LOS ANGELES Doc gives Dodgers' Dreifort second chance

He has fanned 67 in 60 1/3 innings to rank among the N.L. leaders.
LOS ANGELES (AP) -- Darren Dreifort could only sit, watch and undergo rehabilitation for 1 1/2 seasons after blowing out his pitching elbow for the second time.
Now, he's back to terrorizing hitters with some of the nastiest stuff this side of Pedro Martinez.
If Dreifort keeps it up, he'll become the first major leaguer to successfully overcome two operations known as "Tommy John surgery," which was first performed on the former Los Angeles Dodgers' pitcher in 1974.
Dr. Frank Jobe, who has done more than 1,000 such operations, expected as much from the Dodgers' right-hander.
"He's got the work ethic and the brains," Jobe said. "It took a lot to keep him from getting depressed. He stayed with the team -- that made a lot of difference.
"I'm very pleased with him."
And vice versa.
Giving credit
"If it wasn't for Dr. Jobe, I would have been done after the '94 season -- that would have been it," said Dreifort, a first-round draft pick of the Dodgers in 1993. "The man gave me a second chance. I guess this is the third chance."
Dreifort missed the 1995 season after his first elbow surgery, but later showed enough ability and promise to prompt the Dodgers to sign him to a five-year, $55 million contract following the 2000 campaign, when he had an 8-2 record with a 3.14 ERA in his last 15 starts.
He went 4-7 with a 5.13 ERA -- certainly not the numbers expected from someone having signed such a rich contract -- before tearing the medial collateral ligament in his right elbow June 29 in San Diego.
Dreifort missed the rest of the 2001 season and all of last year recuperating, although he was on the verge of returning last July before a knee injury that required arthroscopic surgery short-circuited those plans.
Jobe said Dreifort is one of a small number of athletes to undergo reconstructive elbow surgery twice.
"I used the same holes," Jobe said, explaining he used a tendon from Dreifort's left wrist to reconstruct his right elbow for the first surgery and one from his right wrist for the second.
Dreifort began rehabilitating almost immediately.
"The discouraging part of it was the monotony of what you were doing every day, you're doing the same thing for several months," he said. "You ever see that movie, "Groundhog Day?" That's what it's like. Every day was the same for a long time. You add things here and there over the course of time."
When the Dodgers were playing at home, Dreifort said, he would arrive at the ballpark around 1:30 p.m. and begin his routine.
"I'd go through a barrage of treatments, play catch or throw batting practice, whatever the day called for -- lift weights, do cardio," he said. "I'd be done by the time the game starts, put on my uniform, sit on the bench."
Persistence
And cheer for his teammates -- something that made a huge impression.
"He could have been in Wichita rehabilitating," Dodgers manager Jim Tracy said, referring to Dreifort's offseason home. "He decided to be here. That's a powerful message to send."
When the Dodgers played on the road, Dreifort said, he'd arrive between 9 a.m. and 10 a.m., and be around working for four or five hours.
"It gets to be such a monotonous repetition of treatment," Dodgers physical therapist Pat Screnar said of what Dreifort went through. "It wears on you more mentally than physically. You hate to see someone go through it a second time. He's made a great recovery."
He certainly has. Dreifort is 4-4 with a 4.03 ERA in 10 starts. He struck out a career-high 12 in six innings May 22 and has fanned 67 in 60 1/3 innings to rank among the NL leaders.
"He's the hardest working guy I've ever played with -- he's nonstop," outfielder Shawn Green said.