Crying Times for Vizcaino

Jose Vizcaino clings to his father’s memory, helping him get through the day.

Recalling his dad’s hearty laugh and comforting voice enables the Dodger shortstop to complete his work in spring training at Dodgertown. But when Vizcaino returns to the empty home he is renting here, the grief caused by his father’s death two weeks ago overwhelms him, adding to an already stressful stretch.

Vizcaino is coming off surgery on his right ankle after sitting out the last three months of the 1998 season. Mark Grudzielanek has supplanted him as the projected starter at shortstop, and Vizcaino’s name continues to be mentioned in trade talks.

Indeed, these are difficult days for Vizcaino.

“I just sit there [in his house] and cry,” Vizcaino said softly Saturday in the empty clubhouse. “I try not to because I know he would want me to be strong, I know he would want me to be strong like he was, but when I’m sitting there in that house, I just can’t help crying.

“It hurts more than you can [imagine], and I really don’t know how to deal with it. It’s bad during the day [too], but I stay busy during the day. At night . . . there’s nothing I can do. I just wish I could have said goodbye.”

Ceferino Vizcaino was killed Feb. 5 in a traffic accident in his native Dominican Republic. A delivery truck struck the car in which he and two female passengers were riding, killing the 79-year-old Ceferino immediately. The others in the car were unharmed.

Vizcaino learned about the accident when he returned to his home near El Cajon, Calif., that night, seeing his shaken wife waiting for him in their driveway.

“I knew something was wrong as soon as I got there because of that look on her face. I knew something terrible had happened, something that hit her very hard,” Vizcaino said. “Before I could even turn off the car, she just lost it. She didn’t have to tell me it was my father, I saw it on her face.”

Vizcaino traveled to the family’s hometown of San Cristobal later that night, arriving in time for the funeral the following day. He and his brothers and sister comforted one another as they buried their father. Their mother died in 1992.

“My sister-in-law told me he tried to call me three times that day--three times,” Vizcaino said, shaking his head. “He couldn’t get me because I was moving stuff from the [old] house to the new one [Vizcaino recently built], and I kept missing him.

“My father would call me like three times a week, and we would always talk and talk. That’s why it’s strange that we kept missing [each other] that day. That was so strange.”

Ceferino doted on his youngest son, who made him so proud by reaching the major leagues. Ceferino boasted of Jose’s accomplishments throughout the old neighborhood, embarrassing him with praise.

“My father . . . he would tell everyone how proud he is of me because I’m a Dodger, how proud he is of how I take care of my family,” said Vizcaino, who returned to the organization as a free agent before last season after being traded in 1990.

“I’d tell him, ‘Stop,’ but he wouldn’t listen. He came [to the U.S.] for Christmas and he kept telling me how proud he was of me. I still don’t believe he’s gone now.”

Jose and his wife and children remained with their extended family for a week in the Dominican Republic. Pitchers, catchers and players rehabilitating from injuries were scheduled to report to Dodgertown Feb. 18, but the Dodgers would have permitted Vizcaino to arrive later had he requested.

“My family wanted me to be here because they knew it would help me,” Vizcaino said. “They know I have a job to do, and they know this is what my father would want me to do.”

Vizcaino’s teammates are impressed by his focus.

“It’s a very difficult time for Vizzy right now, but he’s shown how dedicated he is to this team by coming in here and getting focused,” said second baseman Eric Young, among Vizcaino’s closest friends on the club. “He’s got a lot he’s dealing with right now, with the death of his father and trying to convince the Dodgers he should be the shortstop, but he’s handling everything as well as you can expect.”

Coach Manny Mota has known Vizcaino since he was a teenager. Mota said the key for Vizcaino is to continue to remember how much joy his father derived from watching him play.

“That will help him separate his off-field problems from his job,” Mota said. “He knows his father is looking down on him, so he’s going to keep playing hard for his father.”

Vizcaino, scheduled to receive $3 million this season in the second year of a three-year, $9.5-million contract, is popular among his teammates, and many hope he regains the starting position because he has been considerably better defensively than Grudzielanek. Of course, as Vizcaino knows well, some situations can’t be controlled.

“My father was here one day and gone the next . . . so you never know what’s going to happen,” he said. “Sometimes, things happen, and you can’t do anything about it.”

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