The Best Medicine

Eric Davis changed clothes quickly, slipping into his Baltimore Oriole uniform. He was running late. Most of the team had already left the clubhouse.

Next stop was the training room to get ankles and wrists taped, a necessity considering the wear and tear his body has endured over the years. Then onto the field, where the Orioles had already begun stretching. Davis smiled, beamed really, and sat down on the bench.

This was as far as his day would take him . . . for now.

Davis began talking about playing again soon after a cancerous tumor was removed from his colon June 13. With his first chemotherapy session nearing an end, Davis returned to the Oriole clubhouse for part of their West Coast swing.

He’s not ready to play and may not be for another month, if at all. But Davis is back with the team. That’s enough . . . for now.

Davis first popped up in Oakland on July 31, flown in from Los Angeles by team officials. He was hard to miss. He bounced around the clubhouse--again with ankles and wrists taped--appearing ready to play. His routine seemed no different than before the tumor was discovered, when he was a key part of the Orioles’ success.

It was a morale booster. But for whom?

“I’m drawing my strength from them,” Davis said at Anaheim Stadium. “It takes everything I have not to come back and play right now. You want to be a part of this so bad, it makes you antsy. I think being here benefits me more than it benefits them.”

Talk to Oriole players and you get a different version.

“In Oakland, he showed up and was keeping everyone loose,” first baseman Rafael Palmeiro said. “You can tell he really wants to play. Having him around makes a big difference.”

Their Davis-fix is over, at least for a few weeks.

The Orioles finished a nine-game trip Sunday and returned to Baltimore. Davis remained to finish this round of chemotherapy at UCLA Medical Center.

The last treatment is Aug. 20, and he will have two weeks off before the next session. Davis will use that time to work out--he will begin hitting off a tee this week--then will begin his next chemotherapy session in early September at Johns Hopkins Hospital in Baltimore.

By then, he might be back with the Orioles as more than a morale booster. Doctors have told him he could play while undergoing chemotherapy.

Still, while Davis may be antsy, he is also realistic. His return is anything but certain.

“I’m not expecting anything,” Davis, 35, said. “I don’t want to spook myself. All the things I have in my mind, I’m just keeping to myself right now.

“If I start wondering how it’s going to feel when I work out, then I’ll be setting myself up for a setback. If it works out to where I can come back, that’s great. If not, I’m still going to be around here supporting these guys and will work my tail off during the off-season to get back to where I was before I went down.”

Few around baseball didn’t expect Davis to have some type of a rehabilitation stint this season. Only twice since 1990 has he appeared in more than 100 games, while playing with the Cincinnati Reds, Dodgers and Detroit Tigers.

The injuries have gone beyond the standard strains, sprains and pains--a lacerated kidney in 1990 and a herniated disk in his neck in 1992. Davis had had enough after the 1994 season and retired. He returned to the Reds last season and played in 129 games--the most since 1989--with 26 home runs and 83 runs batted in. He was named the National League’s comeback player of the year.

The Orioles signed Davis to a one-year contract, with a one-year option they have already picked up. It paid off at the start of the season. Davis hit .302 with seven home runs and 21 RBIs in 34 games and also offered leadership.

“He earned everyone’s respect,” Manager Davey Johnson said. “That’s hard to do in short time. He was only here for spring training and a month and a half of the season, and it was devastating to lose him.”

Davis began experiencing abdominal pains in May. At first, it was believed to be a stomach abscess, but then a mass was discovered. Davis underwent a 2 1/2-hour operation to remove a tumor the size of a baseball. Although tests showed it was malignant, Davis was buoyed when doctors said they believed the entire cancer had been removed, that it had not spread to his lymph nodes or any other part of his body.

Still, it was recommended he undergo chemotherapy, which would considerably reduce the chances of the cancer recurring. It was a difficult decision, because the 2-2 1/2-hour treatments often caused nausea, vomiting, diarrhea and exhaustion. After considering his options, Davis realized there was no other choice.

He began chemotherapy July 16 and will have 18 sessions over 22 weeks, ending in December. He has lost 12 pounds, down from his playing weight of 200, but has not experienced the other side effects.

“I’m still expecting something,” Davis said. “But I haven’t been getting them, so everything is real positive.

“As I get into it, that’s when I should feel it more. I have been taking some herbs and stuff that are designed to heal the ‘chemo’ process. I take them three times a day. It’s nasty stuff, but my wife makes me.”

Since the operation, Davis has been at his Woodland Hills home with his wife, Sherrie, and daughters, Erica (11) and Sacha (7). The time with his family has been nice, but. . . .

“I wasn’t planning to spend time with my kids in Los Angeles,” Davis said. “I was going to bring them to Baltimore and spend time with them there. Any time you get a chance to be with your family, especially with all the traveling we do, it’s great. But you want to be with them on your own time, not on some other time. This is the other time.

“What am I going to do in the summer besides play baseball? I’m not going to lay out in the sun. It’s been 1,000 degrees here lately. I don’t watch a lot of baseball because it gets to me if I can’t play.”

So Davis jumped at the chance to rejoin the team. The plan had been for Davis be with the Orioles in Anaheim, but General Manager Pat Gillick and Johnson asked him to come to Oakland.

“We knew what a big lift it would be,” Johnson said.

They were right.

“Eric was walking up and down the dugout, talking to everyone,” pitcher Jesse Orosco said. “He loves baseball so much that he has to have the uniform on. He wants to be around us as much as possible.”

Said Davis: “If what I did helped them, then I’m glad that I did.

“The Orioles are still paying me. I’m still part of this team, why wouldn’t I want to come out and support these guys?”

Which is all he can do . . . for now.

“I’m going to start hitting off a tee this week,” Davis said. “I’m going to take it from there.”