Spring Training / Dodgers : It’s No Joke: Guerrero Says He’s Willing to Play Third

VERO BEACH, Fla. — Sidd Finch fans, don’t bother checking the date of today’s paper. This is not a hoax.

Nor is it a miracle. Nobody turned the Gatorade in the Dodger clubhouse into wine, or Mike Schmidt into an ex-Phillie.

But ye of little faith, go no further. This one requires true believers, the type who have seen UFOs or talked to the dead.

Here goes:

Pedro Guerrero, so help me Al Campanis, is happy to play third base. He wants to play third base. Today, tomorrow, Memorial Day, Labor Day, night and day, Guerrero’s place is third base.

Says who?

“Pete tells me he wants to play third base very badly,” Campanis said Sunday afternoon. “He wants to show everybody he can do it, he wants to do it for the club. He’s done a 180-degree turn.”

All right, so you’re not convinced. With the trading deadline at 5 o’clock PST and no deals in sight, what else would Campanis say?

The star witness, however, is not Campanis. The decisive testimony comes from Guerrero himself, the same Guerrero who on the day he arrived this spring, said: “I hope they make a trade--tomorrow.”

Sunday afternoon, about an hour after he’d launched a Terry Forster changeup out of Indian River County in the Dodgers’ 5-3 loss to Atlanta, Guerrero took the stand. He wasn’t under oath, but he wasn’t under any obligation, either.

“I want to play third,” he said. “I don’t have any choice.”

Aha. A fatalist, accepting his sentence. But wait, there’s more.

“I’ve been getting comfortable there the last couple of weeks,” Guerrero said. “I think I can do much better than I have at that position. I’m going to give it all that I have.

“They (the Dodgers) aren’t going to make any moves, they’re not going to get another third baseman, so I’m the one who has to do the job.”

OK, so it’s easy for him to say on a day he hits a two-run home run, but what’s he going to do if he boots two balls for errors in the first week of the season?

“I don’t care how I start, I’m going to play third base,” he said. “It’s going to be up to them. If they realize I can’t play there, fine, make a move.

“But I’m not going to tell them to move me when I make an error. I know I’m going to make errors, but I know I’m going to make a lot of nice catches, too. I don’t have any worry about that.”

Monty Basgall, the Dodger coach who has been trying to make a third baseman out of Guerrero for the last three springs, was informed of Guerrero’s change of heart.

“That’s good news,” Basgall said. “I think he’s kind of convinced himself he can play there. He’s told me that. If he’s told you that, I’m convinced.

Basgall hedged his bet a little, however.

“I want to see after he’s had a couple of bad days, that’ll be the test,” Basgall said. “It’s like a .350 hitter, let him go 0 for 20, or 0 for 30, and you’ll see what kind of guy he is.

“I’m real pleased, though. He’s done everything we asked of him, and he’s done it well.”

Start from the day Guerrero arrived in camp, even if he was a day later than the rest of the veterans owing to alleged visa problems. Dodger calorie counters breathed a sigh of relief when Guerrero tipped the scales at 201 pounds, 17 fewer than his weigh-in at the same time one year ago. Now, he’s at 194, just two pounds over his weight on the last day of the ’84 season.

“Last year, when I signed my contract, I went back home and didn’t do anything,” Guerrero said. “I never threw a baseball after I signed a contract. That didn’t help me at all.

“This winter I worked out once in a while, and I didn’t do that last year. But I know that won’t happen again, coming to spring training overweight.”

While the difference in Guerrero’s waistline is noticeable, it is no more so than the change in his disposition.

“The biggest improvement has been in his work habits,” Basgall said. “He’s worked real hard, he really has, and he’s done it with enthusiasm.

“To me, the toughest play for Pete is the ball hit right at him that hugs the ground. That’s a tough play for any infielder.

“But if he’s willing to work at it, if he loves to do it, then he shouldn’t have any tough plays. He has good range, and he comes in on a slow-hit ball as good as anybody in the country. That’s a natural talent.”

So, too, for Guerrero, is hitting the ball, although last season he hit .179 in April, had only seven home runs through August and had to bat .398 in September to finish over .300, at .303.

“I expect a better season than last year,” he said. “Even though I hit over .300, I wasn’t satisfied with the season I had. I’m looking forward to 100 RBIs, over 30 home runs and a .300 average.

“A lot of people probably pointed at me, I had a slow start, the money I got to sign and stuff. I don’t blame people for the way they talked about me.

“But you have to realize there are seven other guys out there every day. I don’t think I can do it all. I can’t bat leadoff, second, third and fourth. If you start looking around at what happened last year, Sax hit .240, Landreaux didn’t have a good year and I didn’t have a real good year.

“I don’t think it’s right to point at one guy. There’s too many guys out there playing.”

When he looks around him, Guerrero likes what he sees.

“I think we’ve got a good team,” he said. “Everybody’s a lot different this season, working real hard.

“We don’t stay out there as late working. Last year we’d be out there until they turned the lights on. It’s better to work hard for two hours than spend six hours not doing anything.

“I’m ready to start the season tomorrow. I’m happy with the job I’ve done so far.”

So there you have it. Polish up the Gold Glove. Move over, Brooks.

Dodger Notes

Steve Howe’s long-awaited debut in a game, scheduled for today against the Detroit Tigers here, is in doubt. Howe called in sick Sunday with a stomach virus, according to trainer Bill Buhler. Howe said he’d be here today, Buhler said, but it remains to be seen whether he’ll be in any shape to pitch. . . . Dodger Vice President Al Campanis met with Sid Bream’s agent, Bob Fraley, Sunday afternoon, but the outcome wasn’t favorable for the first baseman. Campanis said he told Fraley that he has been unable to trade Bream and that, barring a last-minute deal, Bream is headed for Albuquerque. . . . Ken Oberkfell’s inside-the-park grand slam, which fell between diving outfielders Ken Landreaux and Mike Marshall, was the difference in Sunday’s exhibition. It marred an otherwise solid effort by Fernando Valenzuela, who gave up six hits and struck out six in seven innings but couldn’t avoid losing his fifth game of the spring. The Dodgers have lost eight, this one to what was essentially the Braves’ “B” team. . . . The last spot on the Dodger pitching staff will come down between Carlos Diaz and Larry White, Campanis said, with Tom (Flamingo) Brennan ticketed for Albuquerque. . . . Terry Forster said he threw a straight changeup on the pitch Guerrero hit over the embankment in left-center field, at least 400 feet away. “I’ve been working on a slip pitch and a changeup. This is the first time anybody’s hit one,” Forster said. “That’s the last time I throw the changeup.” . . . After the game, Dodger Manager Tom Lasorda, spent about 45 minutes pitching batting practice to Kevin O’Malley, the 9-year-old son of the Dodger owner.