Shelby’s Thoughts With Son

First base coach John Shelby, absent for the first week and a half of spring training, joined the Dodgers on Sunday, nine days after his 14-year-old son, Jeremy, was diagnosed with Hodgkin’s disease.

Shelby and his wife, Trina, who live in Lexington, Ky., became concerned when they found a lump on the side of Jeremy’s neck and noticed he was experiencing a shortness of breath when he played basketball.

They took Jeremy, the second oldest of their six children, to a doctor in early February, and several tests and a chest X-ray revealed the presence of two cancerous masses, in his neck and chest.

“I couldn’t believe it; none of us could believe it,” Shelby said. “Every time you hear the word cancer, it’s not real good. It hit us hard. It shook us all up.”

Jeremy has the Stage II form of the disease, which is not as advanced or considered as life-threatening as the Stage III and Stage IV forms. The cancer is localized in the neck and chest and has not spread to other organs. Jeremy began chemotherapy almost immediately--he’ll undergo treatments twice a month--and the disease has an 80% cure rate.

“You hear the 80% cure rate, and in the back of your mind, you start thinking about the other 20%,” said Shelby, who lost an uncle to cancer last year and has an aunt who was recently diagnosed with lung cancer.

“But he was back at school a couple of days after his first chemo, and they say the way you respond after the first one or two treatments is a good indication of how you do.”

Shelby, who played parts of 11 major league seasons for the Baltimore Orioles, Dodgers and Detroit Tigers and is entering his fifth season as a Dodger coach, remained home when the Dodgers opened spring training on Feb. 15.

General Manager Dan Evans told Shelby to take all the time he needed, but Shelby felt comfortable enough with Jeremy’s condition to join the Dodgers for Sunday’s workout.

“I wouldn’t have come down here if I didn’t think God had it under control,” Shelby said. “Jeremy is doing better. He’s progressing. A lot of prayers have been going out, and a lot of prayers have been answered.”

*

Andy Ashby threw about 12 minutes of batting practice Sunday, the first time the Dodger right-hander faced a hitter since last April 12, when he struck out Arizona’s Luis Gonzalez to end the fifth inning of his second start of the season.

“I got [Gonzalez] on a cutter up and in,” Ashby said. “I remember the pitch ... because it hurt ...”

Ashby did not throw another pitch all season. He underwent surgery to repair a torn flexor muscle in his right elbow in June but cleared another hurdle in the recovery process when he threw about 40 pitches to teammates Paul Lo Duca, Shawn Green, Adrian Beltre and Dave Hansen.

“That was the first time I’ve seen a hitter in the box for what seems like five years,” Ashby said. “Overall, I was happy with it. I was a little inconsistent, but it was definitely a good day.”

Though Ashby experienced some control problems, Lo Duca was impressed.

“He had good, late life on his fastball, some good sink, and he threw some good curves,” Lo Duca said. “He was throwing as hard at the end of the session as he was at the beginning. To me, he looks 100% right now.”

Pitching coach Jim Colborn wouldn’t go as far as Lo Duca, but he did see some progress.

“For a guy who came off surgery and threw his first batting practice, he looked pretty good,” Colborn said. “Compared to how Ashby can be, his timing was off a bit. But his arm looked very live.”

Ashby also threw his curve, but he still hasn’t thrown his cut fastball, the pitch that can be most taxing on the elbow.

“That’s up to [the medical staff],” Ashby said. “First, we have to see if anything is going to aggravate the surgery.”

*

Rafael Bournigal, a former shortstop who played parts of seven major league seasons (1992-99) for the Dodgers, Oakland A’s and Seattle Mariners, has been hired by the Dodgers, though his exact title has not yet been determined. Bournigal, who has strong ties to the Dominican Republic, will be very involved in the Dodgers’ Latin American scouting program, and he will also have minor league responsibilities.