Jordan Nurses Grudge Against Dodgers

Brian Jordan, who will turn 37 Monday, has a new team, league and challenge, and feels as though he’s “starting all over again.”

He is ticketed to play right field for the Texas Rangers, but he probably will go only as far as his left knee will carry him, which wasn’t very far when it came to his previous challenge.

Obtained with Odalis Perez in the January 2002 trade that sent Gary Sheffield to the Atlanta Braves, Jordan tried to fill that offensive void for the Dodgers and provide the leadership for which he is noted. The attempt ultimately collapsed when his left knee did.

Jordan, who had surgery in October 2002 and again in July 2003, reflected on his two years in Los Angeles with frustration and anger -- his words -- over the physical breakdown and the medical response to it.

With the 2004 season starting in a week, Jordan is still strengthening the knee and is sidelined after tweaking it in a midweek game.

“I would have loved to be 100% and played a full season for the fans in L.A.,” Jordan said, “but I felt like I was cheated out of that. If I had been allowed to heal before being put back on the field, it might have been different, but I never really had a chance to get healthy, and there’s some part of that I’m still angry about.”

History is ripe for the revisionist. In Jordan’s case, it’s difficult to get a complete picture of what transpired medically in his two years with the Dodgers. Dr. Ralph Gambardella, who performed the first surgery and is a club physician, cited new and tougher federal statutes that prevent him from discussing a patient without authorization.

According to Jordan, he began feeling discomfort in the knee in midsummer 2002, his first season with the Dodgers, had an MRI test, was told it was nothing more than tendinitis, and continued to play. He was put on the disabled list in mid-August because of a lower back strain but rebounded big time in September, winning the National League’s player-of-the-month award, and finished that year with a .285 average, 18 home runs and 80 runs batted in.

Two days after the season ended he had surgery to repair a partial tear of the patella tendon.

“The same MRI by which I was diagnosed with tendinitis was the same MRI that was used when they decided I needed surgery almost as soon as the season ended,” Jordan said. “So, what does that tell me? It tells me I wasn’t told the truth when I originally hurt the knee.”

Club officials said Jordan was aware at the time of the MRI test that he might need postseason surgery, and Gambardella, speaking generally, said he would never base treatment on a diagnostic scan alone, that a physical examination and the patient’s history would factor in as well, and that the decision was almost always left to the patient after he fully understood the risk-to-benefit ratio.

In this case, Jordan not only believes that he was lied to and allowed to play with an injury that would require surgery, he believes that he was allowed to come back too soon from the surgery.

“I’ve been told by a lot of doctors that there was no way I should have been back on the field in four months, playing with the Dodgers in spring training,” Jordan said. “But I was cleared to play, told I had to battle through the pain to build endurance, so as a player getting paid a lot of money, you’re basically in a difficult situation and have to do what you’re told.

“I tried to play as hard as I could, but in June, because the knee wasn’t ready, I beat out a ball in San Francisco, felt the knee go, and that was my season, although the Dodgers wanted me to wait until August or September again and see if I could play through it, which was an insult.

“I mean, everyone knows I have a football mentality [from his years in the NFL] and I’m basically out there at risk, sucking up pain, and it’s unfair to an athlete that he’s not told the truth and given all the options so he can make a legitimate decision. The point is, I wasn’t going to make the same mistake the second time around, which is why I decided to have the surgery almost right away and start preparing for my future.”

This time, Jordan rejected the Dodger doctors and traveled to Colorado, where Dr. Richard Steadman, surgeon to skiers, performed the surgery July 11, basically ending Jordan’s tenure in Los Angeles.

“It was a difficult time for Brian,” said Derrick Hall, the Dodgers’ departing senior vice president of communications. “I’m sure he wanted to be with his teammates in Los Angeles every day, but for the most part he was rehabilitating at his home in Atlanta after the second surgery.”

If that caused clubhouse consternation, the Dodgers had bigger issues to deal with as their offense was among the major leagues’ worst.

Jordan went out having appeared in only 66 games last year, hitting six home runs with 28 RBIs and a .299 average while being paid $9.6 million.

The Dodgers paid an additional $2.5 million to buy out his $10.5-million option for 2004.

“I don’t want to stir up any craziness about what happened out there,” Jordan said, “but the truth is the truth. My career was at risk, the way everything was handled medically, so they certainly didn’t do me any favors. It was frustrating and unfortunate, but I’m just happy to be working my way back.”

Now hopeful of helping fill part of the 300-RBI and 109-home run void left by the departures of Alex Rodriguez, Juan Gonzalez and Rafael Palmeiro, Jordan said there had been other offers but that he’d accepted the Rangers’ $1.375-million proposition for 2004 because it was the best opportunity to play regularly.

