THERE IN SPIRIT : DiSarcina Knows About Life on the Disabled List, but Teammates Who’ve Been on DL Have Plenty of Advice

The chair in front of Gary DiSarcina’s locker was never empty. The player who many believe to be the heart and soul of the Angels may have made like the invisible man for the first couple weeks of the season, but Charlie O’Brien made good use of his chair as a coat rack and coffee table.

DiSarcina was in what he calls “stealth mode,” coming in an hour before game time, working out and then slipping out early.

He had suffered the pain of a freak injury on the first day of spring training--a bone in his left forearm was fractured when he walked into a fungo bat swung by coach George Hendrick--and then the utter frustration of having to undergo a second surgery--a titanium plate secured by seven screws was inserted--after the fracture failed to heal properly.

But DiSarcina, who figures to be out until the All-Star break, wasn’t just pouting.

“I kept my distance to work things out in my mind, to figure out what I was in store for,” he said. “And I was just staying out of people’s way, the way you’re supposed to when you’re injured.”

DiSarcina, always the do-what’s-best-for-the-team guy, mainly didn’t want to add to the pressure on his replacement. The Angels acquired Andy Sheets, a 27-year-old shortstop, in a trade with the San Diego Padres for catcher Phil Nevin on March 29.

“Andy’s being asked all these questions about filling in and the last thing he needs is to see me sitting over there, looking over his shoulder,” DiSarcina said.

How much of an impact DiSarcina’s absence has had on Sheets’ remarkably good start is debatable, but Sheets has been playing solid defense and his batting average (.304) has exceeded the expectations of even the most-optimistic Angel fan.

DiSarcina has decided to travel with the team to Toronto and Kansas City this week and do a little cheerleading, but teammate Randy Velarde, who knows too well the perils of trying to remain a team leader and rehabilitate an injury at the same time, thinks he might be better off if he stayed home.

“I came out here all the time because I just wanted to be with the guys,” said Velarde, who underwent reconstructive surgery on his right elbow in April of 1997, returned for two days last May and then went back on the disabled list for three months because of an inflamed elbow.

“If I could do mine over, I wouldn’t do it that way again. It’s too easy to let the competitive baseball juices get flowing and try to get back too fast. With my injury, and also with DiSar’s, more isn’t better. I tried to come back too early and it really ended up biting me.”

So far, DiSarcina hasn’t had much trouble dealing with those urges. He has a removable brace on his arm, so he can run and throw, but he understands that he won’t be jumping back in the batting cage any time soon.

“When you can’t dress yourself, you can pretty much forget trying to hit a fastball or catch a line drive,” he said. “When I’m watching a game and catch myself moping about being out or feeling sorry for myself, I have this thing I do to put it in perspective. I try to tie my shoe, and since I can’t, it kind of snaps you back to reality.

“I think it’s better this way, with an injury like this. If it were a shoulder or elbow, you might try to play your way through it and cause more problems.”

DiSarcina had come to terms with the first setback and, after a month in a cast, his arm seemed to be healing properly. He was ready to have the cast removed and begin rehabilitation when a bone scan revealed the bones were not aligned correctly and his hopes of returning a week or two after opening day were dashed.

“He’s going through the same roller-coaster ride I was going through,” Velarde said. “I thought I was ready, you get excited, time gets near, you think you’re ready and all of sudden, boom, the rug’s pulled out from under you.”

The indefatigable Velarde spent much of his time on the DL running a groove in the warning track with foul-pole-to-foul-pole laps and bouncing banter and positive vibes off his teammates. DiSarcina is likely to travel a similar course over the coming months, but Velarde warns it’s no fun run.

“When you’re on the DL for a long period of time, sometimes it seems there’s no light at the end of the tunnel,” he said. “When you win games, everybody’s happy, but you’re a little numb to it. And when you lose, you lose double. It takes twice the toll because you feel like if you were out there, you might have done something to help the team win.”

Right-hander Ken Hill was on the disabled list for 2 1/2 months last season after elbow surgery and often wished he could have done his rehabilitation outside the Angel clubhouse.

“It’s hard, you want to help the club in some capacity,” Hill said. “You know what the guys are going through, but you’re not active and when you come down to it, there’s really nothing you can do. So I just never said much.”

Velarde was hanging with the boys, but if you’re not on the 25-man roster, you’re never really part of the club. And he winces when he recalls the lonely hours spent agonizing over the futility of the present and the uncertainty of the future.

“There’s a lot of dead time because it just takes time to heal and there’s nothing you can do to promote the healing, to speed it up,” Velarde said. “And think about the shock it must have been for DiSar. Initially, he was only supposed to be out a couple of weeks, now it’s the All-Star break. And there’s no guarantee things will be right then.

“You can talk about being callous and having mental toughness on the field, but when you’re injured for a long period of time, you’ve got to be careful because you can literally grind yourself into a wall.”

That’s exactly what the Angels did the last time DiSarcina was injured for an extended period.

Remember the summer of 1995? It was one of the defining seasons of discontent in a franchise history littered with years of disappointment. The Angels led the AL West by 11 games on Aug. 3, DiSarcina was sidelined for six weeks because of a torn ligament in his thumb and the Angels, well, hit the wall.

Thanks to Sheets, DiSarcina’s absence has been less gut wrenching so far in 1999. By the time DiSarcina is ready to return after the All-Star break, it could be a different story. All he can do now is wait and see.

“It’s pretty hard to be a team leader when you’re not out there,” DiSarcina said. “They have to play and I have to get healthy.”