With Treatment Over, Hoyt Heads to Camp

YUMA, Ariz. — For the longest time, Padre starting pitcher LaMarr Hoyt didn’t think he needed any help.

For the longest time, his attorney, Ron Shapiro, thought Hoyt did.

So they fought.

“How can I go into a treatment center?” Shapiro remembers Hoyt telling him. “I’ve got bills to pay! I’ve got rent to pay!”

Shapiro answered him: “Let’s make a bet! You buy me dinner if after your stay at the rehab center, you think it was a good idea to go.”

“You’re on,” Hoyt told him.

Hoyt lost.

Thursday, he issued the following statement: “This morning, I have completed a chemical dependency treatment program at the Hazelden Foundation in Center City, Minn. At the urging of my advisor (Shapiro), the commissioner’s office and the . . . Padres, I entered the program on Feb. 28, 1986. I did so hesitantly and without fully understanding the scope of my dependency problem.

“During the intervening weeks, I underwent an intense program directed at helping an individual to attain and maintain complete abstinence from mood altering chemicals, including primarily alcohol. As a result of my involvement in the program during the last four weeks, I have come not only to accept the problem I have, but I have also learned that my illness previously affected many important areas of my life, including my health, my career, my reputation and my relationships with others.

“I am pleased that I have been given the opportunity by the Padres and the commissioner of baseball to deal with my problem, and that I have completed the program and gained as much from it as I have. I now look forward to reporting to spring training with the Padres on Friday (today). I am grateful that I have participated in this program before I brought more hurt into my life and that of others. I will now work very hard to cope with my problem, and show the fans of San Diego and throughout baseball that I am committed to my recovery, to the Padres organization and to winning the respect of everyone again.

“I will have no further statement to make until Wednesday, April 2.”

Shapiro has not chosen the restaurant yet, but he was in a gloating mood Thursday.

“He’s doing so very well,” he said.

Why won’t he talk until next Wednesday then? Doctor’s orders.

“See, he’s really got to concentrate on implementing his after-care program immediately,” Shapiro said. “He’s got to get back into a routine first. Then, he’ll talk.”

Hoyt left the rehabilitation center Thursday morning and flew to San Diego.

He’ll be in Yuma today.

He will come alone. Shapiro offered to accompany him, but says Hoyt told him: “Ron, I’ve got to do things on my own. I want you to be near a phone, but let me do this.”

Shapiro says now: “I was so proud of that. So I won’t show up with him. And that’s probably the right thing in a technical after-care point of view. He needs to take the initial steps himself. I’ll be as close to the phone as possible.”

Hoyt had been arrested back in February for possession of marijuana and a switchblade knife, and he is due to be arraigned today. He will not appear, but a future court date will be set. Then there’s the personal side. Can he stay away from alcohol?

“It’ll be a battle for life,” Shapiro said.

Then there’s pitching.

“He’s going to workout (today),” Padre manager Steve Boros said. “If we’ve got to turn on the lights at 11 p.m., he’ll throw off the mound. He’ll probably throw five minutes off the mound for three straight days. That’s what LaMarr suggested to us in a note he sent from the rehabilitation center.

“Then, he’ll be off Monday, throw batting practice Tuesday, be off Wednesday, and, Thursday (against San Diego State), he’ll maybe throw an inning. It depends on his progress.”

If all goes well, Hoyt might be on the opening day roster.

“What we’ll probably do,” Boros said, “is take a young pitcher with us (to Los Angeles for opening day), and we’ll tell him if LaMarr’s ready, he’ll go back to Las Vegas. If not, he might get to spend a couple weeks with us.”