“I also respect [General Manager] John Hart for what he did [with the Cleveland Indians] and the gutsy move he and the Rangers made in trading A-Rod,” Jordan said. “I think in the long run, it’s going to help the organization.

“The younger guys have a chance to step up and play for one another, instead of sitting around, hoping A-Rod carries them. It gives the organization a chance to make more moves financially, and it’s definitely a fresh start for me, a new challenge, younger guys, a great opportunity. I should be 100% by opening day, and as long as I stay healthy, I still have the skills to play another two or three years.”

Optimism reigns in the spring, but Jordan and the Rangers have taken a cautious approach to the knee. A third operation would be one too many, no matter who performed it and when.

Bobby and Bubba

The unrelated Crosby boys have people crooning.

That’s a surprise in the case of Bobby only in that it is happening so quickly in his evolution as Miguel Tejada’s replacement as the Oakland Athletic shortstop.

It’s a total surprise in Bubba’s case. He was a first-round draft choice of the Dodgers in 1998, but he had only one big league at-bat in six seasons before being traded to the New York Yankees last June for Robin Ventura.

A career that was going nowhere seemed buried even deeper amid the talent-rich Yankees, but then opportunity knocked this spring when Bernie Williams had an appendectomy, giving Crosby more playing time.

A .400-plus average, an inside-the-park grand slam and a highlight-reel outfield catch helped put him on the Yankee charter to Japan for opening day, although it’s not certain he will be on the 25-man roster for Tuesday’s game in Tokyo against the Tampa Bay Devil Rays.

“I really haven’t seen any kind of hiccup in his game,” Manager Joe Torre said.

Whether the Dodgers were watching the same game wasn’t clear, but Bubba wasn’t looking back as he packed for Japan.

“Making a roster like this is a dream come true,” he said.

When it comes to dreams, Bobby, 24, is running a few years ahead of Bubba, 27.

Maybe even a year or two ahead of the A’s expectations when they selected him out of Long Beach State in the first round of the 2001 draft.

Ultimately, the A’s couldn’t afford Tejada, and Crosby’s spectacular production in triple A last year convinced them they didn’t have to go outside the organization to plug the gap.

Although Crosby was hitless in 12 September at-bats, GM Billy Beane is even more convinced now, and scouts working Arizona believe the 6-foot-3, 195-pound Crosby is baseball’s next big, power-hitting shortstop.

In the A’s mold, Crosby began the weekend tied for the club lead in walks and second in home runs with four.

“What’s great about it is that he’s become so much a part of the landscape, the fabric of the club, we don’t even think of him as a rookie,” Beane said, adding that if there was any surprise in his spring performance “it’s how good he’s looked at shortstop, and it’s not just the outstanding plays. His decision making has been outstanding.”

Could be the genes. Crosby’s father, Ed, spent parts of six seasons as a major league infielder and now scouts for the Chicago White Sox.

Gap Closer

The Dodgers’ spring performance has underscored their many frailties, but in a division in which only the San Diego Padres are significantly improved, there’s still one reason for thinking the Dodgers can compete, and that reason is Eric Gagne.

Of course, it’s uncertain how many save opportunities Gagne will get, or how close he can be to perfection again, but he gives the Dodgers a huge edge, considering that the four other teams have significant issues involving their closers:

* The San Francisco Giants could be in serious trouble if Robb Nen, who sat out the 2003 season and has had three shoulder surgeries, continues to experience discomfort. Nen is sidelined by the condition, and Tim Worrell, pivotal in Nen’s absence last year, is now with the Philadelphia Phillies.

* The Padres, with all of their improvements, are counting on Trevor Hoffman to regain his All-Star form at 36, coming off two shoulder surgeries and a year in which he made only nine late-season appearances. Rod Beck, who filled the void last year and was being counted on to be Hoffman’s setup man, has left the Padres indefinitely because of personal problems.

* The Arizona Diamondbacks are hoping Matt Mantei can avoid the physical problems that have put him on the disabled list at least once a season since 1998, except ’99. Mantei has been hit hard while experiencing blister problems this spring, but the Diamondbacks -- unlike the Giants and Padres -- are confident that at least they have a backup in heat-throwing Jose Valverde, who struck out 71 and gave up only 24 hits in 50 1/3 innings last year.

* The Colorado Rockies, amid their usual pitching problems, are moving starter Shawn Chacon into the closer role, even though all of his 71 major league appearances have been as a starter and he had never pitched in consecutive games before being scheduled to try it this weekend.

Meantime, the Dodgers face the challenge of getting to Gagne with a lead, no easy task.

As Manager Jim Tracy has been dismissing concern about the performance of his starting pitchers this spring, American and National League general managers say that Dodger General Manager Paul DePodesta has been telling them he can’t trade Perez for a hitter because Perez is his only starting pitcher performing decently.