The Cincinnati Enquirer from Cincinnati, Ohio • Page 31

The Cincinnati Enquirer SPORTS WMMOE Tuesday, April 2, 1996 D5 Elbow nnrgery to sideline Boone Chris Sabo faces left-handed pitchers. Infielder Eric Owens, optioned to Class AAA Indianapolis last week, was recalled to fill Boone's spot on the roster. Boone becomes the sixth Red on the DL, joining outfielder Eric Anthony (separated right shoulder), right-hander Jeff Brantley (fractured right foot), outfielder Thomas Howard (broken right wrist), left-hander Chuck McElroy (strained right hamstring) and right-hander Jose Rijo (elbow). "Sparky (Anderson) said that this is when great players are discovered," Bowden said, trying to maintain a positive outlook. Like most of the Reds, Boone was unavailable for comment after the game was called Monday.

Earlier, before he was scratched from the starting lineup and placed on the DL, he vowed to do anything he could to play. "If there's any way in hell it's possible to be in there, I will be," said Boone, who has missed just six games in each of the last two seasons. "If it hurts, I'm going to be out there. If it's excruciating I'm going to draw the line somewhere." Boone's trouble began last Tuesday, when he hyperextended his elbow while taking extra batting practice before an exhibition game. X-rays taken the next day revealed the bone chip.

He received a cortisone shot Thursday and played in exhibition games Saturday and Sunday, temporarily quelling fears about his playing status. Physicians advised Boone that he probably could survive the schedule and delay surgery until the off-season if he could weather an initial period of discomfort. Boone said, "I don't know if it'll be four days or a week or 10 days." As if Boone didn't have enough to think about, his wife, Suzi, planned to enter a hospital Monday night to prepare to deliver the couple's first child. Boone said their pediatrician considered inducing labor today. "He's saying it's close, it's ready to go, and he wants her in the hospital," Boone said.

"I want whatever's best for the baby." BY CHRIS HAFT The Cincinnati Enquirer Monday was marred for the Reds before umpire John McSherry's death, when they announced that the bone chip in second baseman Bret Boone's right elbow would force him onto the disabled list and sideline him for three to six weeks. Boone spoke bravely about playing through pain before the game, but Reds General Manager Jim Bowden said the gritty infielder "couldn't throw at all" when he tried to take infield practice. Bowden said Boone likely would undergo surgery today or Wednesday. Bowden said Boone planned to consult his father, Kansas City Royals manager Bob Boone, before selecting a doctor to perform the procedure. Jeff Branson, who started 58 games at second base between 1992 and 1994, will occupy that spot in Boone's absence.

Willie Greene probably will inherit Branson's job as the left-handed hitting third baseman in manager Ray Knight's platoon arrangement, starting against right-handed pitchers while The Cincinnati EnquirerSteven M. Herppich Second baseman Bret Boone will undergo elbow surgery this week. Larkin tested for chicken pox Notebook McSherry, crew festive before ballgame began Moments before tragedy struck Monday at Riverfront Stadium, the umpires emerged from their room in a festive, Opening Day mood as they gathered behind home plate and waited to take the field. John McSherry started to walk to the plate after the playing of the Canadian anthem, then got called back because the "Star Spangled Banner" had yet to be played. McSherry came back and joked, "(Former Expos manager) Gene Mauch said Montreal led the world in anthems." Geoff Hobson 'HE LOVED THE GAME': Dodgers center fielder Brett Butler remembers, "Two years ago, I was talking to John and we were talking about his health problems, when he told me, 'You know something? I'd just as soon die out here than anywhere "When I heard about (the death) today, I said, 'Wow, what a way to go.

Opening day. All of the I mean, he loved the game so much, that's the way he wanted it. It was the first thing I thought of when I heard the news." Enquirer news services REMEMBERING FALLEN FRIEND: Paul Runge, chief of the umpiring crew for the opener between the Los Angeles Dodgers and Houston Astros, opened the lid of his trunk to reveal three baseball cards taped to the underside. The pictures were of Dick Stello, Lee Weyer and Nick Bremigan. They, too, were umpires.

They, too, are dead. "I guess," Runge said Monday afternoon, "I'll have to put John up there with them." McSherry worked home plate in Runge's first major-league game, Runge said. They both had more than two decades of service. "It's a pretty tragic deal, isn't it?" Runge said. "You always think you'd have something to say to make sense of it, but I'm at a loss.

"We all knew John was overweight. John knew John was overweight. But if you knew him, you'd look past his weight because he was a great person. Umpires all around the game have a special place for umpires. And we all had a special place for John McSherry." Enquirer news services CONDITION KILLS THOUSANDS: "Sudden cardiac death" the condition that felled McSherry kills 250,000 to 300,000 adults each year in the United States.

In many of those cases, doctors say, massive heart failure comes with littlcor no warning, even in victims with no history of cardiac problems. And in some cases, even prompt medical attention might not help. "You can have patients arrest in front of you, and you can't do anything," said Dr. W. Brian Gibler, director of the center for emergency care at University Hospital.

