ACT OF FAITH : Dravecky Back With Giants in Miracle Return

He comes to the Class A California League and does major league things like throwing off-speed pitches when behind in the count. So, of course, Dave Dravecky fools the batters; they’re used to seeing that about as often as first-class travel.

That’s nothing, though. The Stockton Ports and the Reno Silver Sox should see how Dravecky is duping the major leagues every day, to say nothing of a large portion of the medical profession.

A junk pitcher has smoked one past them all, beating the odds with a performance that will probably long outlast any accomplishments on the field. Not only did he undergo an operation that removed 50% of one of the most important muscles in his throwing arm, the surgery was to remove a cancerous tumor.

Comeback of the year?

It goes far beyond baseball. A deeply religious man, Dravecky gives thanks for his progress.

“There’s very little difference in how my arm feels,” said Dravecky, who learned late Friday night that he will join the San Francisco Giants early next week. “That’s what’s been so amazing. It’s because of the almighty God. He is in control of the whole situation. I’ve just done my part. But whether I pitch in the major leagues again, it’s been a miracle.”

The doctors have been watching, for this might be a rebirth beyond mere rotator-cuff surgery proportions. The Giants also have been watching, realizing, however unexpectedly, that they are getting another quality starter for the final weeks of the season. And this means that the rest of the National League West should be watching.

Dravecky, 33, has a 62-57 record and a 3.13 earned-run average in a seven-year major league career. But put him in a big game and he becomes a superstar.

With San Diego in 1984, he threw 10 2/3 scoreless innings of relief in the league championship series against the Chicago Cubs and the World Series against Detroit--despite going only 9-8 with eight saves during the regular season. Traded by the Padres to San Francisco on July 4, 1987, in the deal that also sent Kevin Mitchell to the Giants, Dravecky became a full-time starter and was 6-2 with three shutouts in his first 13 appearances.

Once San Francisco reached the playoffs, this time facing the St. Louis Cardinals, he tied the playoff record for fewest hits given up when he pitched a two-hitter in Game 2 at Busch Stadium. He was the Giants’ opening-day pitcher in 1988 and threw a three-hitter against the Dodgers in a 5-1 victory.

The settings have been different lately, but the games equally important to Dravecky.

Playing for the San Jose Giants in Stockton, a full house of 4,000 watched him throw a five-hit shutout in the seven-inning game.

In Reno, a crowd of 4,879, in a stadium that seats 4,000 and averages about 1,000 for Silver Sox games, saw him throw a nine-inning complete game and win, 7-3.

Pitching for the triple-A Phoenix Firebirds in Tucson Friday night, Dravecky went nine innings again, giving up seven hits and two runs, walking none and striking out three in a 3-2 victory.

It didn’t take long for San Francisco Manager Roger Craig to hear about that outing.

“He (Dravecky) already has three complete games in rehab,” Craig said. “And that’s as many as anybody up here has. This guy is an amazing man, an amazing person, and he’s on his way home.”

Said San Jose Manager Duane Espy after Dravecky had beaten Reno July 29:

“He said this compares right up there with the two-hit shutout he threw in the playoffs. He said in a lot of ways it’s hard to distinguish feelings between the two. Maybe it’s not supposed to be that way, but here’s a guy who wasn’t even supposed to be able to take his wallet out of his back pocket or comb his hair.”

Said Reno Manager Eli Grba, the former Angel and New York Yankee pitcher: “When somebody told me he was throwing, I said, ‘Wow, already?’ I don’t think he’s back to where he was in ‘88, but he had a very good slider. He had very good movement on most all his pitches.”

The cancer was unrelated to any of Dravecky’s other arm problems in 1988, the stiffness in the shoulder that resulted in him going on the 21-day disabled list or the subsequent arthroscopic surgery to repair a partially detached biceps tendon. The left arm, his livelihood, had some problems, but none to the extent he would soon discover. None to the extent that it could become life-threatening.

By the time Dravecky and his wife went to the Cleveland Clinic in the fall, the growth in the arm had become half the size of a golf ball, sticking out of the arm at the valley between the deltoid muscle on the shoulder and the biceps slightly above the elbow.

But they suspected it was nothing more than a buildup of scar tissue from previous arm problems. They had been given no reason to believe anything else.

Dravecky, having already left the Giants and gone home to Indiana before the end of the season, learned about the cancer that day. Sitting in a room with his wife, Janice, they heard through an open door as doctors nearby put the X-rays on a light board and discussed the findings. The diagnosis was cancer, and the Draveckys heard the worst before doctors could break it to them properly.

“There was no one to blame for that,” Dravecky said. “I guess my wife and I just have very good hearing.”

They also had control. Before anyone came in, the Draveckys held an impromptu prayer session in the office where they waited. And then they accepted the diagnosis and moved forward.

“It all happened very fast,” said Dravecky, the father of two. “Over this whole period of time, we weren’t sure what I had, but we didn’t think we were dealing with a tumor. So when the Giants wanted me to see the doctor in Ohio on the recommendation of Dr. (K. Gordon) Campbell (the team physician), all we anticipated was further follow-up.”

As it turned out, doctors did a biopsy two days after the jolting news at the Cleveland Clinic. Dravecky was awake during the procedure, lying on his back and insisting on a local anesthetic. How this would affect his arm and his future as a pitcher wasn’t discussed very much.

“I wasn’t concerned with my career . . . ,” he said. “I was concerned about my life.”

Doctors determined that Dravecky had a low-grade malignant tumor, a term that is not to be confused with the degree of seriousness. In fact, said George Muschler, the surgeon, statistics show that this kind of cancer comes back to the same location in about half the cases. The more common malignancy will start in one part of the body and jump to another. Dravecky’s form usually doesn’t spread, but often returns.

Muschler performed the seven-hour operation last Oct. 7, and subsequent examinations have shown no cancer. Additional precautionary checks await, but so far, the patient said, there is no discomfort, no pain and no signs of trouble. Things couldn’t have gone much better.

“It’s hard to say how surprised we all were when we heard he was going to come back this season,” said Carlos Alfonso, who as the Giants’ director of player development is helping to oversee Dravecky’s progress. “But I can say this: To me, it’s already a huge surprise that he got so far so soon.”

He’s not alone.

Before Friday night’s game, Dravecky acknowledged being surprised that he could be that one rehabilitation start away from rejoining the Giants.

“When I think of that, of pitching in the major leagues this season, I can’t even begin to consider what it will feel like,” he said. “Pitching in the minors, is great, but that would be 12 or 13 times better, with the number of people in the stands, especially if the first game back was at Candlestick, and our team in a pennant drive. It would be, well, I don’t know, overwhelming.”

That would be only fitting. Dave Dravecky has been overwhelming others for months now. Flat-out fooling them.