Dravecky Prospects Improve : Baseball: Former Giant pitcher’s left arm will not require amputation, at least for the time being.

For the time being, at least, Dave Dravecky’s left arm will not require amputation, according to a spokeswoman who talked with Dravecky after a checkup Friday.

Jeana Ledbetter, an assistant to Dravecky’s Orange County attorney, said the former San Francisco Giant pitcher informed their office Friday afternoon that his visit to the Sloan Kettering Cancer Center in New York went well.

“He called and said it went very well, as well as it could hope to go,” said Ledbetter, an assistant to attorney Sealy Yates. “He said the doctor gave him a very good report.

“The only thing that will happen is, doctors will continue to monitor his arm and every three months he will be checked. But for now, everything seems fine. He was very excited.”

Dravecky could not be reached for comment.

A week ago, Dravecky was openly worried that a recurrence of cancer in his left arm would necessitate amputation.

“They could possibly have to amputate my arm,” Dravecky said at the time. “We’ve tried everything else. There could be no other choice.”

Dravecky is best known for winning a game for the Giants in August of 1989, 10 months after undergoing surgery for a tumor in his left arm. He retired at the end of the 1989 season and wrote an inspirational book about his comeback. He has spent much of his time since then giving speeches about that comeback.

But late last summer, the comeback stalled when cancer returned to his arm. For eight weeks, he fought it with radiation therapy.

Recent tests did not reveal any new cancer cells, but his meeting with the New York doctors Friday was to examine the results more closely.

“We received many calls and letters from people worried about him,” Ledbetter said. “Everybody around here is very excited by the good news.”

Dravecky said last week, however, that Friday’s checkup was merely one of many hurdles he might have to overcome.

“I know I am not healed, and I don’t know when I will be healed,” Dravecky said at the time. “I know I might not ever know. But thanks to the Lord, I know I can handle it.”