Whitson Arrives to Say Goodby

Ed Whitson has walked through the visitors’ clubhouse door hundreds of times at Riverfront Stadium. You could blindfold him and Whitson still could walk through the lounge, down the hallway, and across the room to find his locker.

Only this day was different.

This day, Whitson would say, was the most difficult of his baseball career.

Whitson closed his eyes momentarily, took a deep breath, and gingerly walked into the Padre clubhouse. There was no locker awaiting this time. No uniform with his name on it was hanging in his cubicle. Only a box-full of baseball equipment he left behind in Yuma, Ariz.

Whitson, who very well could have been the opening day starter for the Padres today, came to see goodby.

“It’s tough, very tough,” Whitson said. “It’s good to see the guys and all, but you see them trying their uniform on, getting ready for the season, and you want to be a part of it.

“That’s when it hits you.

“Because you can’t.”

Whitson, who was diagnosed two weeks ago with a torn ligament in his right elbow, never will be able to pitch again. Maybe if he was 10 years younger, he said, he could undergo surgery and come back two years later. But he’ll be 37 in May, and it’s silly for him to even envision such notions.

“I just pray it heals by itself, and then I can live a normal life with my family,” Whitson said. “That’s the most important thing in my life. Baseball is second.”

Whitson, who hopes to join the Pro Bass Circuit or become a major league pitching coach, probably won’t be able to announce his retirement from baseball until the end of the season. He’s still being paid $1 million in the final year of his contract, and he certainly doesn’t want to forfeit his salary. But for the first time Sunday, he was able to tell his teammates that he was finished with the game of baseball.

“It was hard to see him today, it really was,” said longtime teammate Tony Gwynn. “I know he had a hard time with it, but so did we. It’s hard to even talk about it now.”

Whitson, whose career spanned 18 years, says the past two weeks have been difficult. There were nights he cried himself to sleep. There were days he didn’t want to talk to friends. Slowly, he is recovering.

“I still wake up every morning and it (his elbow) sounds like a popcorn machine in there,” he said. “Sometimes my hand is numb or my fingers get this tingly sensation.

“But I’ll be fine.

“Mentally, I’ll get there.”

Whitson wonders aloud if this was his fate. After all, it was when he was home during his elbow surgery last July that his wife became pregnant. It was a complete surprise, considering their last child was born nine years ago, and there were two miscarriages in between.

Now, his arm gives out, just days before his son is born in March, forcing him to be home with his family.

“It’s the greatest thing that could have happened to me,” Whitson said. “I can’t believe how great it is to have a little one around the house again.

“Maybe the Good Man planned it this way. I mean, by all rights, we never should have had a baby.

“Then, bang, here we are.

“Bang, here I go.”

Whitson paused momentarily, and was posed a question: If someone said you could have a baby son, but only on the condition of prematurely ending your career, would you do it?

“I would have done it in a second,” Whitson said. “It’s almost like that’s what happened. We wanted a baby so bad, and it’s like someone told me, ‘OK, now you have to stay home with the baby.’

“I couldn’t ask for anything more, could I?”

Padre shortstop Tony Fernandez is questionable for today’s game because of a bone bruise at the base of his right thumb, but said he remains optimistic he’ll be in the opening day lineup.

Fernandez jammed his thumb in Las Vegas, and didn’t even take batting practice Sunday in the Padres’ workouts. If he does play, however, he doesn’t believe he’ll be able to bat right-handed.

“The swelling’s gone down,” Fernandez said, “but it’s still very sore. I just need rest right now.”

Fernandez said the injury is related to the surgery that was performed last October when he had the ulnar collateral ligament reconstructed.

Padres Notes

Padre pitcher Larry Andersen said it probably was best the Padres placed him on the disabled list with his inflamed right shoulder. “I would have been reluctant to air it out,” Andersen said, “so they probably made the right move. I certainly wouldn’t have been at 100% during this series.” Andersen is eligible to come off the disabled list on Sunday, for the final game of the four-game series against the Dodgers. The Padres may not activate him until Tuesday, April 14, however, considering Monday is an off-day. . . . Although he said he wasn’t running for office, no one apparently paid attention. Padre pitcher Andy Benes was selected as the Padres’ player representative. “Oh well,” he said, “at least most of the work is done already. The season should be the easy part, just listening to guys’ complaints.” . . . Padre Manager Greg Riddoch walked into the team meeting Sunday with size-13, high-top baseball cleats, breaking everyone up. He took them from first baseman Fred McGriff’s locker. “Who says you have to grow up in this game,” Riddoch said, laughing. . . . Several Padres were laughing at the irony that Bip Roberts will start the season at second base for the Reds, the position he despised last season with the Padres. “Let’s see how long it takes before he complains about this,” said one Padre.