Fateful Elbow Injury Throws a Curve, but Bruin Handles It

There were two out in the fifth inning Friday afternoon at Tucson, and John Phillips was on in relief, throwing his first pitch, a fastball, when he felt it.

Pop.

Again.

He knew what it was. When a pitcher has had arm surgery, he knows nearly as much about the appendage as an orthopedic surgeon, and Phillips’ right arm has been opened more often than a philanthropist’s wallet.

“I felt it pull in the elbow,” said Phillips, a UCLA senior from Fresno. “But I struck the guy out on a slider and two fastballs.

“I went in the dugout and told myself, ‘I’m not coming out, no way. I’ll throw through it.’ ”

He got three up and three down in the sixth inning, striking out another batter, before yielding to Bobby Roe.

Monday night, Phillips learned he probably will never pitch again.

Once a high-school phenom, drafted in the 10th round by the Oakland Athletics in 1993, he has paid a price for his competitiveness, for starting on Tuesdays and closing on Fridays in high school because “that’s what looked like the best chance we had to win.”

He pitched 114 innings in his junior year at Fresno Bullard, 107 in his senior year, when he should have been pitching 60, maybe 70. And that was besides all those innings of summer ball, of scout team ball, perhaps 200 or more innings in a year.

It was no wonder that he felt the first twinge as a UCLA freshman. A bone spur was found and removed. A year later, another was taken out. Each time he recovered, coming back with his 90-mph fastball. But then, one day it was 1996 and there was another pop, and coming back wasn’t so easy.

Ulnar collateral ligament reconstruction is doctor talk. For years, though, it has been “Tommy John surgery,” to baseball players, named for a pitcher whose major league career was prolonged when doctors took a tendon from his right wrist and transplanted it in his left, or pitching, elbow where a ligament had torn. Once considered the last bastion for a pitcher trying to hang on, it’s increasingly used on younger players now.

John Phillips had it on April 16, 1996. He was 21.

He pitched again 10 1/2 months later, after a redshirt season, in a 1997 tournament in the Metrodome at Minneapolis.

He was 1-0 last season and the New York Yankees believed he had enough potential to take a draft flier on him, but advised him to return to UCLA and see if he could pitch as a fifth-year senior.

“I didn’t have any pain at the beginning of [this] season,” he said. “But then it started hurting again. I figured, if I don’t pitch, my career is over and if I do pitch and get hurt, my career is over. So why not pitch?”

He did, and his career is over . . . probably. An incurable optimist, he heard the doctors say, “Give it a rest for a month or so and if you want to go back on the mound and try it, you can’t hurt it any more.”

“Who knows?” he said. “Maybe a miracle.”

More likely, he can take advantage of a degree in geography and environmental studies, which he will receive in June. He chose to go to college instead of signing with Oakland so long ago because the A’s didn’t offer enough money.

“Now, what I have is priceless,” he said. “I wouldn’t take a million dollars for my college education.”

NOWHERE TO HIDE

Eric Munson, USC’s All-American catcher, might consider wearing his mask everywhere after being hit by a foul ball during batting practice Friday at Dedeaux Field.

Munson was standing behind the batting cage when a foul ball hit a tiny gap between the cage and the ground, bounced up and hit him just above the left eye, which swelled shut. The injury kept him out of a weekend series against Arizona State.

Munson, hitting .382 with eight homers and a team-high 30 runs batted in, is expected back this week.

NOT AGAIN

Trojan center fielder Greg Hanolan, who missed 26 games last season because of a dislocated shoulder, suffered the same injury Saturday in the first game of a doubleheader with Arizona State when he made a diving catch in the second inning. His status is yet to be determined.

Hanolan is batting .311.

TERRIFIC AT THE TOP

The first three batters in the Cal State Fullerton lineup carried the load in a 4-0 week, with leadoff hitter Reed Johnson going 11 for 20, No. 2 hitter Greg Jacobs going nine for 14 with six walks, and center fielder Chris Beck going nine for 17.

Johnson had 15 RBIs in the four games and, after hitting one homer in two seasons, had three in three games, one a grand slam Saturday at Cal Poly San Luis Obispo.

The Titan pitching staff has an earned-run average of 2.89, a key to Fullerton’s winning eight games in a row and 12 of 13. The Titans are 6-0 in the Big West Conference going into this weekend’s series against Long Beach State.

BUNTS

Cal State Northridge’s Tim Baron (2-3) will have a little extra incentive tonight when he pitches against his former Fullerton teammates. The Titans had decided Baron wasn’t going to help them, prompting his transfer to Northridge. . . . Fullerton is 18-6, with four of its losses at the hands of top-10 teams: two to No. 1 Stanford, one to Alabama and one to USC.