Loss of Father Casts Pall on Rapp’s Spring

Pat Rapp has placed several pictures of his father throughout the apartment he’s renting for spring training, and they are the first things he sees when he returns home from workouts.

For now, it’s the best the new Angel pitcher can do to keep the memory of James Lee Rapp alive.

Rapp’s father was fishing in a shallow inter-coastal canal near the family’s home in Sulphur, La., last summer when he contracted a rare bacteria from an oyster bed.

When he woke up the next day, his left leg was severely swollen from the knee down. Two weeks later, on Aug. 20, James Lee Rapp was dead at 55.

“This will be the first time in 10 years he won’t be in spring training for his two-week vacation,” Rapp, 33, said. “It’s tough to take. He fished as much as he could. . . . I couldn’t believe that was the way he went out.”

Rapp and his three brothers were close to their father, often fishing together in the off-season. Since his death, none of the brothers has gone saltwater fishing, and their mother has refused to eat seafood of any kind.

“They think the bacteria might have come in contact with his hands and stayed in his body,” Rapp said. “There could be a million excuses for how he got it, but we don’t really know.

“Before one [surgical procedure] my dad asked the doctor, ‘Why me?’ The doctor said, ‘Why is your son a major league baseball player? The chances of that are one in a million.’ He had no answer.”

Rapp is drawing inspiration from his father this spring, but he can’t afford to be consumed by his absence. There is a job to do on the field, where the journeyman right-hander is trying to win a rotation spot with the Angels.

The fact that Rapp has a guaranteed $2-million contract improves his chances, but Rapp, who has a 65-79 career record in eight big-league seasons, can’t assume he’s won a job.

“If I have a spot, I want to keep it, and if not, I want to earn it,” Rapp said. “This is the biggest [guaranteed contract] I’ve ever had, which is nice, but I still have to do the job.”

The well-traveled Rapp, who relies on a cut fastball, sinking fastball, curve and changeup, split 1997 between Florida and San Francisco and spent the next three seasons at Kansas City, Baltimore and Boston. He has averaged 168 innings the past six years but hasn’t had a winning record since 1995, when he went 14-7 with a 3.44 earned-run average for the Marlins.

“Innings are what these guys needed in the past, and that’s what they’re looking for,” said Rapp, who has been on the disabled list only once, when he strained a rib-cage muscle swinging a bat in 1997. “I want to stay healthy and give them innings. Some wins would be nice too.”

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Shawn Wooten, who hopes to push Jorge Fabregas for the backup catching job, suffered the first injury of spring when his right knee, which was surgically repaired in October, swelled up, forcing him to the sidelines Saturday. Trainers believe the inflammation was caused by the breakdown of scar tissue, and Wooten, who had cartilage removed from the knee, is not expected to be out for long. . . . Right-hander Matt Wise, who has struggled to keep weight on his lanky 6-foot-4 frame, gained 20 pounds over the winter, lifting weights and eating “a lot of In-N-Out burgers” to jump from 177 to 197 pounds. But in the first three days of camp, Wise already has lost three pounds.