Baseball : The Cloud Is No Longer Hanging Over Darrin Jackson’s Head

Even now, on the eve of a new season, amid feelings of hope and rebirth, the clouds of controversy darken baseball’s landscape.

Arbitrators will make major summer decisions affecting free agency.

Contract disputes, labor problems and drug issues will tend to obscure the grass-roots drama and romance. Owners will be portrayed as cold-hearted conspirators. Players will be seen as disloyal ingrates, interested only in the buck.

Where is the humanity, the humility?

Not all of it is gone, of course. The Chicago Cubs offer the story of Darrin Jackson, 24, native of Los Angeles, graduate of Culver City High School.

Jackson will open the season as the Cubs’ fourth outfielder, their best defensive outfielder, coach Jimmy Piersall said. His story is a reminder that more is involved than salaries and grievances, a reminder of the fragility of all careers and life itself.

Selected by the Cubs in the second round of the 1981 summer draft, Jackson struggled through six minor league seasons before enjoying his finest year in 1987, batting .274 with 23 homers and 81 runs batted in at triple-A Iowa.

He was rewarded with a recall by the Cubs in September and went 3 for 4 as a pinch-hitter and 4 for 5 overall, only to have the curtain drop abruptly and frighteningly on his showcase opportunity.

Two weeks before the season ended, after a small growth was detected, Jackson underwent surgery for testicular cancer.

The tumor was removed without complications, he said, but the doctors sought greater assurance. Jackson returned to Los Angeles and had abdominal surgery at USC’s Kenneth Norris Cancer Clinic for removal of 54 lymph nodes, all of which proved to be benign.

“There’s no guarantee that it can’t come back, but the doctors believe they got it all,� Jackson said, sitting by his locker at the Cubs’ Mesa, Ariz., training base the other day.

“The funny thing is that the cancer itself didn’t really scare me,� Jackson said. “I was more disappointed that I didn’t get to finish the season. I was more concerned that I might need chemotherapy or a follow-up treatment that would prevent me from playing.�

Jackson’s current program calls only for monthly blood checks and periodic chest X-rays.

“It’s just not something I’m worried about, nor do I look at it as if it’s a cloud hanging over me,� he said. “The (abdominal) scar is a reminder to enjoy life, have fun. Some people don’t know how good they’ve got it.�

Having lost 25 pounds in the wake of his second surgery, Jackson said he is now at full strength. He is optimistic about his career, confident he can hit major league pitching. He has medical bills to pay and a desire to repay his mother for all those hours she worked as a waitress to supply her six children with a decent home and diet.

Sylvia Jackson now lives in Temecula. Her son will be leaving tickets when he plays at Dodger Stadium, a dream come true. There are others with dreams, and Jackson said he and his wife, Darlene, will not forget them. They will spend as much time with cancer patients as possible, he said.

In fact, during a recent checkup at the USC clinic, Jackson was asked to visit a 17-year-old high school player who had just had similar surgery.

“He was in pain, and his spirits weren’t too high,� Jackson said. “But there was a sports magazine in the room, and it had pictures of some of the top baseball prospects, and mine was one of them.

“When I showed it to him, he seemed to cheer up a lot. He could see that I was who I said I was and that I was on the road back.

“I got to thinking about it later, that magazine in the room on the same day that both of us were.

“It was almost as if God was sending us both a message.�

A message for opening day and every day.

John Wathan’s desire to stay with a four-man rotation of Bret Saberhagen, Charlie Leibrandt, Floyd Bannister and Mark Gubicza will result in one of the more interesting experiments of the 1988 season.

The Kansas City manager said he will yank his starting pitcher as soon as he can after the fifth inning in an attempt to preserve the starter’s strength.

“I realize it’s a gamble, but I have confidence in my bullpen,� he said. “I think it will work. If it backfires, I’ll be the dumbest guy in the world.�

Said Leibrandt: “Theoretically, I can see it working. But what happens when you have a 1-0 or 2-1 lead? Who wants to come out?�

The larger question concerns a bullpen that had a 4.01 earned-run average and 26 saves last year, the Royals’ lowest total since 1975.

