Orel finished the year with twenty-three wins, the most by a Dodger since Sandy Koufax tallied
twenty-seven in 1966; bettered Don Drysdale's fifty-eight consecutive scoreless innings (1968)
with fifty-nine; was unanimously voted winner of the National League Cy Young Award for best
pitcher; was named Sports Illustrated Sportsman of the Year along with almost every other athletic
award; named to several All-Star Teams; had a 2.26 Earned Run Average (ERA) which was third
in the National League; led the league with eight shutouts and 267 innings pitched; pitched a
shutout in game seven of the National League Championship Series to put the Dodgers in the
World Series, then pitched for victory in game five of the World Series against the Oakland
Athletics, to become the first pitcher in history to hurl shutouts in League playoffs and the World
Series in the same year.
Born in Buffalo, New York on September 16, 1958, Orel made his first appearance in a major
league stadium at eight when he advanced to the finals of the Personna Baseball Hit, Run and
Throw Contest at Yankee Stadium. He finished third in the nation. `It was a crisp, windy night and
the stadium loomed large to me. I decided to be a big league baseball player in that historic
stadium,' he says.
The Hershisers moved several times during Orel's school years. He tried ice hockey the year they
lived in Canada, but came back to baseball at Cherry Hill East High School in New Jersey. He
developed though school, and succeeded because he loved the game and competition - and because
of his dad's encouragement to push himself to his limits.
Despite struggling academically at times at Bowling Green State University, Hershiser made the
traveling team in his junior year. His six-win two-loss season record landed him on the allconference
team and local scouts began to watch him play. He was told he `had potential' - which,
he says, is the worst label a ball player can have.
In 1979, Orel began to realise that he might get picked up in that year’s amateur draft. Setting his
sites on the Philadelphia Phillies or the Los Angeles Dodgers, he told his parents he would turn pro
if one of those teams called, all the while trying not to set himself up for a major disappointment.
On the day of the draft, his fraternity brothers prank-called him, saying he was a first-round pick.
He caught on, however, as he noticed his friends’ strange reactions when he told them the news.
Nobody kidded him when the Dodgers drafted him for real in the seventeenth round though.
As he thinks back over his minor league years a jumble of impressions cross his mind. The most
important memory is of three friends made during those years. He's since been out of touch with
one, another told him how to get eternal life, and the third became his wife.
Orel played with Butch Wickensheimer on the Clinton team, and remembers that while the others
were out having a good time, Butch was relaxing, reading his Bible and staying sober. He wasn't
condemning or preachy about his faith; he simply lived his convictions.
Hershiser was intrigued and finally asked him what he saw in the Bible. Butch responded,
`Everything. It's God's gift to man. It tells how much he loves us, and how we can know him.'
At first, Orel agreed with Butch. He had a Bible in the bottom draw of his dresser at home; he never
read it though. He went to church at Christmas and Easter, and sort of believed in God. He thought
people went to heaven if they were good.
Since Butch wasn't pushy, Orel would question him about what the Bible actually said. He
explained to Orel that good people don't go to heaven, forgiven people do. To be forgiven, you had
to recognise your sin and turn in faith to Jesus Christ. Butch said that Christ was the only perfect
person and the only way to God. `Where does it say that?' Orel asked, and Butch showed him John
14: 6 and Ephesians 2: 8-9.
Later Orel checked the references in a Gideon’s Bible in his hotel room. Orel and Butch continued
doing this for the rest of the season, and on to the next level of their careers as both were selected to
attend the Arizona Instructional League. Orel quizzed Butch about everything, Butch answered
from scripture and Orel would read it for himself. Yet for months Orel looked for a way out, he
wanted to find any possible inconsistency, any logical reason for not becoming a Christian.
Finally, he grew tired of quizzing Butch. `I had to do something about the sin problem in Romans
3:23,’ Orel says. `I wasn't a scoundrel, but I knew that accepting what I understood and taking the
rest on faith would change my life. Butch couldn't do that for me.'
Alone in his room on a September night, Orel began reading the book of John from the Gideon’s
Bible. `My mind was racing. Do I believe in God? Yes. Do I believe the Bible is God's message to
us? Yes. Do I believe what the Bible says? Yes. That all have sinned? Yes. That nothing I can do
can save me from no sin? Yes. That Jesus already saved me for sin and is the only way to God?
Yes. Do I want Christ in my life? Do I want to become a Christian?’
