Joyner Set to Play, but All That’s Left Is a Tour of Japan

Four days removed from the hospital--his once-infected right shin doing fine, thank you--you’d half expect Wally Joyner to hit the beaches, not baseballs.

He certainly has it coming, what with his 100-RBI rookie season and his daily battles with assorted ailments and injuries, including the much publicized infection that forced him to miss the last four games of the American League playoffs.

But there was Joyner Tuesday, in and out of the Angel offices, driving around town in search of visa and passport. Joyner, you see, is going to Japan. To play baseball.

Next Wednesday, he will join a group of major league players, among them Mike Witt of the Angels, Dale Murphy of the Atlanta Braves, and Rich Gedman of the Boston Red Sox, for a barnstorming tour of sorts that will end Nov. 10. Workouts are scheduled for Monday and Tuesday at Dodger Stadium.

So much for rest and relaxation.

Joyner still wears a bandage on his shin. Has to. “I still have to clean it, but it’s getting better every day,” he said. “And I have a scar on my leg for the rest of my life, to remind me of the 1986 postseason episode.”

It’s a tossup as to what was more painful for Joyner, the infection and later, an incision to drain the wound, or missing those four playoff games. How close was Joyner to leaving the hospital and taking a plane to Boston?

“I was real close,” he said. “I had a limo coming at 5:45 in the morning to take me to the airport. I had a plane ticket. I had a flight. I had everything.”

Then he made two calls in the middle of the night, one to Angel Manager Gene Mauch, the other to cancel the limousine reservation.

“I couldn’t help the team,” Joyner said. “I wasn’t going to go if I couldn’t help the team.”

At the time, the Angels were ahead, 2-1, in their series with the Boston Red Sox. And after 11 at-bats, Joyner had 3 runs, 5 hits, 2 RBIs and a .455 batting average.

Then came the infection. Actually, Joyner said, the condition began as early as Aug. 1, when the Angels were in Seattle for a three-game series against the Mariners.

First, he fouled a ball off his right lower shin. Then he slid hard into second base, which didn’t help things. Then, the next day, he fouled another ball off the shin. Afterward, when he felt numbness in the area, Joyner was examined by team trainers.

“They checked me for a broken bone, but nothing was broken,” he said. “It turned out it was a pool of blood that stayed on top of the shin.”

Joyner’s home run production and batting average declined as he attempted to overcome the yet undiagnosed infection, as well as shoulder and ankle troubles.

“I think you could tell the difference,” he said. “I was fighting the infection in my body. It was bothering me, but it was still brewing. During the course of the season, you look past those aches and pains. I was tired, I was complaining that I was tired, if you’ll remember. I tried to put a cap on that.

“At first, there was nothing,” Joyner said. “There was a little redness, but I figured it was just because of the shin bruises. But underneath, deep, there was an infection.”

By the time the playoffs began on Oct. 7, Joyner’s shin had worsened, so much so that four days later he entered the hospital shortly before Game 4 started.

The Angels had a 2-1 advantage, and Dr. Ron Cotliar, the dermatologist treating Joyner, predicted that the first baseman could possibly return in time for Game 6. Joyner even went so far as to tell Mauch that had Sunday’s game been scheduled for the evening, “I could play.”

Joyner watched the Angels overcome a 3-0 Red Sox lead and eventually win Game 4, 4-3. The next day, again from his hospital room, Joyner agonized as the Angels blew a late-inning lead and later lost, 7-6.

Game 6 was scheduled for Tuesday in Boston. Joyner, it was reported, would be there. Tuesday came and Joyner still was in his hospital room. Confusion reigned as Angel management and public relation officials tried to determine what had happened. “He’s coming to Boston. He’s not coming to Boston,” they said. “He’s at home. He’s at the hospital.”

With the confusion, came criticism of how the Angels were handling the situation. Joyner said he took exception to a Times story that questioned the efficiency of the Angel public relations office and director Tim Mead, as well as General Manager Mike Port and Mauch.

“The story goes I was to be in the hospital for 48 hours,” he said. “That was to be the first report.”

And it was. Joyner was to have left the hospital in time to accompany the Angels to Boston. Then, the report was amended to say that Joyner would take a later flight with team physician Dr. Jules Rasinski and arrive in Boston early Tuesday morning. That was before Rasinski visited Joyner at the hospital early Monday night.

“It’s not getting any better,” Joyner told Rasinski. “I can’t play.”

Rasinski and Joyner decided that the first baseman would take an early morning flight. That way, Joyner said, he could get a full night’s rest in the hospital.

Fine. Joyner was given a plane ticket and arrangements were made for a limousine to take him from the hospital to the airport.

“But then 12:30 (Tuesday morning) came around, and Dr. Rasinski had already left for the flight,” Joyner said. “The change was I wasn’t going to be able to play Tuesday night.”

So Joyner picked up the phone. He called Mauch in Boston.

“It was a hard conversation to talk to him,” Joyner said. “I didn’t tell him where I was. He assumed I was at home, which was probably correct since you normally don’t call people at 3:30 (Eastern time).”

By Tuesday night, Joyner’s status finally was explained. He hadn’t made the flight and no one knew Joyner would be a no-show except Mauch, Mead said.

Said Joyner: “It was a bad situation in Boston. It was something no one wanted to happen. But it’s something that happened overnight. I made one phone call, to my boss, Gene Mauch. That’s all I had to do. He told me to get well for the World Series.

“I didn’t think it was fair to Gene or Tim, what happened in the newspapers. Everybody had been told what they needed to know. (The 48-hour hospital stay) . . . that’s what my expectations were then. Because I didn’t heal fast enough, that doesn’t give anybody the right to bury someone in the newspapers. If anybody can be blamed (for the confusion), blame me.”

Now Joyner readies himself for his trip to Tokyo. He said he would change nothing about the way he handled the injury. “I took care of it when I found out about it,” he said. “It had spread too much. Bad timing.”

And Joyner watches the World Series and wishes he were there.

“I’m enjoying it,” he said. “I hope Boston wins.”