DiSarcina Undergoes Surgery on Shoulder

What slim chance Gary DiSarcina has of playing again this season grew skinnier Tuesday when the Angel shortstop underwent arthroscopic surgery to trim a tendon in his right shoulder.

“It’s definitely going to be a while longer, but when that’s going to be, I don’t know,” General Manager Bill Stoneman said. “The procedure was not that invasive, so it’s a little early to write off the whole year.”

DiSarcina, 33, missed all but 12 games of 2000 because of a rotator-cuff tear, which was surgically repaired last May 25. He suffered a tear in another shoulder tendon this spring.

After several weeks of therapy, the pain in DiSarcina’s shoulder persisted, so he chose exploratory surgery. If team physician Lewis Yocum had found a major problem, he would have repaired the tendon tear, and DiSarcina would have been sidelined for another year.

But the injury was considered minor, and Yocum needed only 20 minutes to trim the tendon. DiSarcina returned home to Massachusetts afterward. He will resume rehabilitation next week, and hopes to play again by the end of this season.

Sports Nippon Today in Japan is reporting that the Angels will open the 2002 season in late March against the Seattle Mariners in the Tokyo Dome.

Katy Feeney, baseball’s vice president in charge of scheduling and club relations, said a game in Japan is “under consideration,” but the teams have not been identified. The Mets and Cubs opened the 1999 season in Tokyo.

Seattle, with Japanese outfielder Ichiro Suzuki and closer Kazuhiro Sasaki, and the Angels, with Japanese reliever Shigetoshi Hasegawa, would be natural draws. But an Angel-Mariner matchup in Tokyo appears to be in the formative stages, at best.

“I haven’t heard a thing about it,” closer Troy Percival, the team’s player representative, said Tuesday.

Neither had Tim Mead, the club’s vice president of communications, nor Manager Mike Scioscia.

“Baseball being a global game, any chance to expand on that would be a good opportunity for us and a great experience,” Scioscia said. “But I’ve been on an 11-day [all-star] tour of Japan, and you pay the price [because of the time change] when you come back. I was knocked out for two days.”

Designated hitter Glenallen Hill, sidelined since April 21 because of a strained chest muscle, increased the intensity of his workouts Tuesday, taking early batting practice and running the bases full speed.

Hill, who was batting .135 when he got hurt, has had no setbacks and believes he’ll be ready to be activated this week. The Angels will decide today or Thursday whether he will return in the big leagues or a minor league rehabilitation assignment.

TONIGHT

ANGELS’

ISMAEL VALDES

(2-2, 2.45 ERA)

vs.

WHITE SOX’S

MARK BUEHRLE

(1-3, 5.52 ERA)

Comiskey Park, Chicago, 5 PDT

Radio--KLAC (570), XPRS (1090)

Update--The White Sox pitching staff took a double hit Tuesday. Reliever Antonio Osuna, acquired from the Dodgers for three minor leaguers in March, is out for the year after doctors discovered and repaired a tear in his throwing shoulder while removing a cyst. Starter Jim Parque may also be out for the year because of a shoulder problem, but a final call won’t be made until the left-hander undergoes another examination Thursday.