One of the traits of sudden cardiac death is an erratic heart rhythm, either "tachycardia," in which a chamber of the heart pumps more rapidly than it fills with blood, or "fibrillation," a chaotic rhythm, Gibler said. McSherry experienced both problems, even after application of an electric "defibrillator," which is used to shock the heart back into a normal rhythm, Gibler said. The danger factors for sudden cardiac death are the same as for other heart problems, he said among them, obesity, high blood pressure, high cholesterol, cigarette smoking and a family history of heart problems. Adam Weintraub SHARING WISDOM: Umpire Brian Gorman recalled how McSherry helped him when he joined the National League staff. Gorman's father, Tom, had done the same thing for McSherry when he became a major-league umpire in 1971.

"My father was a good friend of his, probably his best friend. John worked as part of my father's crew. When my father umpired his very last game, he took his watch off and gave it to John," Gorman said. "John was very helpful to me and gave me all kinds of encouragement." Enquirer news services 4 WW-' BY CHRIS HAFT The Cincinnati Enquirer Reds shortstop Barry Larkin should know soon whether he has escaped a case of the chicken pox that struck his daughter, Brielle, and threatens to sideline him for an indefinite period. The reigning National League Most Valuable Player took a blood test Sunday that will determine whether he's immune from the disease.

Larkin's mother told him that he didn't have chicken pox as a youth, which usually prevents subsequent episodes of the affliction. Said Larkin, striving to maintain a sense of humor, "I keep waking up in the middle of the night, going to look in the mirror and saying, 'Where did that spot come BY THE NUMBERS: Mindful of tradition, outfielder Eric Anthony relinquished jersey No. 9 to Joe Oliver, who wore it as a Red in 1990-94. Anthony inherited the number upon joining the Reds last season, which Oliver spent with Milwaukee. He joked about selling No.

9 to Oliver after the veteran catcher signed with Cincinnati in February. "I just gave him the number," said Anthony, who's on the disabled list with a separated shoulder. "He wore it here for so long, and he had success with it, so why mess with the rhythm?" In other changes, left fielder Vince Coleman exchanged the No. 39 he wore in spring training for No. 30, while bullpen employee Tom Hume swapped No.

72 for No. 47, which he wore as a Reds reliever. TOTAL RECALL: Monday's manic weather brought back memories for outfielder Eric Davis, who led off and played center field in similar conditions April 8, 1985, his first major-league opener. "We had a little bit of everything snow, sunshine, sleet, rain," he said. Told that a weather forecast called for sunny skies later in the afternoon, Davis deadpanned, REDS NOTEBOOK "They just didn't say what month." INTERIOR DESIGN: Reds manager Ray Knight has begun tailoring his office to suit him, moving his desk to the right side of the squarish room.

His predecessor, Davey Johnson, positioned the desk so that it faced the door. Knight plans to hang pictures of his family and outdoors scenes on the wall, adding to Pete Rose's three items of artwork that have remained mounted for years (photographs of Ty Cobb and Riverfront Stadium at night and a sketch of Reds players celebrating after the final out of the 1975 World Series). "It's important for me to feel like this is home," Knight said. RIJO UPDATE: The Reds should learn later this week whether Jose Rijo will need arthroscopic surgery to remove calcification in his right elbow, which accumulated as he has healed from surgery in August. Dr.

James Andrews, Rijo's surgeon, examined the pitcher March 24 and prescribed a two-week wait-and-see period. Rijo, who worked 4 innings in a minor-league exhibition Saturday, was ordered to increase his workload if he could in the hope that this might break up the calcification. Reds General Manager Jim Bowden said surgery would set Rijo back "another two weeks." Bowden added that left-hander Trevor Wilson, who's recovering from shoulder surgery, will be sidelined for an indefinite period. Wilson felt significant pain after facing one batter in a minor-league game Sunday. SWITCH PITCHERS, ET CETERA: Left-hander Jeff Fassero will replace right-hander Pedro Martinez as Montreal's starting pitcher today.

Martinez, who taxed his arm warming up Monday, will pitch Wednesday. The Expos have not determined their starter for Thursday. Ctt. ftJ'1 iiimfif III JiilffH 111111 I nr. i The Cincinnati EnquirerMichael E.

Keating Pitcher Pete Schourek threw only seven pitches Monday, and manager Ray Knight plans to start him today. If Schourek can't go, John Smiley will take the mound. Sullivan: Game couldn't go on Knight: Moved by team's grief CONTINUED FROM PAGE Dl they are not as big as the game they officiate and that they should always subordinate their own interests to the greater, good. They would have to be convinced that there was no reason to resume. On an afternoon when the umpires were incapable of dispassionate opinions, it fell to the players and managers to provide perspective.

"I want you to know that right now, you do not have to worry about not playing this game," Reds manager Ray Knight told Crawford. "And I'll support you 100 percent." Crawford told Knight that he planned to go with two umpires and to play the game when the starting pitchers were prepared. Knight returned to the clubhouse to find his team was in no condition to continue. "Barry (Larkin) told me very quietly and with very much emotion: 'Ray, I've had a lot of deaths in my family. In good conscience, out of respect for life, I can't go out Larkin and outfielder Eric Davis then went to the umpires' room behind home plate to offer their condolences and express their concerns.

