Osuna Says It Feels Great to Be Back

Right-handed reliever Antonio Osuna, fresh from being reinstated off the disabled list, admitted Saturday that he contemplated retiring rather than undergoing surgery on his throwing elbow last year.

But now, Osuna is glad he underwent the procedure to repair a partially torn ligament on Sept. 16 and said that he feels like a new man.

“When the Dodgers told me to make a decision about the surgery I just wanted to go home [to Sinaloa, Mexico],” he said. “Right now I feel like I did when I first started playing baseball, 100%.”

Osuna, 27, sat out most of the 1999 season because of the elbow problem, going 0-0 with a 7.71 earned-run average in five games. His last win was on Aug. 8, 1998 against the Pittsburgh Pirates and his last save came July 1, 1998, at the Texas Rangers.

He began this season with class-A San Bernardino, where he went 0-2 with a 4.91 ERA in three starts for the Stampede.

Osuna then made three appearances with triple-A Albuquerque, giving up two hits in 5 2/3 innings while not giving up a run.

The rehab made his arm stronger, Osuna said, and his velocity is still in the mid-90s as he added a split-finger fastball to his repertoire of pitches--fastball, changeup and slider.

His Albuquerque Dukes traveling bag still in his locker, Osuna said he is excited to contribute to the Dodger pitching staff.

“I don’t care,” Osuna said. “I’m prepared for anything--starter, reliever, whatever.”

*

Setup man Mike Fetters, who has experienced swelling in his right (pitching) elbow, was diagnosed with a bruised bone in the back of the elbow.

Fetters, 35, sat out three months of the 1999 season with the Baltimore Orioles because of a strained right elbow and resulting surgery to remove bone chips. Still, he said his current problem is not related to last year’s episode.

“I think it was a gradual thing where I just tried to work my way through it,” Fetters said. “It feels a lot better today. I don’t even want to play catch today. I just want to rest. It should be better in four or five days.”

Fetters thought he injured the elbow pitching during Wednesday night’s 6-4 win over the visiting Atlanta Braves.

“I had nothing,” he said, “and I was still getting them out. I was lucky.”

*

Another day, another Tom Lasorda news conference.

The newly anointed manager of the U.S. Olympic baseball team was presented with his Team USA hat and jersey Saturday afternoon at Dodger Stadium.

Lasorda, the Dodger senior vice president, was joined on the dais by Bob Watson and Bill Bavasi, co-chairmen of the USA baseball selection committee, and Paul Seiler, executive director and CEO of USA Baseball.

For the first time since baseball was added to the Olympics, Team USA will be made up of professionals, though not necessarily major leaguers. The 24-man roster for the Sydney Olympics will most likely be made up of triple-A and double-A players, Seiler said.

TONIGHT

DODGERS’ ERIC GAGNE

(0-2, 3.22 ERA)

vs.

ASTROS’ JOSE LIMA

(1-5, 9.59 ERA)

Dodger Stadium, 5

TV--ESPN. Radio--KXTA (1150), KWKW (1330)

* Update--Gagne is coming off perhaps the best outing of his short career, a seven-inning showing in which he gave up one run and four hits, but lost to Atlanta, 2-1, on Monday. Lima, a professional merengue musician who finished fourth in the National League’s Cy Young voting last season after going 21-10 with a 3.58 ERA, has been singing the blues this year.