Research Is Orel’s Fixation

Orel Hershiser is having a good year. He’s become a commentator on ESPN, has a new inspirational book out titled “Between the Lines” and last week was honored by the Los Angeles Dodgers, the team with which he spent the majority of his 17-season baseball career.

But it’s hard to imagine he will ever have a better year, professionally, than 1988, when his phenomenal pitching went a long way toward clinching the World Series for the Dodgers. That year, he also won the Cy Young Award, was named the World Series’ most valuable player and set the single-season record for the most consecutive scoreless innings.

Hershiser, 43, lives in Windermere, Fla., near Orlando, with his wife and two sons.

COMPUTER: At home and on the road, I use the same computer, a Dell Inspiron 2100 laptop. I have it in front of me right now to do research on the game I will be announcing tonight. I go to a lot of sites to get background--ESPN.com, Latimes.com, Nytimes.com and DenverPost.com, which has a surprisingly good baseball site. I check on who the starting pitcher will be, what they have done lately, anything that I can find to make an interview better.

For example, if a guy has gotten hot and told a reporter he had gotten a tip from a batting coach that helped him, I can ask him about that. Because I’m a former player, he might tell me more.

Q. When you were playing, did you do that kind of research on opponents?

I always read about the opposing team. If a guy is in a slump or talks about a change in how he is playing, you could use that against them. But you couldn’t check such a wide range of newspapers and other sports news sources as you can today on the computer.

Q. Would you be more cautious today in what you said to reporters?

I was always pretty cautious, and I think a lot of the other guys were too. You had to read between the lines. But I would be even more so now.

You want to be entertaining for the fans and talk about what’s going on, but you have to think about the information you don’t want to get out.

Q. Do you do a lot of e-mailing?

I do. I’ve been on AOL for about six years, but don’t try to figure out my e-mail address. It has nothing to do with my name.

I stay in touch with my two boys--they are 17 and 13, and pretty computer savvy. Until last year, my wife didn’t want to touch a computer, but now she uses it for all kinds of research. She looks at travel possibilities, and she loves to cook, so she looks at those sites. She checks the weather when I’m getting ready to travel so we can figure out what to pack. It’s just a normal part of our lives now.

I get investment releases I signed up for. A few years ago, I realized you could get addicted to that part of the Internet--checking stocks three times a day is a little overbearing. Of course, it was more exciting back then. Now, three times a month is plenty.

Q. Do you take the computer with you to the broadcast booth and use it during games?

I tried that, but this is my first year as an announcer, and there has been enough for me to adjust to. I’ve walked around and seen a half-dozen announcers who have their computer right there--they pull up notes on players, go out on the Web to get information, keep score with software that builds a database.

I think maybe that’s the next step for me, after I get more used to this adjustment from player to announcer.

Q. Do you play any computer games?

No, except an occasional game of FreeCell. I’m not a very good typist, so I still work on Mavis Beacon once in a while.

Q. Has getting your computer through security at airports become more difficult since the increased security began?

I just took my first flight since the attacks. It was a nonstop from Orlando to Los Angeles that is normally packed. But there were maybe 25 people on it.

Before I took my computer bag, I removed a pair of scissors, nail clippers and any other sharp objects. All the bag had in it was my computer, the charger, my cell phone, some paper and pens. It all went through the X-ray machine.

Q. Did the security people ask you to turn on the computer or cell phone?

No, they didn’t.

HAND-HELD: I have a Palm built right into my cell phone, a Kyocera Smartphone. I can even get the Internet on it--if I’m stuck in an airport I can check the baseball scores or pull up the news to catch up. If I get an important e-mail that has to be answered right away, I can do that, but it’s not real convenient for writing. I use the little writing pad, just like on a regular Palm, to send something like “I’ll get back to you soon.”

I keep all my addresses and phone numbers on it and sync them up with the computer when they are updated. I don’t use it for my appointment schedule though. I like to have a hard copy with me--sometimes if my schedule is e-mailed to me I’ll fax it to myself at my hotel.

Q. Why do you need a hard copy?

I think it’s just an old comfort level. And I’m not a businessman trying to keep appointments in 10-minute intervals. My appointments tend to last a whole baseball game.

--As told to DAVID COLKER