Hershiser, Dodger ‘Bulldog’ and Last Player Link to ’88 Glory, Is Released

A bulldog to the teeth-gnashing, chain-dragging end, Orel Hershiser would not give up the ball Tuesday, so the Dodgers took it from him.

A more unseemly conclusion can hardly be imagined.

It was Sandy Koufax allowing a squib single to Harvey Kuenn. It was Rick Monday fumbling the flag. It was Kirk Gibson missing home plate.

It was sad; for the Dodgers, for the fans, for the town that a decade ago embraced the thin bespectacled pitcher the way we now embrace giant Shaquille O’Neal.

Hershiser was all armor then. Hitters bounced harmlessly away. Bad times clanked at his feet.

A career-ending shoulder injury only lengthened his career. A snub by the previous Dodger administration lengthened that career even more.

Orel Hershiser displayed more heart with one walk off the mound than some pitchers displayed in a career standing atop it.

So it was with great reluctance, not to mention serious wrenching, that the Dodgers removed the tattered remains of that armor Tuesday.

He wasn’t traded, he was released. He didn’t quit, he was fired.

For perhaps the first time since he first pitched here in 1983, Hershiser will wake up today looking like the rest of us.

A little confused. A little uncertain. A lot human.

All that is left is for him to admit it.

How splendid it would be for the team and the town if, one more time, Bulldog did the hard thing.

How fitting it would be if he retired a Dodger.

Maybe, later this week, he will.

Other than issuing a nonrevealing statement, Hershiser refused to talk to the media Tuesday after the Dodgers cut him. This was not only uncharacteristic, but telling.

Hershiser never speaks without thinking first. Perhaps, because he is considering a life-changing decision, he needs more time to think.

Perhaps he will come out later this week and announce that he is retiring to take a position as a consultant with the Dodgers.

Chairman Bob Daly said the team could offer him nothing concrete at the moment--”Every major position is filled right now,” he said.

But the Dodger boss also said, “I have told Orel, he is always welcome to be part of the Dodgers.”

In other words, Daly doesn’t want anybody looking over their shoulder for the final three months of what is threatening to become another miserable season.

So he hires Hershiser as a personal assistant.

And then, the moment the World Series ends, he brings him into the fold in some full-time, decision-making capacity.

Hershiser is already guaranteed the remainder of his contract--around $1.5 million--because he was released first.

At age 41, he has won enough awards and made enough money for three lifetimes.

To agree to use only his wits and baseball savvy in an attempt to yank this team out of its doldrums, now that would be pure Bulldog.

The catch, of course, is that Hershiser can’t be pitching somewhere at the time.

Easier for us to say than for Bulldog to do.

“He said, ‘I’m not ready to retire,’ ” Daly recalled of their Tuesday afternoon conversation, later adding. “I said, ‘I think you should retire.’ ”

The Dodgers in the dugout apparently agree.

“When he stops playing, he deserves to stop playing in a Dodger uniform,” Manager Davey Johnson said. “This is not the way I envisioned it.”

Hershiser’s thousands of friends in the stands also apparently agree.

Or did you think Dodger fans always give a standing ovation, as they did Monday night, to a pitcher who has given up eight earned runs before the end of the second inning?

These people are smarter than that. These people knew.

“You could see it in the reaction of the fans,” Daly said. “They realized they were probably seeing someone reaching the end of his career as a Los Angeles Dodger.”

The San Diego Padres, who pounded him, seem to agree.

Although they were too professional to acknowledge it, you could tell by their pained looks a day later that this was not the Hershiser they remembered.

“His ball was still moving, but he was having trouble throwing strikes,” said Bret Boone, who drove in five runs against Hershiser in one inning. “When somebody is pitching like that, it makes you more comfortable as a hitter. You can sit up there and be more selective.”

Basic stuff. Like he was talking about a rookie.

Is that how Orel Hershiser wants people talking about him?

If his 1-5 record and 13.14 ERA indeed indicate that his skills have crept away in the middle of the night, as so often happens with older players, then he has a choice.

Does he want to be remembered like Fernando Valenzuela, who bounced around with five major league teams and even back into Mexico before finally retiring?

What is Valenzuela doing right now? Anyone?

Or does Hershiser want to remain here to become another Manny Mota, another Roy Campanella, another in the long list of stars who have hung around to pass on the tradition?

If Hershiser retires now, he probably would remain here for life. If he goes to another team, while the Dodgers would certainly welcome him back, he might be gone forever.

Not that this is all about Hershiser. Certainly, the Dodgers could have handled it better.

One might ask, how can you release a legend when he hasn’t had more than three consecutive starts all season . . . while giving someone like Carlos Perez chance after chance after chance?

Especially after one of Hershiser’s starts was the emotional home-opening victory against the Cincinnati Reds.

A cynic might say, well, Perez would cost them around $10 million if they gave up on him now, while Hershiser costs them only around $1.5 million.

Johnson was asked about this.

“That’s what hurts more than anything,” Johnson said. “He had the great outing against Cincinnati, then came back against Houston all out of whack, then with the Carlos thing. . . . I don’t feel good about this at all.”

For their failure to give a veteran pitcher steady work, for their failure to have the sort of flexible roster where they could make adjustments, the Dodgers are at fault.

But then again, when Hershiser came here last winter, he agreed to both start and relieve. Those were the rules. The Dodgers, with a starting rotation already set, might not have signed him otherwise.

There were, of course, no winners here Tuesday.

But that doesn’t mean all is lost.

Orel Hershiser no longer has the ball, but he still has the mound, still has the chance to make one more jaw-dropping play.

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at his e-mail address: bill.plaschke@latimes.com.