Dodgers’ Rafael Furcal didn’t have to play winter ball

Reporting from Phoenix — Rafael Furcal had his first normal off-season in three years.

Because Furcal didn’t spend any time on the disabled list last season, he didn’t play winter ball in his native Dominican Republic. There were no games to make up, no instincts to regain.

“Playing in the Dominican Republic is a huge help, but I had almost 700 at-bats last year,” the shortstop said. “We thought it would help me more if I rested over the three months of the off-season because of how much I played. I think it’s helped me out a lot.”

An ankle injury limited him to 138 games in 2007. Back problems forced him to undergo midseason surgery the next year, when he played in only 36 games.

Furcal had a rough season last year, as he hit .269 as the Dodgers’ leadoff hitter and fell eight runs short of 100. He acknowledged he was tentative early on because he was unsure of how his back would respond to playing every day.

“Last year was a difficult one for me,” he said. “As a whole, it was bad. I never found myself until the end of the season.”

The way he closed the regular season -- he batted .358 and scored 21 runs in his last 23 games -- was something he took home with him as a consolation prize. Another was that he didn’t land on the disabled list once.

“It wasn’t one of my best years,” he said, “but, as you guys like to say, I ‘showed up every day.’ ”

Furcal stole only 12 bases last season. Manager Joe Torre suspects that number could increase.

“I expect him to be back more to the guy we’re used to seeing,” Torre said.

Manny hedges

Manny Ramirez still wouldn’t say whether he wanted to go on the Dodgers’ exhibition tour to Taiwan next month, telling reporters, “I don’t want to talk about that.”

Lured in part by commercial opportunities in Taiwan, Ramirez initially volunteered to be on the split-squad to make the journey overseas. But he has since wavered, telling club officials on one day that he’ll go and on another that he won’t.

When asked if Ramirez would go to Taiwan, Torre responded with a question of his own: “Did he tell you that?”

Told that Ramirez said to The Times on Friday that he didn’t know, Torre said, “I don’t know any of us know until we get on the plane.”

But, Torre added, “He sounded like he was interested in going, let’s put it that way.”

Torre acknowledged that Ramirez’s presence would transform the nature of the trip.

“It certainly makes it an event when he’s there, I don’t think there’s any question,” Torre said.

The new father

Jeff Weaver returned to camp in what he described as a semi-conscious state.

Weaver missed three days of camp to be with his wife, Jill, for the birth of their first child, an eight-pound boy who was born Wednesday and named Drake.

Weaver said that he cried. “You try to keep it together as long as you can, but it overwhelms you,” he said. “You couldn’t help but cry a bit. Not only feeling for the baby but for the wife who put in an incredible effort to make this happen.”

Weaver , who is in camp on a minor league deal but is likely to make the team based on how he pitched last season, said his goal now is to extend his career so that his son can watch him pitch one day. He turns 34 in August.

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