Chen Meets the Press

He seemed startled by the attention, half a dozen reporters clustered around him in the Dodger dugout before Friday’s Dodger-Padre game.

On the day the Dodgers named him their minor league player of the year, shy, 21-year-old outfielder Chin-Feng Chen was brought to Dodger Stadium to meet reporters.

Chen, from Taiwan, hit .316 in 131 games at Class A San Bernardino and led all Dodger minor leaguers with 31 home runs and 123 RBI. He also had 31 stolen bases.

“I didn’t know what to expect, it’s all very exciting for me,” the 6-1, 186-pound Chen said, through an interpreter. “I’m learning a different kind of baseball, so I didn’t set any goals for myself at the beginning of the season.”

The major difference between baseball in Taiwan and here, he said, was “learning how to cooperate with a lot of players from different parts of the world.”

Chen was scouted by Jack Zduriencik, the team’s director of international operations, and Asian scout Acey Kohrogi. Other teams were hot on Chen’s trail and it cost the Dodgers $680,000 to sign him.

“I saw him four or five times this season,” said Dodger General Manager Kevin Malone.

“The kid has great snap to his bat and his swing has big-time late extension. He hits to all fields and he has good running speed. Our game plan for him now is double-A next season.”

Was Chen planning on returning to Dodger Stadium in uniform?

“I don’t set timetables for myself,” Chen said. “I just feel very honored by this award.”

He’s the second Taiwanese player to play professional baseball in the U.S. Pitcher Hsin-Min Tan played briefly in the Giants’ system in 1974 and ’75.

The Dodgers will send Chen to the Arizona Instructional League in the off-season.

In July, the Dodgers signed Taiwanese left-handed pitcher Hong-Chih Kuo, whose fastball, Malone said, clocks in the “low 90s to mid-90s.”

*

Ever wonder how Dodger Manager Davey Johnson could go from five home runs in 1972 to 43 in ‘73--still the major league record for a second baseman--to 15 in ‘74?

It took him 15 minutes to explain it before Saturday’s game, but here’s a condensed version of his record homer season with Atlanta:

“I hit with power early in my minor league career, and then in the minors Brooks Robinson talked me into developing an inside-out swing and both my power numbers and average went down.

“In 1971 I had 16 homers by the All-Star break, then I hurt my shoulder and had two the rest of the year. I could barely swing a bat, even with pain pills.

“It took me a year and a half to heal. By 1973, I was fed up with the inside-out and I decided I’d swing just like I did in high school.

“I had a bet that year with Darrell Evans. Whoever hit the most homers would take the other and our wives in a limo to eat at the restaurant of their choice, in any city in America. I won and Evans never took us to dinner.”

Johnson finished his 13-season playing career in 1978 with 136 home runs--with roughly a third coming in one season.

*

The Padres’ Tony Gwynn, who on Aug. 6 became the 22nd player to achieve 3,000 career hits, did it sooner (in 2,284 games) than 19 others on the list.

Only Ty Cobb (2,135) in 1921 and Napoleon Lajoie (2,224) in 1914 did it in fewer games.

Today

DODGERS’

JEFF WILLIAMS

(1-0, 1.29 ERA)

vs.

PADRES’

BUDDY CARLYLE

(1-3, 6.49 ERA)

Dodger Stadium, 1 p.m.

TV--Channel 5 Radio--KXTA (1150), KWKW (1330)

* Update--Williams, the ninth Australian to play in the major leagues, makes his third appearance. He was 9-7 with a 5.01 ERA in 42 games at triple-A Albuquerque before being called up Sept. 6.

* Tickets--(323) 224-1HIT.