Sheffield’s Bat Makes Chemistry a Sore Subject

On Monday night, working the remote control, I finally caught pennant fever.

Shaking, sweating, heaving.

On one channel, Gary Sheffield was tying a record.

On another channel, Odalis Perez was growing a blister.

On one channel, Gary Sheffield was making a pitch disappear.

On another channel, Brian Jordan had long since disappeared.

I pushed the mute button while considering my endorsement of the Dodgers’ trade of Sheffield to the Atlanta Braves for Jordan and Perez, then reached a carefully considered conclusion.

You fool.

What seemed like an appropriate dispensing of a bad apple has rotted the Dodgers at their core.

Turns out, Sheffield was pushed from a town he could have owned, chased because of an attitude that would have been irrelevant.

Two years ago the Dodgers were weary of Sheffield’s mouth, but today they miss his mashing. He was one bad actor, but one great hitter, the likes of which could have carried this team, if not to the World Series, then at least past Sunday.

While Perez was complaining about a fingernail, Sheffield was celebrating “the Hammer,” his 127 runs batted in equaling Hank Aaron’s single-season Brave record.

While Jordan was rehabilitating his knee in Atlanta, Sheffield was rehabilitating his image by saying things such as, “I don’t want [Aaron’s] record. He’s in all the history books, and I’d like to keep it that way.”

The Dodgers rank last in the league in average, homers and RBIs. Sheffield ranks in the top six in each.

The Dodgers will end up about a dozen good at-bats from reaching the playoffs. Sheffield has an on-base percentage of .420, which is 116 points higher than the Dodger team average.

Yes, he is playing harder because he’s in the final year of a contract. But if the Dodgers had granted his wish to eliminate his option year, he would have been in the same motivated situation here.

And yes, last season Perez was an All-Star and Jordan was a September leader. But truer colors have surfaced this year when Perez vanished under pressure and Jordan vanished after surgery.

All of which should serve as a lesson for Dodger officials and certain columnists who love to preach about chemistry, which they should now know is more about Bunsen burners than baseball clubhouses.

Mike Piazza was traded shortly after he began whining about a new contract. As if the jaw is connected to the bat.

Gary Sheffield was traded because, among other things, he called both the general manager and chairman a liar. But if he hits like his pants are on fire, who cares?

This year’s standings are top-heavy with teams led by heavies, teams that are careful not to confuse hardheads with hardball.

The New York Yankees will make the playoffs helped by a starting pitcher who engages in bar fights and admittedly pitches with hangovers. Think they can’t use David Wells?

The Boston Red Sox probably will make the playoffs with a star hitter who refused to play with a sore throat, then was spotted medicating himself at the hotel bar. They benched Manny Ramirez for, what, one day?

The San Francisco Giants will make the playoffs with a power hitter considered one of the worst teammates in history. But who wouldn’t make room for Barry Bonds’ Barcalounger?

If pondering a change in philosophy this winter, these feel-good Dodgers need look no further than their own recent history, as written by Fred Claire, who believed that chemistry was created not in the clubhouse, but in the standings.

Kirk Gibson could be as nasty as an old goat. He would shout at interns, harass writers, scowl at teammates. When he hobbled to the plate in that ninth inning 15 Octobers ago, there probably wasn’t a surlier person in the stadium.

Or one better suited to hit that Dennis Eckersley slider.

Sheffield was an incredible pain. But as I have been reminded over last two years, it was often a good pain.

“I have no regrets about the trade,” Dodger General Manager Dan Evans said. “It’s easy to evaluate deals later, but you have to judge them at the time they were made, on the information you had.”

Evans pointed to Jordan’s league-leading 30 RBIs last September. But Jordan offered little this year while battling injuries common to 36-year-old outfielders. He didn’t even stick around to offer inspiration while rehabilitating, instead returning to his Atlanta home.

When Jordan leaves the Dodgers next month as a free agent, he’s not coming back, his time here marked only by a speck in the statistics.

“He brought a fire and leadership to our clubhouse at a time we needed it,” Evans said.

Evans then pointed to Perez’s age (26) and innings (more than 400 in two years) as examples of his worth.

“He is still a very good young major league pitcher,” he said.

But he probably will be traded because the organization is no longer sure of his commitment, and they may have a hard time getting market value because of the fingernail escapades.

The other player the Dodgers acquired in the trade was minor league pitcher Andrew Brown, who, fittingly, pitched all of one inning at double A this year before being sidelined by elbow surgery.

Did Sheffield, who broke Aaron’s RBI record Tuesday, cause some of the same problems as Perez, and suffer some of the same infirmities as Jordan? Yes. But would he have been worth it? Hindsight, in this case, is 38-128.

So this winter it begins again, the same old search for a power hitter, only this time, hopefully, with different questions.

No longer should the organization query whether the prospective new player has chemistry or history or sociology.

The sins of the Piazza and Sheffield trades stuck in everyone’s throat, the only question that should be asked is, does he have a bat?

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Bill Plaschke can be reached at bill.plaschke@latimes.com.