Hershiser Out of the Office

At half past noon Wednesday, it was silent at The Ballpark in Arlington. With the sun baking the outfield grass, the humidity hanging heavily over the field and the first pitch of the Angel-Texas Ranger game still 6 1/2 hours away, there was little reason to venture out early.

But Texas pitching coach Orel Hershiser was already at work. There was paperwork to examine, scouting reports to analyze and strategy to formulate.

This isn’t what Hershiser signed on for when he joined the Rangers in November as assistant general manager under John Hart.

Hershiser pitched in the majors for 18 seasons, appearing in 510 games. He was with the Dodgers from 1983-94, won the Cy Young Award and the World Series MVP award with them in 1988 and also set a major league record that season with 59 consecutive scoreless innings. Hershiser also pitched for the Cleveland Indians, San Francisco Giants and New York Mets. After finishing up his career back with the Dodgers in 2000, he worked as an analyst with ESPN last season. Then came the offer from Hart, the general manager during his seasons in Cleveland.

“I wanted to learn the front office,” Hershiser said, “learn scouting, marketing, see how things are put together in an organization, learn the other side of the equation.”

All that, however, was put on hold last week when the Rangers fired pitching coach Oscar Acosta.

“There was a communication problem with the pitchers,” Hershiser said.

So how does Hershiser like being back in uniform?

“I’ve been at this job 72 hours, about one bite into the ice-cream bar,” Hershiser said. “But if it’s Rocky Road, I haven’t bitten into any tough nuts yet.”

Hershiser is hesitant to talk much about his new position or his long-term goals.

“This is [Manager] Jerry Narron’s team,” he said. “This is John Hart’s team. This is not about me. I want to be loyal to Jerry Narron and I want to help make him the best manager he can be.”

When he first retired, Hershiser volunteered to stay in the Dodger organization and was sent to the team’s Albuquerque farm team as an observer.

Hershiser said that, upon his return, he called Kevin Malone, then the Dodger general manager.

“He never returned my calls,” Hershiser said. “If someone doesn’t return your calls, there are no more assignments.”

TONIGHT

ANGELS’

JARROD

WASHBURN

(7-2, 3.59 ERA)

vs.

RANGERS’

ROB BELL

(3-2, 5.80 ERA)

The Ballpark in Arlington, 5 PDT

TV--Channel 9.

Radio--KLAC (570), XPRS (1090).

Update--Washburn has won seven in a row after opening the season 0-2. Bell was recalled from the Rangers’ Oklahoma RedHawks farm team last Saturday and beat the Pittsburgh Pirates that night, 3-2.