PUNK OVER PITCHING : RADINSKY WAS MUSICIAN BEFORE TAKING MOUND.

Byline: Kevin Acee Daily News Staff Writer

Scott Radinsky is a punk rocker, a member of the band Pulley. And he is a baseball player, a left-handed relief pitcher for the Dodgers.

In that order.

He is as proud of his ability to take baseball for what it is as he is of his 2.41 ERA last season.

``I call him a good kind of strange,'' said pitching coach Dave Wallace.

``He's his own guy,'' said fellow pitcher Darren Hall. ``He doesn't put a lot of pressure on himself. He's laid back.''

Contorting his face as if he has just been confronted with an impossible mathematical equation, Radinsky asks, ``What is there to take serious?''

That would ruin the game.

``I don't get into depth about baseball,'' he explained. ``I know you can't be a total idiot; you have to have some sort of common sense. But I don't want to break it down and get too analytical about the game itself, because it will take the fun out of it for me. I just enjoy having a good time. Music has been sort of full-time since the ninth grade and baseball is a hobby.''

Make no mistake, however. The casual demeanor, the nothing-is-too-serious attitude belies a deep passion for the game of baseball.

Radinsky doesn't need to verbalize this love. He was raking the pitcher's mound at Simi Valley High School every Tuesday in the spring of 1994. Mondays during that time he would spend six hours receiving chemotherapy.

Radinsky doesn't have to say out loud he would play this game for no money at all. His body weakened from Hodgkin's disease and ravaged by chemo and radiation treatments, he played in a recreational men's baseball league that summer of '94. He paid his $150 like everyone else.

Radinsky doesn't need to explain how he would fight for this job. He missed the entire 1994 season after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's before spring training. He came back to pitch a fifth season for the Chicago White Sox in 1995. He returned home to Los Angeles as a free agent in 1996 and by the end of last season he was showing some of the strength he had before the illness. Despite a two-week stint on the disabled list with tendinitis in his middle finger, Radinsky pitched in 58 games, striking out 48 in 52-1/3 innings. He was 5-1 with a save.

So, no, baseball is not everything for Radinsky. With the birth of daughter Shylene earlier this month, the game slides even further down the list of priorities.

``But if (baseball) wasn't fun, I wouldn't be here,'' he said. ``For an outside person to listen to a ballplayer say he's not doing it for the money, they'd just go, `Yeah right.' But I went home in '94 and was getting chemo treatment, and I paid my 150 bucks to join a baseball league. So obviously I play because I enjoy it.''

Barely a day after returning to Simi Valley for his Hodgkin's treatment, Radinsky asked Mike Scyphers, his old Simi Valley High School coach, if he needed help coaching the team. Scyphers gladly accepted. Radinsky had been working with the Simi pitchers pretty much every January since leaving the school. Now he was there for the whole season. He rode the team bus to every game. He did not miss a practice, except every other Monday when he would go for chemotherapy.

Radinsky also played first base and batted cleanup for the Simi Valley Pirates, a men's team. He pitched only in ``dire save situations.''

Does Scott Radinsky love baseball?

``It was the best summer I've ever had in my life.''

But anyone who knows Radinsky knows he has never been burdened by the immensity of anything.

``He's always been an extremely hard worker when he's on the baseball field,'' said Scyphers, who helped turn Radinsky into a pitcher his junior year. ``But if he didn't have baseball, he'd be fine with it.''

For one thing, he'd have his music.

His teammates think it must be something like golf or fishing. How great it is that Radinsky can go home and strum the guitar to relax after a hard day.

They don't understand. No one does. Certainly not the sportswriters who call what he does rock 'n' roll.

``You don't know nothing about it,'' Radinsky says, declining to discuss music on the sports page. ``It would be misinterpretation.''

Too many times Radinsky has read bogus information about his music and his band. It's punk, not rock. He doesn't play the drums, and he never played any instrument with Jack McDowell's band.

Get it right. This music is no diversion. Baseball is the diversion.

``Since ninth grade I've been in a band,'' he said. ``It was there before baseball.''

PROFILE

Age: 29.

Birthplace: Glendale.

Residence: Simi Valley.

Career highlights: Made major-league debut with Chicago White Sox on Opening Day at Milwaukee. Pitched 1990-93 for the White Sox. . . . Missed 1994 season after after being diagnosed with Hodgkin's disease prior to spring training. . . . Played 1995 season for Chicago. Finished White Sox career 24-16 with a 3.61 ERA and 32 saves. . . . Signed with Dodgers on Jan. 17, 1996. Was 5-1 with a 2.41 ERA last season. Struck out 48 and walked 17 in 52-1/3 innings.

CAPTION(S):

Photo, Box

Photo: (color) Dodgers pitcher Scott Radinsky says that with him, baseball is the sideline, music the main thing.

John Soohoo / L.A. Dodgers

Box: PROFILE (see text)