NO ONE IS ROOTING MORE FOR PEREZ COMEBACK THAN MALONE.

Byline: Karen Crouse

VERO BEACH, Fla. - By applying a little pressure on certain fingers of his throwing hand, Dodgers left-hander Carlos Perez can make his fastball move. If a little pressure can get a ball to perform magic, maybe it's the most effective way to handle a ballplayer, too.

That's what Kevin Malone is hoping, anyway.

For better or worse, the Dodgers general manager's reputation partly rests in the hands of Perez. Malone, remember, is the one who ripped up the final two years of Perez's contract in 1998 and signed him to a lucrative three-year deal, only to watch in helpless horror last year as Perez's career did a pretty fair imitation of teammate Kevin Brown's sinker.

Malone thought he was freeing Perez to be a force by giving him no small measure of job security. But the golden paycheck and guaranteed spot in the Dodgers' 1999 starting rotation had the opposite effect on the 29-year-old.

He came into camp last spring out of shape and out of focus and never did find the form that flitted him to National League prominence in 1998. Perez's numbers in his first full season in L.A. were achingly bad: a 2-10 record and a 7.43 earned-run average.

At a loss to explain Perez's dive, Malone decided to put a little pressure on Perez in the hopes of getting him and his fastball moving deftly. In December he signed free agent Orel Hershiser, a one-time Dodgers fan favorite, to compete with Perez and Eric Gagne for one of the final two spots in the rotation.

The challenge echoed all the way to Santo Domingo, where Perez had retreated to straighten out his mechanics and his life.

The Bulldog, as Tommy Lasorda long ago nicknamed Hershiser, is not going to go quietly to the bullpen, where he finished last season with the New York Mets. It's up to Perez to put him there.

``Carlos has to re-establish who he is,'' Malone said one day last week.

Malone was sitting in his golf cart in the middle of an empty field at Dodgertown as he spoke, waiting out an afternoon shower. The tail end of last year's squall perhaps?

Malone's first season in the Dodgers front office was so stormy, it's a wonder it wasn't tracked by the Weather channel. The clouds rolled in during May and stayed through September.

Malone's mouth got him in trouble early: His ``there's a new sheriff in town'' quote has become so familiar it belongs in Bartlett's. And Perez's arm was Malone's undoing late.

Perez was in Triple-A Albuquerque by the All-Star break. He was dropping his elbow and pushing his fastball instead of throwing it. As a result, the pitch was as flat as a pancake and batters were digging in hungrily.

It wasn't long before the same people who had applauded Malone for his moxie in locking up Perez's services began lambasting him for his folly. Perez couldn't win and neither, it seemed, could Malone.

Like a captain and his ship, Malone and Perez are inextricably bound. If the pitcher sinks this season, Malone could go down with him. So if it seemed Malone was reaching for positives when he went on about the 13 scoreless innings over three games that Perez pitched during winter ball in his native Dominican Republic, well, no one ever said all liferafts are sturdy.

''I know Carlos has a ways to go,'' Malone said. ''I'm encouraged by what I've seen is all. He's committed. It looks like he has the hunger he lost last year.''

Contracts are handed out all the time in professional sports and sometimes have the same effect on the athlete as diet pills. Appetites are sated, production is lost. It's the general manager's job to try to distinguish between hunger and mere cravings.

It isn't always easy.

The contract that will pay Perez $5 million this year and $7.5 million in 2001 ``was based on the Carlos Perez we had seen in 1998,'' Malone said. ``But as soon as we made that commitment, that Carlos Perez didn't show up. Maybe he took things for granted, relaxed a little. He's such a competitor, I would never have thought that would have happened.''

Malone stopped, stared into space. For a second or two he was lost in his thoughts. ``How do you control that? That can really bother you. I've always prided myself on knowing players' make-ups.''

In Hershiser, Malone knew exactly what he was getting: someone with command of both the strike zone and the clubhouse.

Until this spring, the only link Hershiser and Perez shared was a dubious one; in a 12-6 loss at Oakland last June, Perez became the first Dodgers pitcher since Hershiser in 1994 to allow four home runs in one game.

Hershiser, 41, knows he is competing against Perez for a spot in the starting rotation. It hasn't stopped him from consorting with Perez. The other day at Dodgertown the two pitchers were part of the same group sent off to Holman Stadium for fielding work.

Perez made a couple of sparkling plays on infield grounders and Hershiser patted him and brayed, ``Number 33 in your program, Number One in your corazon.''

``I've already told Carlos up front that whatever he needs, I'm here for him,'' said Hershiser, who told Octavio Dotel the same thing last season and proceeded to mentor Dotel right into the Mets' starting rotation, at his own expense.

``I hope Carlos gets his fastball back,'' Hershiser said. ``I hope he throws his great change-up for strikes. I hope his breaking ball flusters hitters.''

Trust us, not as much as Malone.