Injury Forces Daedelow Out for Rest of Season

What looked like a promising season for Craig Daedelow with the Frederick Keys of the Class-A Carolina League has turned into a long period of disenchantment.

Daedelow, a former Huntington Beach High infielder who is now a utility player, tore a ligament in his left shoulder and hyper-extended his elbow on June 6 when he hit the right-field wall while chasing a ball in a game against Salem (Va.). Daedelow was batting .270 with 15 runs batted in at the time.

He underwent reconstructive surgery and was sent to Florida for rehabilitation. After a month he returned to Southern California, where he is continuing therapy.

“I can’t play catch. I can’t throw,” Daedelow, 22, said. “I saw the doctor today and he said I would be as good as new. But this is frustrating.”

Daedelow said he had his eye on the ball when he rammed into the wall.

“I was running at full speed and jumped to catch the ball,” he said. “It’s plywood, uneven and warped, and I got my glove caught toward the top of it. The arm just tore apart. It was bad.”

Doctors said Daedelow won’t be ready to swing a bat or pick up a glove before the first of next year.

“I have to be careful and use my right arm for everything or the bad arm will go out,” he said. “It’s so weak it could tear again.”

Daedelow, selected by the Baltimore Orioles in the 29th round of the 1994 amateur draft, thought this was going to be his breakthrough season.

“I was having a pretty good year and playing well,” he said. “A lot of things are happening now [in the organization] and maybe I had a chance to move up to double-A.

“This stinks ‘cause I missed the entire second half. But as far as coming back, I should be fine.”

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Rod McCall, former Rancho Alamitos High and Orange Coast College standout, said he has reached the part of his career that no player wants to face.

A nine-year minor league veteran who has never played in the majors, McCall, 27, is hitting .252 with the triple-A Iowa Cubs.

He has 27 home runs, which puts him on pace to break the club record for most home runs in a season (34). He also has struck out 130 times in 93 games, which puts him on schedule to break another club single-season mark. Though he hit 11 home runs in July, McCall is striking out 44% of the time.

That kind of streaky hitting, coupled with McCall’s admitted inability to impress with his glove at first base, is scaring away big league teams.

“My career has been going slow,” he said. “But I’m hanging in there. I’m trying to battle through this and get to the big leagues. I’ve been in the minors a long time.”

Iowa Manager Terry Kennedy said McCall might not be back in an Iowa uniform next season.

“He can get into a groove and when he’s there, like in July, he can really carry us,” Kennedy said. “But he’s very streaky. Probably, in this organization, there’s not too much of a shot for Rod.”

Kennedy said he told McCall this season that if he had hopes of being promoted, he had to become more successful at putting the ball into play with two strikes on him.

“He has to be more consistent,” Kennedy said. “He knows that, and to his credit he’s working on it.”

McCall, a resident of Stanton in the off-season, was a four-sport letterman at Rancho Alamitos. He was selected by Cleveland in the ninth round of the 1990 amateur draft but has bounced between 11 minor league teams. He was acquired by the Cubs a little more than a year ago.

McCall, who is 6 feet 7 and 235 pounds, said he is thinking about playing in Japan or Taiwan next season.

“He’s done a great job for me here, but that wouldn’t be a bad idea at this stage in his career to go to Japan,” Kennedy said. “A lot of minor leaguers go over there and make a good living.”

McCall still hopes for one last shot at the majors.

“It’s been tough for me,” he said, “but if I ever get up there, it will be worth it.”

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The Seattle Mariners, trying to get back into the American League West pennant race, attempted to strengthen their bullpen by calling up former Ocean View High pitcher David Holdridge on July 31.

Holdridge had a 5-5 record and a 3.55 earned-run average for the Mariners’ triple-A team in Tacoma. He was the main set-up man in a bullpen that included two other top relievers, according to Tacoma Rainiers spokesman Kevin Kalal. “He had a really strong spring for us and he just went on from there,” Kalal said. “He was one of three closers for us and so they often used him for a couple of innings before they brought in one of the other guys.”

Holdridge has made one appearance for Seattle, facing three batters during a 9-3 victory at Detroit on Saturday. He had a strikeout to end the eighth inning, but surrendered an infield hit and a walk in the ninth before being replaced.

This is the first major league assignment for Holdridge, 29, who had 66 strikeouts in 63 1/3 innings at Tacoma.

Holdridge, who is 6 feet 3 and 190 pounds, signed with Seattle as a minor league free agent in 1996. He was originally drafted by the Angels in the first round of the June, 1987 draft. Last year, in 15 appearances for Tacoma, he was 1-1 with a 2.96 ERA.