In the privacy of his hotel room, Orel told God what was on his mind. It was direct and personal,
the cry of someone seeking reality, the experience of forgiveness, the presence of Christ and the
assurance of heaven. It ended with the simple statement: `I want to become a Christian. With that,
I accept you. Amen.'
A significant change occurred in Orel’s life that night. Whether he continued in baseball or not,
became rich and famous or not, Orel knew that God's care and love for him were permanent.
Orel's progression to the big leagues was routine, from A to double-A to triple-A. When he won the
Mulvey Award as top rookie in spring training in 1983, it was a shock to be sent back to
Albuquerque, but he fought off the disappointment. In this he was aided by his faith in God and the
loving support of his wife, Jamie. Eventually he earned his promotion to the Los Angeles team by
finishing third in saves in the Pacific Coast League and seventh in ERA.
Hershiser was welcomed by Tommy Lasorda, the team manager convinced he had more than just
potential. Lasorda is responsible for giving the rookie his nickname, ‘Bulldog’, reasoning that no
batters would be intimidated by a pitcher named Orel. It was time to major on the fundamentals, to
focus on his pitching. Becoming a student of the game, Hershiser developed into one of the
smartest pitchers in baseball.
The stunning finish of the 1988 season, with the Dodgers winning the World Series, gave Orel the
most memorable moment in his career. The team was not expected to be in the series, but they
believed they could do it. Mark McGwire (1998 home run leader and season record holder) led off
in the bottom of the ninth and hit to Shelby in deep centre. Ron Hassey came to bat next and Orel
registered his eighth strikeout. Carney Lansford shot the ball between third and short, and with a
runner on, the A' s fans produced a deafening noise. Terry Phillips was next up, with Terry
Steinbach on-deck. Orel says, ` All I cared about was making sure Steinbach didn' t get to the plate. I
worked up to a full count on Phillips; Lansford edged up the line from third. I wound up and fired.
He swung. Strike three!'
Broadcaster Vin Scully compared it to the 1969 Mets - an impossible dream revisited. It took Orel a
while to loosen up. Going to the dugout, he searched for Jamie in the stands. Responding to her
waving and cheering, he shed his game face, raised both fists and let it all out. Sharing such a
special moment with his wife made it perfect.
In the locker room, Orel told NBC reporter, Bob Costas, of his struggles during the game - how he
sought to relax and keep his adrenaline levels down: ` The Lord has blessed me with composure and
has kept me calm through the whole thing. I just want to thank God for everything that' s happened
this year for our ball club.'
Orel was asked to give his jersey to a representative of the Baseball Hall of Fame, as the Series
MVP (Most Valued Player). He continued to answer questions for ten to fifteen minutes, then
visited the Dodgers' locker room to speak with players and managers.
Just two years later, it looked as if Orel had pitched his last game, with only four starts in the
season. Dr Frank Jobe regretfully told the Hershisers that he had found severe damage in Orel' s
right shoulder. The surgery to reconstruct his anterior capsule and tighten ligaments on April 27,
1990 marked the first time such surgery was performed on a major league pitcher.
Because his contract with the Dodgers called for one more year, Hershiser felt obligated to try and
come back. He endured lots of pain during the months of rehabilitation as he learned to pitch again.
But the cost was too high; he told Jamie that he couldn' t take the pain anymore.
She organised for several friends to pray for the injured baseballer. ` From that day forward,' Orel
says, `I never had any pain in my arm.' He went seven -wins two-loses in 1991, earning the UPI
Comeback Player of the Year award.
Over the following years Hershiser was traded from Los Angeles to Cleveland, then to San
Francisco and finally to the New York Mets before returning to where it all began at the Dodgers.
The forty-one year-old’s career continued until July 6, 2000, the veteran retiring after the Dodgers
waived him of his contract. The three-time All-Star has a career record of 204-150 with a 3.48
ERA.
As Orel remembers his days on the mound, he says that October 20, 1988 was the best. ‘To have
the ball in my hand for the last pitch of the World Series and to be the one being mobbed, that was
special,’ Orel says. ‘I can' t wait for old-timers day, so we can talk about what we did as a group.
The individual awards, they get dust on them. The championship team things, that multiplies.’
In Slavic, Orel means eagle. Eagles soar higher than other birds. So it is fitting that Orel Hershiser
soars with the game' s greats. His hero, Kirk Gibson, said it best after the World Series win: ` I don' t
know if we will ever again see the likes of what Orel has done. It may be that no other pitcher has
ever stayed in that kind of groove so long. He' ll certainly go down in history.'
Orel Hershiser
