Hundley Remains Positive

After his first week in Camp Dempsey, Dodger catcher Todd Hundley is one happy camper.

He didn’t figure to be.

After all, Camp Dempsey, a one-man operation run by coach Rick Dempsey, himself a former major-league catcher, was launched as a substitute for Hundley’s spot in the starting lineup. The idea is to get Hundley in shape and teach him how to catch all over again.

Most guys who’d been catching in the major leagues for a decade might be insulted at the suggestion that they needed to start back at square one in the middle of their first season with a new club.

But most guys don’t find themselves in Hundley’s situation, battling to recover from reconstructive elbow surgery on his throwing arm, struggling in the spotlight after coming over from the New York Mets in a high-profile off-season trade, batting .230 and throwing out only 12% (seven of 60) of the runners attempting to steal on him.

“You’ve got to deal with reality,” Hundley said. “Reality is results. And the results haven’t been there.

“I’m not so much of an egomaniac that I was going to keep going out there making the same mistakes. I had to step back.”

So instead of taking batting and fielding practice and then starting his day with the first pitch at a little after 7 p.m. in night games, Hundley’s day has been starting at 3 p.m.

He’s out there with Dempsey, throwing out phantom runners in front of empty seats at Dodger Stadium and running to build up his legs.

Once the game starts, Hundley stays in the shadows rather than the spotlight, catching for relief pitchers warming up in the bullpen.

“He has to return to catching like a catcher,” Dempsey said. “He’s gotten used to throwing like an outfielder [where Hundley mostly played last season while recovering from the surgery] with the long throwing motion and the long stride.

“And I think he was protecting his arm also, throwing real deliberate, not like a catcher should. He has to get back to making short, quick throws.”

Hundley’s recovery was further slowed and made more complicated by the fact that his arm wasn’t at full strength in spring training, costing him the crucial time he needed to get ready.

“Part of it is mechanics,” Hundley said, “part of it is favoring the arm and part of it is not trusting it. It’s everything mixed in and it all boils down to one thing. I need this. It’s the spring training I didn’t have.”

Dodger Manager Davey Johnson said he hopes Hundley can show the results of his crash course by next weekend when the Dodgers hit the road and go to San Francisco.

Until then, Camp Dempsey will remain in session.

TODAY

DODGERS’

DARREN DREIFORT

(5-5, 6.42 ERA)

vs.

PHILLIES’

ROBERT PERSON

(0-0, 8.62)

Dodger Stadium, 1 p.m.

TV--Ch. 11 Radio--KXTA (1150), KWKW (1330)

* Update--It is of small consolation to Dreifort that he is only in the starting rotation because, as poorly as he has pitched, teammate Carlos Perez has been worse. Manager Davey Johnson originally announced he was sending Dreifort, who has walked 46 in 67 1/3 innings, to the bullpen, then changed his mind after Perez was again bombed in his last outing, his earned-run average soaring to 7.38. But Dreifort knows that, Perez or no Perez, his status as a starter remains as shaky as his control.