The 2005 World Series

HERSHISER, OREL

Sept. 16, 1958- Baseball player.

The latest in a long line of outstanding pitchers to wear the uniform of the Los Angeles Dodgers, Orel Hershiser won more games (sixty) in his first four major-league seasons (1984-87) than such former Dodger greats as Sandy Koufax, Don Drysdale, and Don Sutton managed to win in a similar period of time. Then, in 1988, Hershiser, whose best pitch is a sinking fastball, vaulted to superstardom on the wings of a spectacular season in which he compiled a record of 23-8 and an E.R.A. of 2.26, set a major-league record by pitching fifty-nine consecutive scoreless innings (breaking Drysdale's record of fifty-eight, set in 1968), won the Cy Young Award as the National League's top pitcher, and was named the most valuable player in both the league championship series and the World Series. And the Dodgers, who had been picked by most preseason prognosticators to finish no higher than fourth, won the world title.

In an era in which both professional and amateur athletics have been tarnished by scandals involving everything from gambling to illicit sexual activity to illegal drug use, Hershiser has become almost as renowned for his simon-pure lifestyle as for his pitching feats. Devoutly religious (he even recites hymns to himself on the mound and in the dugout), he does not smoke, drink, or swear, and he remains a devoted family man. Hershiser's career was placed in jeopardy early in the 1990 season when he was forced to undergo arthroscopic surgery to repair severe damage in his right shoulder. He missed the remainder of the season, and his future status remained uncertain.