going to enjoy playing in a bigger market with a great organization. He’s not going to have to explain everything he does or who he is as long as he hits the damn baseball, and he does that very well.”

Sheffield has been on base via a hit or walk 15 times in five games with the Dodgers.

He is batting .301 overall with six home runs and 31 runs batted in.

“I don’t think I have anything to be ashamed of, so I don’t look at this as an opportunity to stamp my career,” Sheffield said, relaxing at his locker Thursday. “You can put up numbers and put up numbers, but it doesn’t mean anything if you don’t win. I look at this as an opportunity to play for a great organization with a great tradition. I have an opportunity to spend six years with a contender. I don’t have to worry about what the team is going to look like, who’s going to be traded, so that removes a lot of the insecurity. As long as I stay healthy, I expect to establish what I can do.”

The money is so big in the current era that it often tends to skew how a player’s production is perceived.

However, Sheffield came into the first year of this $61-million deal averaging 20 homers and 69 RBIs--modest in any era.

His reputation as a premier hitter was built largely on two seasons: His near triple-crown campaign with the San Diego Padres in 1992, when he hit a National League-high .330 with 33 homers and 100 RBIs, and his 1996 effort with the Marlins, when he hit .314 with 42 homers and 120 RBIs.

He has been on the disabled list five times in nine seasons, playing 95 games or fewer in four of those seasons.

“That doesn’t detract from what he is as a hitter and what he is capable of doing,” Smith said. “I’d much rather be tailoring a strategy that includes him instead of a strategy that tries to avoid him.

“He has one of the quickest bats and is one of the best right-handed hitters in either league, certainly one of the best fastball hitters. He’s a smart hitter and a very disciplined hitter. He walks 100 times a year [263 the last two] and can steal a base. Basically, he’s the whole package.”

The injuries, Sheffield said, have taken a mental and physical toll. He has lost a measure of quickness and power, he said, but was quick enough and strong enough two years ago to establish career highs for homers and RBIs. Last year, surrounded by a championship-caliber lineup, he hit only 21 homers and drove in 71 and sat out two weeks because of a thumb injury.

And this year, while posting respectable numbers for a depleted team, there was a perception that he was going through the motions, acknowledging in Florida that it was hard to get motivated and that he would waive his no-trade clause if traded to Atlanta or Tampa Bay.

He was admonished by Marlin General Manager Dave Dombrowski, whom he once called a liar, and told to work hard or go home, to which Sheffield said he would go home and rot if the Marlins mailed him his check.

There has been this uneasy bite to Sheffield’s career since he made his debut with the Milwaukee Brewers and claimed, after being traded to San Diego, that he had intentionally made errors in his desire to get out of Milwaukee.

A reflective Sheffield conceded Thursday that he had said and done some things out of earlier immaturity.

He added, however, that he has also been victimized at times by “unfair journalism,” reporters who seldom try to get his side and are bent on rehashing those past incidents.

Said Bonilla: “Gary speaks his mind. Most of his run-ins with the media have been overblown. What you have to remember is the ownership in Florida got rid of almost an entire team. There was no opportunity to enjoy the World Series victory. As a player . . . no amount of money can compensate for what they did down there.”

To escape it, Sheffield demanded more from the Dodgers.

Initially, a $10-million bonus to waive his no-trade clause. That was rejected, and Sheffield ultimately agreed to $5 million to cover the fact he will now have to pay state income tax. Vice President Fred Claire, who participated in those discussions but not the final trade talk, said Thursday that he judges a player only on what he does with the Dodgers, that it was that way with Darryl Strawberry, Eddie Murray and others, and it was and will be that way with Sheffield.

“I wouldn’t have spent six hours trying to convince Gary to play here if I didn’t think he would improve the team,” Claire said. “There’s been a lot of talk about chemistry, and it’s definitely going to be different and has to be when you bring in four new players, but the first thing I look at is the talent of the player. There isn’t any [of these four] whose talent comes into question.”

Chemistry, of course, is often a byproduct of the standings. Sheffield said he wouldn’t have come one-for-one for Piazza. It would have created unfair comparisons and made the adjustment more difficult.

In addition, he said, coming with Bonilla, Johnson and Jim Eisenreich enhances the Dodgers’ chances to win, and it was their urging that led him to consider leaving his Florida home.

Was he baffled as a Marlin that the Dodgers hadn’t won?

“We’d talk about that and wonder about it, but there’s an easy answer,” Sheffield said. “They played a laid-back, American League game. They waited for the three-run homer. Everything was done with the bat, not the legs. They didn’t steal a base, move runners over, try to create something. The Dodgers had the weapons, but you’ve got to execute, do the little things.

“Hopefully, the new guys can contribute to that. I mean, a lot of the critics may wait for something negative to happen, but you can never blame one guy for what happens to a team.

“I learned a lot last year about taking each at-bat and each game as if it was the last, but one guy can’t do it. Look at Barry Bonds. He’s one of the greatest players ever, but he doesn’t have a ring. It takes a team.”

Six days into six years, it’s an impressive-sounding start, at least.

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Sheffield at a Glance

BACKGROUND: 5-11, 205. Bats right, throws right. Named major league player of the year by The Sporting News in 1992.

YEAR BY YEAR*--*

Year, Team AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI Avg 1988, Mil. 80 12 19 1 0 4 12 .238 1989, Mil. 368 34 91 18 0 5 32 .247 1990, Mil. 487 67 143 30 1 10 67 .294 1991, Mil. 175 25 34 12 2 2 22 .194 1992, SD 557 87 184 34 3 33 100 .330 1993, SD-Fla. 494 67 145 20 5 20 73 .294 1994, Fla. 322 61 89 16 1 27 78 .276 1995, Fla. 213 46 69 8 0 16 46 .324 1996, Fla. 519 118 163 33 1 42 120 .314 1997, Fla. 444 86 111 22 1 21 71 .250 1998, Fla-LA 153 25 46 11 1 6 31 .301 Totals 3,812 628 1,094 205 15 186 652 .287

*--*