M's Notes: Doctor leaves legacy behind

PEORIA, Ariz. — With the resignation of Dr. Larry Pedegana as medical director of the Mariners, another part of the organization has gone into the history book.

While he was always in the background, the orthopedic surgeon was a constant with the team since its beginning in 1977, and never more so during spring training.

When he started, and for his first few years, Pedegana did what he estimated at "150 physicals in a couple of days." He had only the assistance of Gary Nicholson, who left in 1983 to become head trainer at Pacific Lutheran University in Tacoma.

"It was something," Pedegana recalled this week after the club announced his departure. "We did them in a little steel shack down the first-base line of the lower practice field at Tempe Diablo. We used to have players lined up outside the door, coming in one at a time."

Of course, he had brought the long line of work on himself by including full physicals for minor-leaguers.

"When I came, they didn't think that physicals were necessary for minor-leaguers," he said. "I insisted on it. The team would have been in a bad position if someone had worked out in camp or during the season and had problems."

How times have changed, and Pedegana noted the role Dr. Mitch Storey — still a Mariners physician — had in bringing about those changes. "Mitch played a large part in that evolution," he said.

Seattle's annual spring physical is now hours long, with as many as 300 players, coaches and team staff making stops at seven stations, each with a physician, ending with the grueling treadmill run for most of them.

"I believe now, we ... I mean the Mariners ... do the finest physicals in the history of baseball," he said. "We've found our share of medical concerns over the years, too. Fortunately, none of them was life-threatening."

While privacy laws prohibit Pedegana from mentioning any, two that come to mind were when coach Lee Elia was found to have prostate cancer and in the mid-1980s when outfielder Steve Henderson had a heart problem.

Pedegana, who will focus on a private practice with Orthopedics International in Seattle, saw his tenure with the Seattle club stretch from the medical equivalent of covered wagons to jet planes.

The Mariners have gone from a stethoscope and a tongue depressor in a tin shed to a program with full facilities, including pools for water-resistance therapies, here as well as at Safeco Field — and every record is computerized.

Pedegana said there has to be information in the Mariners' computers "to figure out which pitchers who have had particular medical issues or injuries are going to be able to fulfill a four- or five-year contract.

"I'd guess that 20 or 30 percent of them fail to do that," he said. "Signing a player to a multiyear contract is always going to be a lottery, but wouldn't you like to know the Lotto odds before you buy a ticket?"

Whatever might be done, it will now be up to others to do it for the Mariners. Pedegana is gone and to those who can see behind the scenes, spring training will never be the same.

Notes

• Reliever J.J. Putz sat out with back spasms and is day to day.

• The Mariners will hold three bobblehead giveaways this season — Ichiro, Richie Sexson and the Mariner Moose.

• Manager Mike Hargrove at first was not pleased with the grooming of the practice fields at Peoria Sports Complex, but after further consultation with the grounds crew said they wound up fine.

• Asked questions for the Safeco display, Sexson said his first Halloween costume was a bumble bee. He later said he made it up.

However, Willie Bloomquist's mother put him in a crayon suit — "red," he says — and somewhere on the Kitsap Peninsula there are pictures to prove it.