A few minutes later, Crawford called the game off, citing the emotions of all involved. "It's probably a little too traumatic," he said. Said Davis: "Players and umpires are at each other's throats all the time. But unity is more important now than balls and strikes. This is a situation we're in together." On this one day in baseball history, the people in uniform generally understood that the right thing to do was to defer to the umpires' decision.

If they were determined to play, out of a sense of obligation or as a means of coping, Pete Schourek was prepared to pitch. "It would have been extremely hard," Schourek said. "I was kind of torn between what was right and what was wrong. If the umpires wanted to go out in his honor, I was ready to go back out there. But I thought they made the right decision." Schourek threw the first pitch of the season at 2:09 p.m.

and was stunned that McSherry did not call it a strike. "It was right down the middle, and he called it a ball, and it was like he didn't react to it," Schourek said. "But he seemed fine after that." Montreal's Mark Grudziella-nek subsequently flied out to right field. Mike Lansing struck out swinging. The count on Rondell White stood at 1-1 up against in Colorado last season when he managed in place of the suspended Davey Johnson.

With McSherry working the plate, Reds pitcher David Wells balked and started to argue. When Knight left the dugout to protect Wells, McSherry told Knight to stop. Knight knew that arguing a "step" balk is an automatic ejection. "Out of respect for (McSherry), I stopped and turned around, because he was always right," Knight said. "He was always fair whether or not he was right and he was never overpowering.

He never tried to get on top of you like some umpires may do. He was a sensitive, hard-working umpire." The next night, when Knight was back coaching third, McSherry was working third and took time to explain the balk rule to Knight in depth, even showing him how the umpires let a guy know he's argued too long by tapping them on the leg. Knight smiled Monday. "I can still see him tapping me," he said. Knight was philosophical about getting everything thrown at him on Day 1 of his managerial career.

"I'm just glad it's no one but me, because I can handle it," Knight said. "That's the way my life has gone, my career." Knight did as Sparky had advised: Ray was Ray. respect for life. "We had a closed-door meeting, a lot of expression, a lot of heartfelt things were said," said Knight, after his conversation with Larkin. "Eric (Davis) and Lark went to meet (the umpires) and I think they were just relieved The right thing was done." Knight was visibly moved by what he saw in his locker room, where veterans such as Larkin and Davis stepped up.

"We have to be better having gone through it, because I saw tremendous compassion, expression from men, tears that I wasn't sure were there," Knight said. "I have a different (opinion) about some guys. Today I saw a group that understands about caring and loving and I just think it's going to make us strong." It was natural for Knight to put his arm around McSherry's partners as they watched medical personnel try to revive him. Knight choked up as he talked about how baseball players always travel first-class, but umpires have to make their own arrangements. "(They were) broken up.

Devastated. It was not very difficult to see what was happening. Jerry Crawford was walking around there, he didn't know what to do, none of us did." It should have been a day for Knight to reflect on his past and future. But he found himself reminiscing about McSherry, a guy he ran when McSherry stepped away from the plate and signaled that something was wrong. "He just said, 'Hold on, timeout for a Reds catcher Eddie Taubensee recalled.

"I turned around and said, 'Are you all right, He didn't say anything. I thought maybe he pulled something by the way he was walking." In the Reds' dugout, pitching coach Don Gullett guessed McSherry had hurt his back. But then the huge umpire's legs buckled beneath him and everyone in the ballpark knew that it was much worse than that. "Once we rolled John over, John never was conscious," Crawford said. "I don't think he ever heard me when I got to him, when I was talking to him." When a tragedy unfolds in full view of thousands of spectators, it is bound to affect everyone in attendance.

The umpires might have felt John McSherry's loss more deeply, but no one with a shred of compassion could have cared to continue. "I watched a man die today," Schourek said, "and it hits home in a hurry." Tim Sullivan is an Enquirer columnist. I CONTINUED FROM PAGE Dl manager with the Reds and last manager with the Tigers, gave his guy a last bit of advice moments before McSherry and the other umpires emerged from their locker room. "I just told him to let Ray be Ray," Anderson said. Little did Knight know he'd have to put the counsel to use in the next 10 minutes.

Knight held several gut-wrenching team meetings in the space of 20 minutes in an effort to cut through the emotion and chaos to figure out the right thing. Play or not play? "Golly, I lead the world in team meetings," Knight said. "I had five today I was just trying to keep calm." Initially, the umpires wanted to play out of respect for McSherry. Knight's mind swirled. Would he have to forfeit if his players didn't want to play and the umpires did? How long would starter Pete Schourek, who had thrown seven pitches, need to get warmed up again? "I knew I was shocked.

I didn't know everyone would feel that, because I'm real sensitive, but God, everyone was," Knight said. "I knew the team didn't feel like playing was right. I didn't feel right about it." A "very shaky" Barry Larkin confirmed Knight's gut feeling, telling him his family had been through a miscarriage and the death of his grandmother and he just couldn't go back out on the field because of his 1.