Mariners
Notebook: Charlton's career all but over after surgery

By Bob Finnigan
Seattle Times staff reporter

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PEORIA, Ariz. — Norm Charlton was welcomed back in the Mariners' camp yesterday, but he did not have welcome news — his pitching career is very likely over.

Charlton had his fourth shoulder surgery on Friday, when Dr. Lewis Yokum of Los Angeles repaired a small tear in the left-hander's labrum.

"The doctor said it was not a viable option," the former Seattle closer and three-time Mariner said. "I have little choice but to accept that.

"I actually can't remember what Lew said to me. I was groggy from the surgery, but he also told my wife and Larry and Rick, and they've all told me what he said."

Dr. Larry Pedegana, the Mariners medical director who performed two of Charlton's surgeries, confirmed the diagnosis.

"Norm's likely done," he said. "It's kind of sad. Great guy, but he's 41 and had a great career."

Charlton saw it the same way.

"The news it was probably over came as no shock," he said. "It's not like I'm 23 and have a career ahead of me that could be affected. I am 41 and on the downside of that bell curve."

With his playing days over, Charlton is hoping to recover well enough to be able to pitch batting practice.
 
"I told Lew going into the surgery I was looking for four things out of it," he said. "I want to be able to sleep at night without waking up when I turned on my shoulder, I wanted to be able to throw sticks to my dog or go fly-fishing with Jay (Buhner).

"Or I wanted to be able to throw BP so I might be able to coach and not just stand around, and last of all, if it turned out that well, I wanted to pitch again."

Since the optimum is out, option No. 3 is what Charlton is shooting for.

"It remains to be seen, but I'd like to coach," he said. "I'll go to rehab and see how it goes."

One way or another, he's a Seattle guy now. He and wife Brenda have already made the Pacific Northwest their home, "and once we sell the house in San Antonio, we'll get a new house around Seattle."

Johnson misses another day

After leaving camp to attend to personal matters on Saturday, pitching prospect Rett Johnson was gone yesterday as well.

Clint Nageotte, a close friend and teammate at several levels of the farm system, said he had spoken with Johnson. "He's all right. Just some stuff he had to take care of."

Asked if Johnson would rejoin the team, Nageotte said, "He said he'd be back."

M's get first win

The Mariners broke into the Cactus League win column with a 16-5 win over San Diego, on home runs by Randy Winn, Hiram Bocachica and Jose Lopez and some good pitching by starter Freddy Garcia and young lefty Travis Blackley.

Garcia allowed a leadoff home run to Brian Hunter, then set down the next six batters, two on strikeouts. After complaining about giving up the leadoff homer, Garcia acknowledged, "good stuff."

"It may have been important to some people in Seattle for him to have a good first outing, but to us it was just good to see him go out and be smooth," manager Bob Melvin said of Garcia.

Blackley was even more impressive, setting down all six batters he faced easily, four on strikeouts that included Rey Ordonez and lefty Ramon Vazquez.

Winn's homer was part of a three-hit day, a total also reached by infielder Ramon Santiago, the shortstop acquired from Detroit in the Carlos Guillen swap.

Melvin called Santiago, "a nice player," and added the same for Bocachica, of whom he said, "He's moving up the depth chart. He gets good jumps on the ball in the outfield and can play the infield, too."

Notes

• Pitcher Rafael Soriano will play catch tomorrow to test his pulled oblique (side) muscle, not today as first scheduled. Melvin said the session was delayed because Soriano felt something was wrong as he exercised.

• After getting yesterday off, Ichiro is sure to start today with a 11:05 p.m. start on both ESPN2 as well as NHK back in Japan, where the game will be shown at 4 a.m.

"I told them to tell me this year when TV would go to Japan," said Melvin, who did not have Ichiro scheduled to play in one NHK broadcast game last spring.

• Jose Nunez and Jeff Heaverlo will pitch in a simulated game today because the scheduled B game against San Diego was canceled because of a lack of pitchers.

Copyright © 2004 The Seattle Times Company