Brett Butler Shows That He’s Still a Tough Out

Largely unnoticed, the little guy with the pale eyes and scarred neck returned to Dodger Stadium last week, hugged an old friend in the first row next to the dugout, waved to the folks in the left-field bleachers and coached first base for the Arizona Diamondbacks.

Brett Butler last set foot on the field here in 1997, a year after recovering from throat cancer, and was back Monday, 18 months after recovering from prostate cancer.

He is going on 48, his children are mostly grown, his home outside Atlanta is on the market, and he’s back in the big leagues, now with a pair of reading glasses dangling on a string from his neck.

Other than the occasional dry crackle from his mouth between some syllables, his body still not generating enough saliva since the surgeries, chemotherapy and radiation treatment from almost a decade ago, he is healthy. Again.

A routine prostate-specific antigen (PSA) test in the fall of 2003 brought another fight against cancer, and more radiation, and more, as Butler said, “perspective.”

“It was different this time,” he said. “When you’re dealing with cancer for the first time, when you hear the word ‘cancer’ for the first time, you think your life is over tomorrow. I had my faith. And, the second time around, you’ve already dealt with the mind monsters.”

Butler played only 39 games for the Dodgers in 1996, when he was diagnosed with cancer shortly after spring training. He played another season in Los Angeles, remembered flying out as a pinch-hitter in his final big league at-bat, and was out of baseball until 2002, when he returned to the Dodgers as a spring-training instructor. He was a roving instructor for the New York Mets in 2003 and managed the rookie league Gulf Coast Mets last summer.

He would like to manage in the major leagues and knows that means more preparation in the minors, or in the Arizona Fall League, or in the Latin winter leagues.

But he has time, and he has seen most of those places before, back when he was presumed to be too small to be a major leaguer, in the years before he began what would become a 17-year career.

“I don’t just want to be a manager,” Butler said. “I want to be a great manager. I want to manage in the big leagues for 20 years.”

On his way, he stopped at Dodger Stadium again and found a few people he’d always liked, but mostly moved anonymously, another guy in a purple uniform, carrying a fungo bat and a stopwatch. A very decent guy, and a lucky guy, twice over.

“That’s the baseball life,” he said.

Next: Smoke Signals

Even after running off two executives in the department, Frank McCourt’s Dodgers continue to have their communication troubles.

In the sixth inning of Monday’s game against the Diamondbacks, Manager Jim Tracy decided that left-hander Kelly Wunsch would replace starter Derek Lowe to start the seventh.

When the dugout tried to notify the bullpen, however, the telephone line was dead. Being fresh out of carrier pigeons, Tracy had Brad Penny race to the bullpen door, where he delivered the order in person.

Tracy -- and Wunsch -- caught a break when Jeff Kent saw nine pitches before homering off Javier Vazquez, the long at-bat allowing Wunsch about a dozen more warmup throws.

We don’t know who the Dodgers’ long-distance carrier is, but based on Penny’s dash to the bullpen, it should be Sprint.

Oddly, when Tracy tried to call the bullpen the next night, he was connected to Eric Gagne’s home phone.

Not really.

The good news: Dodger relievers won’t be pestered by fans calling to complain about their seats.

Three Up

Chicago White Sox right-hander Jon Garland has won all four of his starts and has a 1.80 earned-run average. The man is pitching; he has averaged only 3.3 strikeouts per nine innings. Garland, who has won three times on the road -- at Minnesota, Detroit and Oakland -- is scheduled to start today against the Tigers, who are averaging more runs than every team but Baltimore in the American League.

Minnesota’s Joe Mays, who had Tommy John surgery almost two years ago, beat the Kansas City Royals on Wednesday night for his first victory since June 19, 2003.

Mike Swanson, Diamondback public relations man, was rear-ended by an RV going about 30 mph last Saturday in Arizona. He opened his eyes to find the rear window of his car in pieces in his lap and his airbag not deployed, and was taken by ambulance to a nearby hospital.

Ever the gamer, Swanson, who has a plate in his neck from previous surgery, reported for work Saturday night and was in Los Angeles -- moving gingerly -- for last week’s series.

“What else was I going to do?” he asked.

Three Down

St. Louis closer Jason Isringhausen, with a strained abdominal muscle; San Francisco closer Armando Benitez, with a torn hamstring, and Boston ace Curt Schilling, with a bone bruise in his surgically repaired right ankle, were put on the disabled list last week.

Benitez, who will get $21.5 million over the next three seasons, appears to have the most severe injury. He is expected to have surgery and figures to be out at least four months, leaving the Giants with such ninth-inning options as Jeff Fassero, Matt Herges, Scott Eyre and Jim Brower.

The Cardinals turn their ninth innings over to Julian Tavarez and Ray King.

At the moment, none of the National League’s four save leaders from 2004 is saving games. Isringhausen (47), Benitez (47) and Gagne (45) are on the DL, and John Smoltz (44) is in Atlanta’s starting rotation.

With David Wells and Schilling wearing boots, the Red Sox are two skis short of a full Mammoth Mountain rental package, and their rotation looks like this: Matt Clement, Bronson Arroyo, Tim Wakefield, John Halama and, coming soon, Wade Miller.

In the off-season, they passed on re-signing Lowe, who has never been on the disabled list, and Pedro Martinez, who has missed a significant number of starts in only one season.

Bats and Pieces

Nomar Garciaparra, on reporters who accuse players of using steroids, as he was accused in last week’s Boston Globe: “They’re going to say all sorts of stuff because they can’t do what we do.” DOA: Messenger.... Bud Selig’s contract runs out in 2009. George Bush’s deal expires in 2008. Newsday quoted anonymous sources as saying Bush might wish to succeed Selig. Of course, it would ruin his relationship with the House Government Reform Committee. Speaking of the GRC, it subpoenaed seven current and former baseball players for a March 17 steroid hearing to, in essence, it said, save the children of America. Six weeks later, the committee didn’t ask a single active NFL player to attend a similar hearing to investigate steroids in football.... The boys at lively Dodgerthoughts.baseballtoaster.com, seeking a motto for interim Dodger closer Yhency Brazoban, have arrived at “Ghame over.” ... A few injuries and an ill-timed ejection led to outfielder Jermaine Dye’s playing an inning at shortstop for the White Sox on Wednesday night in Oakland. In honor of Don Kessinger, the light hitter who for 15 seasons manned one shortstop position or another in Chicago, Dye was batting .171.... Despite rehiring Manager John Gibbons for two seasons last week, Toronto Blue Jay General Manager J.P. Ricciardi is developing a reputation for capriciousness. In his fourth season with the organization, Ricciardi has had three managers and three pitching coaches. Three other coaches have either been fired or left.... The Schilling-Lou Piniella tiff has nothing on the Schilling-Joe Magrane row. During last Sunday’s brawl in Tampa, TV announcer Magrane noted that the 38-year-old Schilling was “too old for this” and “threw his walker down and tried to make his way out there.” Schilling’s response on Boston radio: “Joe Magrane [was a] tool when he played and he is now. I mean, he’s the kind of guy, when you’re in the clubhouse and the game’s on, you turn the sound down. It’s tiring to listen to, and it’s the same way when he played. But you expect that from people like Joe. That’s how he was when he played. He was an idiot.” Remember when that was a compliment?