Hoffman Managing His Emotions

Dodger Manager Glenn Hoffman had never been to St. Louis before last week.

But then Hoffman has been doing a lot of things recently that he had never done before.

Like manage a big-league ballclub.

Hoffman took over the Dodgers one month ago today after managing for one season in the Rookie League, one season in Class A, one season in double-A and one full season in triple-A.

So is it all the same once you get used to the fact that you are sitting in a major-league dugout?

“No, it’s a lot different in the big leagues,” Hoffman said. “You have to worry about contracts and trades and a lot of movement, players going up and going down. . . . You don’t ever feel comfortable. I think when you start to feel comfortable, you get too relaxed.”

It would seem difficult to become too comfortable on a team with a new manager, new coaches and new players.

“The beauty of it,” Hoffman said, “is that we have the same system all the way from the minor leagues up to here. So there is no major overhaul required here, just a few adjustments.”

So, Hoffman was asked, can you see yourself doing this job for the next 20 years, as Tommy Lasorda did?

“I’m taking it day to day,” he said. “And I’m signed through the end of the year.”

*

Reliever Jeff Shaw was traded to the Dodgers by the Reds on July 4, but he insisted before Monday’s game that there were no special feelings about facing his old teammate.

“You can be my friend at 7 o’clock,” he said, “but if I come in to pitch against you at 9 or 9:30, you can’t be my friend between the lines.

“I have no hard feeling against [the Reds]. If I get a save against them, it would be just another save and a job well done.”

It certainly was a job well done Monday. Shaw struck out the side in the ninth inning on 12 pitches for the save.

TONIGHT

DODGERS’ ISMAEL VALDES (7-9, 4.12 ERA) vs. REDS’ BRETT TOMKO (9-6, 4.43 ERA)

Dodger Stadium, 7 p.m.

TV--Fox Sports West 2. Radio--AM 1150, KWKW (1330)

* Update--All the numbers appear to be going Valdes’ way as he takes the mound for the finale of this two-game series. The Dodger right-hander is 4-2 at home with a 2.73 ERA, he is coming off an 8-2 victory over the Cardinals in St. Louis in which he struck out eight and did not walk a batter, and he has a 2.69 ERA in his last 63 2/3 innings. But all Valdes has show for those nine starts is a 3-3 record.