Thers is also a measure of concern about Saberhagen, who had allowed 46 hits and 16 earned runs in 33 innings entering the weekend, including 23 hits in his last 12 innings.

Saberhagen said: “I’m glad I didn’t have to make the team or I’d have been cut several weeks ago.�

Frank White has won eight Gold Gloves since becoming the Kansas City second baseman in 1976. He succeeded Cookie Rojas, now the Angel manager, and claims he would have gone nowhere if it hadn’t been for Rojas’ unselfish help.

“I probably would have been a career utility player,� White said. “I’d have been out of the game by now. He meant that much to me.�

Now that the controversy over Darryl Strawberry’s article in Esquire has seemed to run its course, St. Louis Cardinals’ shortstop Ozzie Smith has stirred similar unrest in an April article in GQ magazine.

Smith took shots at teammates, former teammates and the New York Mets, whom he called “disrespectful jerks,� to which Met first baseman Keith Hernandez said: “Somebody ought to drill the disrespectful jerk.�

And Jack Clark, the former St. Louis first baseman now with the New York Yankees, said of Smith: “It looks like he did one too many back flips.�

The Milwaukee Brewers hoped to move Paul Molitor to second base, lessening the injury risk, play Jim Gantner at third and use touted Joey Meyer--29 homers and 92 runs batted in at Denver--as the designated hitter.

Molitor, however, can’t seem to escape injuries no matter where he is used. A late spring hamstring pull and shoulder strain will force the Brewers to open the season with Gantner back at second, Earnest Riles at third, Molitor at DH and Meyer on the bench.

“We’re going to have to be creative to give Joey some at-bats,� Manager Tom Trebelhorn said.

Charlie Lea, who has pitched one major league inning since 1984, and Steve Carlton, who was 6-14 in 1987, will be the fourth and fifth starters in the Minnesota Twins’ suspect rotation. In addition, Tippy Martinez, who missed the 1987 season because of injury, will be the left-handed set-up man in relief.

Manager Tom Kelly has made two other important decisions. He will sell his 1980 Chevy Malibu with its 100,000 miles because he doesn’t think it can get him back and forth to the dog track any more and he will keep his 1987 World Series ring in a safe deposit box.

“I don’t wear jewelry. My watch costs $15, that’s it,� said the man whose personality is even less sparkling.

Manager Lee Elia of the Philadelphia Phillies entered spring training hoping to move Juan Samuel to third in the batting order and employ newly acquired Phil Bradley as his leadoff hitter. He will open the season with Samuel back in the leadoff role and Bradley batting third because of complaints from cleanup man Mike Schmidt, who said that Samuel’s base-stealing ability forced him to take too many pitches and proved to be a distraction.

Toronto’s George Bell will get his wish, opening the season in left field, but for how long? Sil Campusano--the rookie who was going to play center field, moving Lloyd Moseby to left and Bell to the dreaded role of DH--suffered a partial shoulder separation diving for a fly ball the other day. It’s not serious enough to put Campusano on the disabled list or to disable the plan to employ Bell as the designated hitter, eventually.

St. Louis Manager Whitey Herzog on salary arbitration: “It’s great when it’s all over and the arbitrator asks, ‘What’s a save?’ �

The Cincinnati Reds have long been host of baseball’s traditional opener. The Reds will open against the Cardinals at 2:05 p.m., EDT, Monday, but the clock at Riverfront Stadium will be moved back to read 12:05 so that there will be the impression, at least, that the Reds are starting ahead of the Detroit Tigers-Boston Red Sox game at Fenway Park, which is scheduled to begin at 1:05.

No matter what time the Reds begin, they will be missing third baseman Buddy Bell, who has a sore knee and will be out of an opening day lineup for the first time in 16 years.