Dibble: Storm Before the Calm : NL playoffs: Reds’ reliever says he owes success to Dodgers’ Howell. Then he vows silence until after the World Series.

CINCINNATI —  As if it isn’t already going to be hard enough for Dodger fans to watch the Cincinnati Reds in the World Series, now there is this story.

It was the last day of May, at Dodger Stadium, shortly before the first meeting between the top two contenders in the National League West.

When the Dodgers’ Jay Howell was leaving the field after batting practice, he was intercepted by a tall Reds pitcher wearing a protective sleeve on his right elbow.

Howell recognized the sleeve. He also recognized the pitcher and was a bit surprised when he stuck out his hand.

“Jay, I’m Rob Dibble,” the pitcher said. “Can you help me?”

Dibble, suffering from elbow problems, asked Howell how he treated similar injuries earlier in his career. He asked for advice on weights. He asked for ideas on exercises.

And so began a relationship that Dibble says helped him become the intimidating pitcher who will lead the National League champion Reds against the Oakland Athletics beginning Tuesday at Riverfront Stadium.

“Really, I owe my whole season to Jay Howell. . . . He saved my arm this year,” Dibble said last week before winning the co-most valuable player award with teammate Randy Myers in the National League playoffs.

“What he did for me was really nice, even though we’re on different teams,” Dibble said. “We’re all in this game together, and he proved that.”

Dibble, 26, in his second full major league season, pitched like vintage Howell in the playoffs.

He did not allow a hit to any of the 16 batters he faced, striking out 10. His 6-foot-4 presence dominated a bullpen that allowed the Pirates only nine hits after the sixth inning in the six games, or fewer than two late-inning hits per game.

“You breathe the wrong way against Dibble and the ball is past you,” said Stan Williams, Reds’ pitching coach. “Every big pitch, he made.”

Howell, reached at his Atlanta-area home Saturday, said he has been watching Dibble on television and has been impressed.

But he wanted to make one thing clear.

“For me or anyone else to say that I was in any way responsible for the success of Rob Dibble stretches the imagination,” Howell said. “He was a super talent before he talked to me, and he has been a super talent since he talked to me.

“All we did was talk. It happens all the time in baseball.”

Dibble says it was more than that.

He had spent two weeks on the disabled list midway through the 1989 season because of elbow problems. Although he had avoided surgery, he said that when he approached Howell this spring he was worried that the elbow was worsening.

“When I saw Howell earlier in the year, I just went up to him and asked him how he got over his injury,” Dibble said. “Just like me, he had a spur just inside his elbow. He knew what I had been going through. I wanted to know what I could do.”

Howell said that, although he did not know Dibble, the request was not surprising.

“I did the same thing back when my arm was hurting,” Howell said. “I would call guys who had surgery, call guys who didn’t have surgery, asked what they were feeling, go over exercises. Everybody in this game talks about things like that.”

Howell said that based on what Dibble told him, he felt Dibble was doing too much rehabilitative work on his triceps.

“I told him to slow down on that sort of work and gave him a couple of other exercises to calm it down,” Howell said.

Said Dibble: “He got me doing some exercises with dumb bells and curls. And it worked.”

Dibble said he also sought advice from Dr. Frank Jobe, Dodger medical director.

“And he helped me a lot, but not like Jay,” Dibble said. “And the last time I saw Jay, he said, ‘I’m not done with you yet, I have other stuff for you.’

“I’m going to listen because, right now, my arm is 100% better than it was a year ago.”

Perhaps a bigger reason for that difference is the difference between managers Pete Rose and Lou Piniella.

Last season, Rose used Dibble 46 times in the first half of the season, before his elbow broke down. This season, Piniella used Dibble 36 times in the first half of the season and 32 times in the second half.

Howell chuckled.

“I remember when I was coming up, I followed Jim Palmer around,” Howell said. “Everybody talks to somebody else. But to say I made a difference for Rob Dibble is being very generous.”

Dibble has certainly been generous with such revelations throughout the playoffs. Rarely has such a player grabbed the spotlight by force.

He began the series by telling people he couldn’t stand owner Marge Schott and was so upset at being paid $200,000 this season, he had an ulcer and was throwing up blood.

He ended the series by being one of a handful of players who hugged and kissed Schott. He said he loved the Reds. And he said he felt 100%.

During the middle of the series, he said something to offend everyone from the Oakland Athletics to the Pirates’ Doug Drabek.

One minute he was saying the Reds were going to “kick Oakland’s butt.”

The next minute, after the Reds were shut down by Drabek in Game 5, he was storming into the clubhouse calling Drabek a “sissy” and wondering out loud about his Cy Young Award credentials.

“Rob is a good boy,” Schott said last week. “He just doesn’t always know when to watch his mouth.”

Is the World Series ready for this? Maybe it won’t have to be.

“I’ve made a vow to the team,” Dibble said late Friday after accepting his co-MVP award. “I won’t be talking during the World Series. This is the last interview I’m giving.”

He later added with a smile: “But I’ll tell you one thing. In that World Series, we’re going to yank up and shake a few people.”