Padres’ Gwynn May Miss Month With an Injury : Damage to Index Finger Likely to Require Surgery

Tony Gwynn’s injured index finger forced him to leave an exhibition game Wednesday and probably will require tendon surgery that could keep the Padres’ best player out of action for at least a month.

“It looks like surgery is my last option. It doesn’t look like there’s any other way,” Gwynn said Wednesday, standing outside his hotel room still in his uniform three hours after he left the game. “If I got to have it, I got to have it.”

Gwynn will attempt to take batting practice this morning before making any decision.

On his first-inning groundout against the Milwaukee Brewers Wednesday, pain shot through the index finger on Gwynn’s left hand. This is the same finger that has been bothering him since last June, locking up in a curled position after certain at-bats.

Gwynn took the field after the grounder and could not close the finger far enough to play catch. When he came in after the inning, he took himself out.

Having tried two months of rest last winter, and then a shot of cortisone last weekend, his final choice of treatment is surgery.

Doctors have told Gwynn his recovery time would be four weeks, which, depending on the surgery date, could return him to the team after the first week of the regular season. But that is still questionable.

“What I want to know is, is that four weeks before he’s back in the lineup?” asked John Boggs, Gwynn’s agent. “Or is that four weeks before he can even pick up a bat?

“Based on its location on his hand, that surgery would be in a very tough area for Tony. We’d have to really look at that.”

Said Gwynn: “That’s the biggest problem, the incision point. It would be right where I grab the bat. I don’t know how that would affect me.”

Scripps Clinic would not allow media access to the attending team physician, Paul Hirshman. But according to Padre trainer Dick Dent: “Dr. Hirshman told me, and I quote, ‘It’s a very simple operation.’ ”

According to Dent, doctors would “snip a pulley” through which the index finger tendon passes. Because the tendon is now swollen, it frequently gets caught in the pulley, therefore causing the locking and pain.

“People have to understand, they just go in and snip the pulley, and away Tony goes,” Dent said. “It isn’t like knee surgery or anything.”

If Gwynn doesn’t like what happens in batting practice today, his first step would be further examination by Hirshman and a hand specialist.

“The doctors could just decide that the cortisone needs more time to run its course,” Dent said. “That’s why I’d prefer to say it’s still a day-to-day thing.”

But Gwynn sounds convinced.

“I want to do what’s right,” he said. “I’m fed up with unlocking the finger every time. I can’t keep playing with pain.

“If I have to miss the rest of the spring, so be it. I would rather miss now than during the season. And I will not miss any of this season. This club has a chance to do something, and I want to be there with them.”

The missed time is what makes Gwynn angriest. He had the hand examined last winter, and doctors offered the options of surgery or rest. Gwynn took rest, for two months. On his first trip to the batting cage in January, it locked up again.

After it bothered him again during the first two weeks of spring, Gwynn was offered two options again--surgery or a cortisone shot. He tried cortisone last Saturday, followed by one day of rest.

Then came Wednesday.

“It was a lot worse today than even before the shot,” said Gwynn, last year’s major league leading hitter at .370. “I played with it much of last year and did fine, so I thought I could do it again. Maybe not.”

And what does Manager Larry Bowa think about all this?

“As far as I’m concerned, if he has to have something done, have it done now,” Bowa said. “If he has to miss 40 or 60 days, do it now. I rather have him do that than miss two or three days each week during the season.

“It’s not good when you don’t know whether your best player can play every day or not.”

Bowa said that knowing Tony Gwynn, something is terribly wrong.

“Let me tell you, Tony was in pain, real pain, or he never would have come out of the game,” Bowa said. “He never leaves a game for anything, never for a minor injury or anything. Whatever he needs, get it done now.”