Fans Don’t Worry Sheffield

Southern Nevada fans gave Gary Sheffield a taste of things to come Thursday night at Cashman Field.

Sheffield, who demanded to be traded and ripped the organization in the early days of spring training before rescinding his request, was booed lustily by the sellout crowd of 11,788 in every plate appearance during the Dodgers’ 5-4 exhibition win over the Arizona Diamondbacks.

It figures to get louder at Dodger Stadium beginning tonight when the Dodgers start a two-game exhibition series against the Colorado Rockies.

Sheffield doesn’t care.

“It really don’t matter to me,” he said. “I’m not thinking about it. It don’t matter.”

Said Dodger Manager Jim Tracy, “We’re ready to deal with it. Let’s leave it at that. He has the support of his teammates and coaching staff, but we understand [that there will be booing] and we are ready for that.”

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If Don Logan, president and general manager of the triple-A Las Vegas 51s, had his druthers, the Dodgers would be in town for more than one night. They would have ditched Vero Beach, Fla., for Las Vegas and headlined a proposed six-team spring training complex that was discussed at length last spring.

But getting the Dodgers for one exhibition is a nice consolation prize.

“The Dodgers are the favorite major league team in Las Vegas,” Logan said. “They’ve carried their games here [on radio] since they came from Brooklyn.”

After many years with the Albuquerque Dukes, the Dodgers moved their triple-A affiliate to Las Vegas in the off-season.

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Kevin Elster, the Dodgers’ opening day shortstop last season who lives in the Las Vegas suburb of Henderson, was hanging out in the clubhouse and catching up with former teammates during and after their game.

Elster said he turned down the Boston Red Sox’s overtures Tuesday to join them in Fort Myers, Fla., with Nomar Garciaparra sidelined to start the season.

“It’s probably the stupidest decision I’ll ever make,” Elster said. “I just didn’t want to waste their time right now. I’m not sure if I was mentally ready with this other direction I’m going.”

Elster plans to open a “high-class clientele” bar near the airport here named “Peace.”

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Chan Ho Park, in his final spring outing before taking the mound as the opening day pitcher Monday, said he wanted to throw longer than the four innings he worked in the Dodger win.

Park gave up two runs, one earned, on three hits while striking out four and walking one.

“They hit my forkball to get a hit on an 0-and-2 count and we had three straight chances to make a double play,” Park said. “I did my job.”

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Shawn Green hit his second home run of the spring and Chris Donnels hit his team-leading fifth. . . . Angel Pena’s one-out, line-drive base hit over a drawn-in infield in the ninth inning brought home Phil Hiatt to give the Dodgers the win.