Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, August 25, 1994 TAG: 9408250096
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Jack Bogaczyk
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
``I'm watching `Days of Our Lives,''' Leftwich said Wednesday from his California home. ``I do that even when we're playing. That goes back past Radford, back to [Brookville] high school. We used to tape it then and watch it when we got home.''
Leftwich is into the soaps, but the Angels' right-hander and Radford University's first major leaguer is hardly in a lather about the players' strike. The Lynchburg native admits the work stoppage, hardly unexpected, came at a good time for him.
``I was hurting and I was pitching poorly. It was almost to the point where I was looking forward to this,'' Leftwich said. ``Now, it's reached the point where it would be nice to get back, but I can't tell you that's going to happen.''
Veteran pitcher Mark Langston is California's player representative, and Leftwich gets most of his strike updates from his next-door neighbor in Tustin, shortstop Gary DiSarcina, the Angels' assistant player rep.
``I talk to Gary about every other day,'' Leftwich said, ``and I know they don't seem real optimistic about the strike ending. One problem is that we can't seem to get a read on the owners. From what they're saying, they're kind of divided. They're not entrenched one way or the other.''
With his $140,000 salary, Leftwich didn't know he is losing $765 daily on strike. Although he isn't losing as much as the majority of his fellow players - 186 are losing at least $10,000 daily - he said he can't be bitter about losing his paycheck.
He has been saving money all season because of the expectation of a strike, and the players still are getting checks from last year's baseball-card licensing deal, too. What he seems most anxious to know is whether or not the season will resume.
``When the season is over, whether it's sooner or later, I'm going to have surgery on my right big toe,'' said Leftwich, 24. ``It's been very painful. It's locked up because one of the bones is bigger than it should be at the joint. They're going to shave it down. It might be something I've had genetically, but years of pitching and pushing off the mound didn't help it any.''
With a sometimes-painful delivery, Leftwich was 5-10 with a 5.68 earned-run average in 20 starts when the strike gave him a needed rest. When the games stopped Aug. 12, he relaxed for about a week, but in the last few days has started to run and play catch. He expects that if and when the strike is settled, the players are likely to have club workouts for about a week before the games resume.
Before then, Leftwich and his wife, Ann, will take a few days to visit family in Lynchburg and Northern Virginia. He doesn't expect to return to their new Mesa, Ariz., residence without pitching again this season.
``My gut feeling is that they're going to settle it, but I'm not totally going to count on it,'' Leftwich said. ``I don't think it's going to be settled until the latest possible time, when it's still possible to get enough of the end of the season in. I'll say this: If we're not playing by Sept. 15, I don't think there will be any season left.
``I don't think the owners can just wait until the end and then just try to get in the playoffs and World Series. That would be bad. I don't see that happening. But I don't think anybody knows how it's going to turn out.''
It's another soap opera for Leftwich to follow.
by CNB