DODGERS NOTEBOOK : PITTSBURGH'S SCHMIDT RECOVERS FROM SCARE.

Byline: Kevin Acee Daily News Staff Writer

Jason Schmidt stood in a hallway outside the visitors' clubhouse at Dodger Stadium on Saturday, 18 hours from his first start of 1997. And he talked about the scariest time in his life as detached as if he had watched it in a movie.

``All it was was an overconditioned nerve in the heart,'' said Schmidt, who will start for the Pittsburgh Pirates against the Dodgers at 1:05 p.m. today.

Yeah. That's all it was.

When the doctor first told Schmidt he had an irregular heartbeat last month, he ``literally freaked.'' Pacemaker, he thought. Open-heart surgery, he thought. Death, he thought. At the least, he thought, his career was over.

Barely 24 years old and about to spend his first full season in the major leagues, Schmidt was petrified.

Doctors told Schmidt a normal heart beats 75 to 80 times a minute. When they hooked him up to the monitor, he saw his pumping 43 times a minute.

At least it explained why he had been having daylong dizzy spells for the past few months. Schmidt described the feeling as ``just like when you get light-headed, but it would last for hours. And they kept getting stronger and stronger.''

Don't forget: In an on-field ceremony before Saturday's game, the Dodgers celebrated the 50th anniversary of Jackie Robinson breaking baseball's color barrier. The tribute included speeches by team president Peter O'Malley, former teammates Duke Snider, Don Newcombe and Tom Lasorda, and Robinson's widow, Rachel.

In both her short address to fans and at a press conference prior to the game, Rachel Robinson urged people to continue her husband's mission even after the celebrations have ceased.

``What we need from the people who are celebrating the life (of Robinson) is a recommitment to the future,'' she said. ``It's not enough to say it happened. . . . We are very pleased we are raising the issues that were raised 50 years ago that haven't been resolved.''