Happy Trails? : Baseball: Angels’ top draft pick Pete Janicki hopes his comeback from arm troubles is successful.

Life is good, Pete Janicki said. Certainly not as bad as it might look to others.

So his baseball career couldn’t be more up in the air if he were riding in the Goodyear blimp.

So he hasn’t pitched more than two innings in two years because of two elbow fractures.

So he hasn’t lived up to expectations as the Angels’ top pick in the 1992 draft.

He said he’s not unhappy. And that’s important as he begins a difficult, perhaps impossible, comeback.

“Actually, I got married on the 24th of July,” he said. “So that’s kept my mind busy. It’s kept my mind off ball.”

His wife’s name is Deidre. They met at a football game during Janicki’s final year at UCLA. She was a University of Washington student, in L.A. for a weekend away from rainy Seattle.

“At first it was kind of rough,” said Janicki, a standout at UCLA and El Dorado High in Placentia. “She met me at some of our away (baseball) games. Then after I got hurt at the Olympic trials last year, we really got to know each other.”

The couple planned to marry next January. They had the date picked, and the arrangements were almost completed.

But in April, Janicki suffered a fracture in his right (pitching) elbow while striking out a batter in the second inning of his first professional game with Class-A Palm Springs. Suddenly, the summer was wide open.

“We had the opportunity to marry outdoors in Seattle,” Janicki said. “We picked a (July) weekend that it had only rained seven times in the last 100 years. We had great weather.”

Now comes word that Janicki can begin rehabilitating his right arm. He said he met Thursday with Dr. Lewis Yocum, the Angels’ orthopedist, to discuss his recovery.

He knows it will be a long, difficult journey back, but he can’t wait. Certainly, the Angels are eager to see how he fares.

“I’m hopeful he can try it again,” said Dan O’Brien, Angel senior vice president of baseball operations. “Everyone really liked him. They were sold on his ability. It’s just a question of time and gaining experience. We have to be careful and prudent, wait and see.”

Janicki is concerned, there’s no question about it. A stress fracture last year and a fracture this season have cast doubts in his mind.

“I’m still in the dark,” he said. “What is causing it? What am I’m going to do differently? I got strong in the arm last time. I was really strong in spring training. I was throwing harder and throwing better than ever before.”

Janicki believes two factors might have led to the fracture this past April. First, he slacked off in his weight lifting once spring training began. He won’t do that again. Second, he reverted to some bad habits in his throwing motion in his first game. He won’t do that again, either.

He can’t forget the agony of that April night in Riverside and the difficult days and nights since then.

Pitching from the stretch, feeling a little tightness, listening to his arm “pop” and walking into another summer of inactivity. That’s what stands out most of all.

In the days, weeks and months since the fracture, Janicki has been troubled by the thought that he could be pitching for the Angels right now. He’s watched the team’s progress and wondered how far he might have gone had he not been injured.

Double A? Triple A? The majors?

He can’t help but feel betrayed by his fragile arm.

“The draft was weird for me,” he said. “I never figured on being at home. Just seeing the guys get drafted . . . all the new faces . . . I look at the organization, and I think I should be there. It’s kind of embarrassing.

“As long as everything goes right, and I start pitching the way I did before, then this is going to be a positive experience. It’s teaching me a lot about being a stronger person. I’ve come back to reality. For a while there I was feeling invincible.”

He hasn’t attended many Angel games this season, finding that sitting and watching can be a painful experience.

“I’m not big on sitting in the stands and watching the game,” Janicki said. “I need something more. I’ve kind of watched them drifting back in the standings, though. I’ve been thinking maybe I could have added something.”

There is one final game Janicki will gladly endure from the stands. When the Texas Rangers come to Anaheim Stadium for a three-game series Sept. 17-19, he’ll be there to watch boyhood idol Nolan Ryan make his last appearance in Orange County.

Like so many youngsters growing up here, Janicki viewed Ryan with awe, dreaming of the day he would strike out batters at Anaheim Stadium.

Knowing he’s so close to realizing that dream has made his injury more troubling.

He is determined not to let it happen again. Next week, he hopes to begin lifting weights in preparation for spring training. He won’t be content, won’t slack off, won’t take a day off.