Statistics Aren’t the Only Place Where Sheffield Leads

As Orel Hershiser returned to the Dodger Stadium mound in a home-team uniform Friday, organist Nancy Bea Hefley dipped into her late 1980s songbook to play “Master of the House,” his theme during that dominant first tenure with the Dodgers.

It is no disrespect to Hershiser, who employed characteristic cunning and tenacity in controlling the Cincinnati Reds for six innings of an 8-1 victory in the 2000 opener at the refurbished stadium, but there may be a new Master of the Dodger House, at least in the context of an offensive force and leader.

“Well,” said General Manager Kevin Malone when asked about Gary Sheffield, “if he’s not the leader, he’s one of the leaders.

“I mean, you look at the way he’s gone about his business, his professionalism, his involvement in the community. . . . I think people recognize that he’s definitely stepped it up a notch.”

The left fielder stepped up again Friday. He homered for a 1-0 lead in the first inning, singled to make it 2-1 in the third, singled again in the sixth and was shown the ultimate respect in the seventh when he was walked intentionally only to have Shawn Green spoil the resultant matchup by lacing a bases-loaded double off left-hander Dennys Reyes, breaking it open.

The Dodgers are 7-3, and Sheffield has hit in all 10 games, batting .429. He also has a 16-game hitting streak dating to last year in which he has batted .414.

“If he stays like this all year I’ll be very happy,” Malone said. “He’s fun to watch. Every at-bat is a productive at-bat. I said to him in New York that he seemed locked in and he said, ‘You ain’t seen nothing yet.’ ”

Sheffield gave Manager Davey Johnson a similar message at his wedding in February. As Johnson recalled it, Sheffield told him, “Skip, I’m going to have a monster year for you. I don’t need a whole lot in spring training. I’m ready.”

Johnson smiled and added: “He’s certainly proving his point.” No one, of course, has disputed the talent, but there have been times when Sheffield and leadership seemed to be an oxymoron.

Now, however, he is 31, intent on a monster season and a return to the World Series, focused on his job and letting his performance do most of his talking, planning to sell his Tampa, Fla., home and make his permanent residence in Los Angeles, and at a point in his career where he seems comfortable with his environment and himself.

In the lexicon of the sport, he has become a gamer. He rejected the opinion of the Dodger medical staff that he needed postseason surgery on his left shoulder to undergo an intense therapy regimen during the winter and he has not missed a game since suffering a sprained ankle in New York on April 8--the initial fear being that he might miss several weeks.

“He hasn’t wanted to come out,” Johnson said. “I offered him the chance last night in San Francisco and he said he wanted to stay in.”

At his locker Friday, Sheffield said: “It’s like I said in the spring. I feel like the Dodgers haven’t seen the best of me. I feel like I’ve got to go out and do the best I can do. The more I stay on the field, the more they’ll see. I feel there’s nothing I can’t accomplish on the field.”

Sheffield hit .301 with 34 homers and 101 runs batted in last year. He became the first player in L.A. history and only the second Dodger--Duke Snider was the first in 1955--to hit at least .300 with 30 home runs, 100 runs batted in, 100 walks and 100 runs.

All of that may have seemed obscured by the turmoil that enveloped the team, but as Johnson said Friday: “So many things didn’t work out last year, but Sheff held up his end.”

Now, in the first month of the new season, Sheffield talks about the Dodgers’ quiet confidence, about how they have learned from their mistakes of last year, how they now care for one another rather than only caring about themselves and how he is a “reflection of all that and a reflection of his team.”

His team?

“I can’t say it’s my team,” he said. “It’s a group effort, but I do feel I have a role as a leader and that guys accept and respond to me. I’m not a vocal leader, but when you’re doing well guys will come to you. I’ve won a World Series and been through a lot. There are things I can help guys with and things they can help me with.

“The important thing is developing a winning concept, but it’s too early to do a lot of talking. We made that mistake last year. We don’t need to do a lot of talking about how good or bad we are.”

Right now, of course, the Dodgers look pretty good, or as Sheffield put it: “We feel we can win the one-run game or that we can explode and put a team away. All we ask is for the pitchers to give us a chance to score, and they have. We have some bulldogs in the bullpen. The offense can relax when it knows the pitchers will always keep it in the game.”

And with a left-handed run producer behind him in Green, who is batting .333 with seven RBIs in the 10 games, Sheffield said he can be more aggressive. The Reds picked their poison with the game on the line Friday, and Green made it tough to swallow. Of course, they were merely showing respect to the Master of the House.