CHEMISTRY LESSON; DO GOOD VIBES EQUAL WINS? MALONE, JOHNSON DISAGREE.

Byline: Kevin Modesti

On the subject of chemistry, Davey Johnson and Kevin Malone go together like oil and water.

I would have said bleach and ammonia, a notoriously noxious combination, but I'm not sure if it's dangerous that the Dodgers' manager and general manager clash on a basic tenet of team-building.

Maybe their apparent disagreement points to a problem that some Dodgers-watchers have suspected for a while, that Johnson and Malone aren't reading from the same page of the Baseball Encyclopedia. Or maybe it's no problem at all. We'll find out sooner or later.

Opening day is 10 weeks away.

Last week, Johnson and Malone were at USC's Dedeaux Field for the first of the Dodgers' informal pre-spring-training workouts. Malone spoke at length about how - encouraged by new Dodgers chairman Robert Daly - he made a winter priority of improving the clubhouse chemistry.

``I came up in scouting, and one reason I had some success was because I focused on the (players') attitude,'' Malone said. ``The key for me was what we call makeup.''

And so, since the Dodgers' second consecutive third-place finish, he sent notable malcontent Raul Mondesi to Toronto and acquired players like community-minded right fielder Shawn Green, wise old pitcher Orel Hershiser and scrappy utility man F.P. Santangelo.

``You have to get the guys who are BASEBALL PLAYERS,'' Malone said, meaning guys who play the game the right way, whose approach might rub off on teammates.

The ingredients of chemistry.

``I think you bring in guys with makeup and hope it comes together,'' Malone said. ``I think we tried to do that last year with (catcher Todd) Hundley, (center fielder Devon) White and (pitcher Kevin) Brown.''

Hundley played hurt in 1999 and it's hard to lead from the Mendoza Line. Brown won 18 games but lacks the personality to teach his young staffmates.

``You have to have multiple guys with that attitude, so it rubs off on everybody,'' Malone said. ``When you're struggling, when you're going through adversity, it's the glue that keeps everybody together.''

All of which sounded good to me, so a few minutes later on that morning at USC, I asked Johnson about the importance of chemistry. He reacted as if I'd proposed a clubhouse gift exchange.

``Basically,'' the manager said, ``chemistry to me is if you've got the best offensive club in the league, the best pitching staff in the league and the best defense in the league, and guys saying, `We're pretty good,' '' Johnson said. ``THAT is good chemistry.

``The chemistry on this club,'' Johnson went on, ``was pretty good last year, but the offense ranked eighth in the league, the pitching staff ranked eighth and the defense ranked eighth.''

Actually, the Dodgers were 11th in runs scored, seventh in ERA and 13th in fielding percentage, but Johnson was making a point, something like the curmudgeonly adage that leadership is a three-run homer.

``We weren't very balanced and we were easy to defend,'' he said, referring to the shortage of left-handed power, a problem that Green's 42- home-run bat might solve.

``Chemistry. I hear that all the time,'' he said, almost mockingly. ``I had guys who hated each other, but they drove in runs. Gary Carter and Keith Hernandez didn't go out together, but they could play like heck.''

Johnson was referring to the New York Mets team he managed to the 1986 World Series championship. The only chemistry those Mets knew was practiced by their bartenders.

``You can bring in the best guys in the world, but if they can't play, it doesn't help. You always win because of execution,'' Johnson said.

Daly thinks he knows what Johnson meant.

``I've talked to Davey about that, and what he's saying is, `Winning is important, because when you win, people tend to rally together,' '' Daly said.

That is, chemistry is a product of winning, rather than the other way around.

Then again, Daly can't help thinking back to 1988, when he was merely a well-connected fan cheering Tom Lasorda's overachieving Dodgers of Mickey Hatcher and the Stunt Men.

``Let me tell you what chemistry is about for me,'' said Daly, who takes the unusual step of interviewing potential acquisitions, to make sure money isn't the only reason they want to be Dodgers. ``It's about people who can stay together when they're not doing well. The real issue is that people don't start blaming each other when things don't go well. I'm talking about the little things.

``If a guy realizes he gets slaps on the back just for moving a runner over, and not just for hitting a home run, he'll feel good about it.''

Whether it's possible to create a feel-good clubhouse a surely as a hit summer movie, whether you can orchestrate chemistry or must hope it just HAPPENS, Daly will see. So will Malone.

Johnson? Just give him the hottest hitters and the hardest throwers and he'll take his chances.

CAPTION(S):

Illustration; photo

Illustration: (color cover) no caption (Hand holding test-tube pouring Dodger Blue liquid into fizzing beaker featuring Dodgers logo.)

Photo illustration by John Lazar

Photo: ``Chemistry. I hear that all the time. I had guys who hated each other, but they drove in runs. Gary Carter and Keith Hernandez didn't go out together, but they could play like heck.''

- Davey Johnson

Dodgers manager