A ROOKIE AGAIN : After 18 Years as a Dodger Player, Bill Russell Makes Coaching Debut

VERO BEACH, Fla. —  Bill Russell hasn’t even concluded his first week as a Dodger coach, but the preliminary evaluations and first impressions from colleagues have already made the rounds in the clubhouse.

Owner Peter O’Malley good-naturedly gave Russell a written reprimand for being fashionably late for the first staff meeting.

On a more positive note, Steve Sax reported that Russell hits ground balls well with the fungo bat.

And Manager Tom Lasorda noticed that Russell has perfected the art of leaning on a bat while watching batting practice.

Lasorda’s overall evaluation? “Mediocre.”

Joking aside, Russell has moved easily into his new role as a coach. After 18 years of continuous service with the Dodgers as a player, the dean has become a teacher.

The change occurred last October, when 63-year-old Monty Basgall retired after 27 years with the organization. Russell, 38, had just finished his 18th season and wasn’t thinking of retirement. But Dodger management had been thinking of little else for Russell in 1987.

So, instead of taking his cuts at bat here this spring, Russell is languishing outside the cage and monotonously hitting hundreds of ground balls to infielders.

It is a change, to be sure, but the new job is something Russell knew he would have someday. However, he hadn’t thought someday would come so soon.

“I think I can still play, but I guess a player is always the last to know they can’t,” said Russell, who still looks fit. “Maybe later in the year, if there’s some injuries or whatever, I think it’d be worth my while to stay in shape. They haven’t said anything, just my way of thinking. But right now, my main objective is to be a coach.”

Adaptability may be Russell’s most impressive attribute. Over the years, he has successfully made the transition from outfielder to shortstop, from starter to utility man.

Now, it’s from player to coach.

“I was ready for this after 20 years (counting the minor leagues) as a player,” Russell said. “The thing is, instead of going out there and doing it myself, I’ve got to tell other guys to do it and evaluate them. I’ve got good people around me to help with the transition.

“It’ll be a little different for a while, but I had already started doing it the last couple of years.”

Unofficially, of course, Russell had spent the last two seasons as sort of a player-coach, which is what he really wanted to be this season, too.

Lasorda tells the story about how pitcher Rick Honeycutt stood up at a team meeting last season and kiddingly asked why management paid Russell so much money ($450,000) to be an interim coach. But Russell also contributed with his play last season, working in the outfield and at every infield position except first base.

Now, with Basgall’s retirement, the Dodgers are faced with an even bigger void to fill, and Russell isn’t sure he can immediately fill it.

Basgall, who always sat next to Lasorda in the dugout, was Lasorda’s closest adviser. Lasorda sought Basgall’s advice on strategy, and Basgall often filled out the lineup card.

This season, Lasorda will most likely make decisions solo, although he could move Russell or first base coach Manny Mota to the bench to assume Basgall’s role.

“Monty was a great help to me,” Lasorda said. “I don’t know who I’ll replace him with. Billy is a rookie again, so I don’t know if he can step right in like that.”

Basgall, enjoying a quiet spring in Sierra Vista, Ariz., said he is certain that Lasorda will do fine on his own.

“Tommy’s managed 10 years now, and the longer you’re in this business, the more confident you get,” Basgall said. “Tommy is the kind of guy who relies a lot on his coaches, which is great. (Walter) Alston was the same way. I’ve only worked for two major league managers, but if you can’t rely on your coaches, you should get new ones.”

Said Russell: “Tommy’s going to miss (Basgall) more than anybody. Monty helped out with the lineup, everything. We all miss his grumpy voice. All I hope is that some of his knowledge has rubbed off on me.”

For two years, while Basgall contemplated retirement, Lasorda was grooming Russell as his replacement.

There is a certain properness to the move. In 1966, Basgall signed a 17-year-old kid named Russell out of Pittsburg, Kan. Early in Russell’s career, Basgall converted Russell from a center fielder to a shortstop. Basgall, in fact, was the architect of the entire infield of Steve Garvey, Davey Lopes, Russell and Ron Cey.

This season, Russell’s most challenging task will be to improve an infield that has led the National League in errors the last two seasons. Mariano Duncan, who took over as the Dodgers’ regular shortstop in 1985, says Russell has already helped him.

“I remember I had one game in Atlanta in my rookie year when I made three errors and I wouldn’t talk to anyone,” Duncan said. “I just wanted to be alone. Billy came over and told me that one time in 1977 he had four errors in a game and that he survived.”

Russell says the infield problems aren’t terminal.

“As a fielding team, we weren’t that good last year,” Russell said. “My job is to turn that around. It got to a point last year where everything went wrong and the whole infield lost confidence. They know they are better than that.”

They won’t have Russell to fill in at shortstop, third base or second base this season--that’s the plan, anyway--which leaves Russell both relieved and saddened.

Had he chosen to remain a player, Russell probably could have caught on with another team. After all, he is versatile and hit .250 in 105 games last season. Instead, he chose to take a hefty pay cut, from $450,000 to $75,000. The overriding factor, he said, was staying with the Dodgers.

“If it was a money factor, I probably would have gone somewhere else to play,” Russell said. “My future is here. I started here, and the Dodgers have been great to me. I’ve never been one to need a lot of money or a lot of publicity. I don’t think I surprised anybody with this move. Everybody expected it.

“Money-wise, it’s a drastic change. I’ve got to re-do all my spending habits. But my family and I can adjust. I started out making this money, and we can go back down. If I had gone somewhere else, I probably would’ve made three to four times more money--for a year. How much do you need to live on? Naturally, you get spoiled after all those years.”

For the first time since he was a senior in high school, Russell spent the winter at ease.

“I didn’t work out much at all,” he said. “After 20 years of working out every day and watching my weight, you get tired of doing it. I’m enjoying myself doing something different in spring training.”

The prospect of being activated at some point during the season--the earliest he could be, under league rules, is May 1--wouldn’t be unprecedented. Jim Gilliam and Manny Mota were both Dodger coaches who were later activated.

Said Mota: “I don’t think it’s that tough, more mental than anything else. If we want to reactivate him, I hope they give him enough time to adjust. But (playing again) is something he’s got to get out of his mind. When you coach for the first time, you’re still thinking as a player.

“Billy is the type of guy who will always be in shape, no matter how long he’s out of the game. Look at him over there hitting fungoes. He looks good, doesn’t he?”

Dodger Notes Fernando Valenzuela, the only Dodger pitcher who has yet to throw batting practice, will do so today and Sunday. Pitching coach Ron Perranoski said that Valenzuela will be brought along slowly because he has thrown only four times since the end of the 1986 season. Charlie Strasser, the Dodgers’ assistant trainer, said there is no soreness in Valenzuela’s arm. “It’s nothing unusual,” Strasser said. . . . The Dodgers held their first full workout Wednesday. All told, there are 65 players in camp, 37 on the major league roster. . . . The Dodgers will play six-inning intra-squad games Saturday and Sunday afternoons. . . . Bullpen catcher Todd Maulding, hit in the left eyebrow on Monday by a lobbed pitch thrown by Tim Leary, is still under observation in a local hospital but is reportedly improving.