Hurst Is Hurting, Not Hurt : His Shoulder Is Sore, but That’s All; Padres Unconcerned

It has been called everything from sore to stiff to torn to dislocated to broken. The problem has been publicly diagnosed as being in his bones. Or was that his muscles? Maybe his ligaments?

The talk reached a pitch Wednesday when Bruce Hurst slipped into the Scripps Clinic for a shoulder examination and somebody found out about it and . . .

“I’m driving with my car radio, and I hear this big news report about Hurst’s shoulder and the words ‘rotator cuff’ mentioned,” Padre Manager Jack McKeon said. “Rotator cuff, seriously. I started laughing. I really started laughing.”

But $5.25-million pitcher Bruce Hurst, who has had two examinations on his left shoulder this spring and often complained of stiffness, is not laughing.

So what is it? Is Hurst hurting? Or will he be able to duplicate his spring stats, which have shown no signs of pain as he has gone 4-1 with a 2.70 ERA this spring with 27 strikeouts in 30 innings?

The answer, apparently, is both.

Hurst explained his problem in depth for the first time Friday before the Padres’ 8-5 loss in 10 innings to the Seattle Mariners at Cashman Field here, which finished the Padres’ exhibition season record at 18-8-1, a club record.

Hurst wasn’t the only news here. McKeon announced he is uncertain who will start opening night at third base. Although Randy Ready, Tim Flannery and Luis Salazar will spend the season sharing the job there, most thought Ready would get the ceremonial first start.

The bigger question surrounded Hurst, a question he was glad to answer. The Wednesday examination--a magnetic resonance imagery test that takes a picture of the inside of the shoulder--revealed an “impingement” of the shoulder muscles around the rotator cuff. But the rotator cuff itself looked fine.

Translated? Sore shoulder. Nothing more, nothing less. And guys have won Cy Young awards with sore shoulders.

“You have to understand, impingement is a word that just came around a few years ago,” Padre trainer Dick Dent said. “Before, when a guy had this problem, it was just a sore shoulder. And a lot of guys pitch with sore shoulders. It is just one of the hazards of the game.”

Said Hurst, “There’s a difference between being injured and being hurt. Hurt, you can play through.”

Hurst said it feels good when he is warm and sweating and tightens up when he is cold. He said that although he has been able to control the stiffness with medication and exercises, last week he struggled in the chilly late innings of a 4-2 victory over the Chicago Cubs. It was close enough to the start of the season to convince him to undergo Wednesday’s examination.

The exam was not ordered by doctors. It was requested by Hurst.

“I would rather be safe than sorry,” Hurst said. “It was just for reassurance. They made a big investment in me here, and I want to be healthy, I want to do well, I want to pitch.

“I’d be really disappointed if something happened, and I couldn’t pitch. So I just wanted to be careful. So why not?”

Said Dent: “He wanted it looked at, and we gladly obliged. If it makes a guy feel better, fine. And it certainly can make us feel better.”

This doesn’t mean Hurst will be able to finish early season games in cold weather cities. But this certainly doesn’t mean he can’t make every start.

“This kind of thing happens to most of the pitchers at some time, and I guess it finally had to happen to me,” said Hurst, 31, an eight-year veteran. “I keep doing my medication and exercises, and I can deal with it.”

That said, the Padres must now deal with uncertainty at third base for Monday night’s opener against San Francisco.

When asked rather routinely Friday about the identity of his starting third baseman that night, McKeon said, “I don’t know.”

When asked if he was just being coy, and would say that about all positions, he said, “No.”

When asked how he would make his decision between the three third basemen, he said, “I don’t know.”

In other words Randy Ready, who was listed as McKeon’s starting third baseman when spring training began but has since hit .224 with five errors there, may have officially fallen out of favor. And Tim Flannery, the left-handed hitter who does well against San Francisco opening day right-handed starter Rick Reuschel, is back in the picture. Salazar, who just joined the team as a utility player from Detroit last week, remains a long shot.

The only thing certain is, McKeon isn’t sure.

“One night I think it will be this guy, another night I think it will be another guy,” McKeon said with a smile. “When I’m eating salad, I think it will be Salazar. When I’m eating fish, I think of Flannery. When I’m eating red meat, I think of Ready.”

Seriously, McKeon said, “They are all going to play there this season, so what’s the difference? Nobody is going to get cheated. They are all going to get a chance. Who will be the first starter will have nothing to do with it.”

While Ready lately has not wished to discuss the third base situation, Flannery said while a start would be nice, he realizes it doesn’t mean much over the long haul.

“It’s just one of 162 games, one day in a long season,” said Flannery, hitting .366 this spring while Salazar is hitting .272 with the Padres (.250 overall). “We’ll all get in there and make our contributions, have our months.”

Padre Notes

The Padres blew a 4-1 lead, allowing the Mariners seven runs in the game’s final three innings. Reliever Mark Davis was the culprit, giving up six hits and five runs in 2 1/3 innings after entering in the eighth with a 4-2 lead. Tim Flannery’s 10th inning error allowed the eventual winning run to score. . . . Darnell Coles’ seventh-inning homer off of Walt Terrell Friday was the first against Padre pitching in 98 innings this spring. The last homer was March 19 in Tempe, Ariz. by the Mariners’ Dave Valle off Eric Show. Coles’ homer was followed in the bottom of the inning by an even more amazing feat, a homer by Terrell, who last hit one in the regular season May 23, 1983 against--guess who--the Padres. . . . Padre announcer Rick Monday has been a victim of the season’s first steal--somebody made off with his Toyota Forerunner Thursday night, taking it from his parking spot at a San Diego hotel.