Dodgers Are Safe at Second : Baseball: Reed has made only 64 errors in his six-year career. It is hoped he will speed development of shortstop Offerman.

Introducing their new second baseman, the Dodgers put together a highlight film of Jody Reed and played it Thursday at a news conference at Dodger Stadium. There was more defense in that two-minute video than in some seasons at the stadium.

Knock on wood.

Posing for the perfunctory jersey photograph with Fred Claire, the club’s executive vice president, Reed held up No. 3, the jersey former Dodger Steve Sax wore.

Since the Dodgers let Sax get away to the New York Yankees after the 1988 season, they have tried to fill the position with, well, somebody like Sax. Reed, 30, who came up as a shortstop with the Boston Red Sox in 1987 and has also played third base, has a .280 lifetime batting average with 180 doubles. But his similarities with Sax only begin with numbers.

“Jody and Steve have a lot of the same qualities that are pretty self-evident as far as their enthusiasm for playing, the enjoyment of playing, playing every day, playing hard, giving everything they have to the game, being good team people,” Claire said.

Reed, tanned and looking very much a Californian, said he is happy to be in Los Angeles, but even happier to get away from Red Sox fans.

“Playing in Boston is like carrying around a 50-pound weight on your shoulders all the time with a noose around your neck, and then somebody is fixin’ to kick the chair out from under you,” said Reed, who was traded by the Colorado Rockies for Dodger pitcher Rudy Seanez, after the Rockies had acquired him from Boston during last month’s expansion draft.

“I think here in Los Angeles, if the fans see you give 100% . . . and if things don’t work out, the dissatisfaction is quite a bit less. I think for the fans here, coming to the ballpark is a fun time. It’s entertainment, a time when you take your family to watch athletes give their all.

“Don’t get me wrong. I know Dodger fans want to win. But in Boston the fans would come to the games like they were coming to vent their frustrations at you. To scream at you.”

The Dodgers are hoping Reed will be able to speed the development of inconsistent shortstop Jose Offerman. Reed has made only 64 errors in his six-year career and tied for fifth-best in defense among American League second baseman last season. Offerman made 42 errors last season.

“I am confident that Jose Offerman will be a great shortstop,” Reed said. “I think I can offer him a lot of experience and help him to mature into the player everybody here believes he can be.”

Reed lives in Tampa, but is planning to move to Glendale with his wife, Michelle, and 4-month-old daughter, Jessica.