Butler’s Illness Raises Awareness

Though doctors have not drawn a connection between Brett Butler’s tonsil cancer and the use of chewing tobacco, news of the Dodger center fielder’s diagnosis heightened awareness in the Angel clubhouse about tobacco’s potential dangers.

After a five-minute conversation about Butler, infielder Rex Hudler took a wad of chewing tobacco out of his mouth and tossed it into a trash can on the way to batting practice.

“Man, I’m going to try to go a whole game without this stuff,” he said. “When you see this happen to a friend like Brett, it really hits close to home. I’m embarrassed to be using it, and I’m thinking about quitting.”

Of a handful of tobacco-chewing players interviewed, none said he would quit on the spot because of Butler, “but I will probably think about quitting, whereas before I wouldn’t have thought twice about it,” shortstop Gary DiSarcina said. “We all know it’s not good for you.”

Several players said they only chew tobacco at the park--”I don’t crave it at all when I’m not playing,” designated hitter Chili Davis said--but because tobacco has become so ingrained in the game, it has become as much a mental dependence for players as a physical addiction.

“I’ll go the whole off-season without it and I don’t miss it,” Hudler said. “But when you come to the park and put the uniform on, you just feel like you want a dip. I’m not proud of it, and I’d like to quit while I’m still playing to feel like I conquered the beast.”

Davis, 36, felt uncomfortable discussing the issue, because he didn’t want to come off as a hypocrite, chewing tobacco while telling kids not to chew.

“It’s not a habit to be proud of, and at one point or another, I hope to be able to quit,” he said. “We all have things in our lives we wish we wouldn’t do, but if you’ve never chewed tobacco, I wouldn’t advise you to start now.”

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Lewis Yocum, Angel team physician, termed Mark Langston’s knee surgery Wednesday “a success,” and trainer Ned Bergert said the prognosis for the left-hander remains the same: Langston should rejoin the Angels in six to eight weeks.

Yocum removed a partial tear in the medial meniscus of Langston’s right knee in an hour-long procedure at Centinela Hospital in Inglewood. The 13-year veteran, 2-1 with a 3.65 earned-run average, was placed on the disabled list for only the third time in his career.

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Right fielder Tim Salmon, who had started all 32 games and snapped a 26-game homerless drought Tuesday, finally got a night off Wednesday. “I went into his office last night and told him I needed it,” Salmon said of his meeting with Manager Marcel Lachemann Tuesday. “I was dragging.” DiSarcina is the only Angel who has started all 33 games. . . . The Angels had 16 home runs in the previous eight games entering Wednesday night, but the last 11 were solo shots. . . . Cleveland outfielder Kenny Lofton entered Wednesday with an American League-leading 22 stolen bases, or more than triple the amount the Angels had (seven) as a team.