[0] BUTLER TO MISS AT LEAST TWO WEEKS : CINCINNATI 3, DODGERS 2.

Byline: Kevin Acee Daily News Staff Writer

Brett Butler, survivor of so much the past year, was hit with another potentially devastating setback Tuesday night before the Dodgers' 3-2, 11-inning loss to the Cincinnati Reds at Dodger Stadium.

He hardly flinched before deciding to try to beat the odds again.

An MRI revealed Butler has torn cartilage in his left shoulder that will likely require arthroscopic surgery and sideline him at least two months.

Tuesday was exactly a year from the day a cancerous tumor was found in his tonsils.

Butler will be placed on the disabled list today. The Dodgers have purchased the contract of outfielder Eric Anthony from Triple-A Albuquerque to replace Butler and will likely stick with Billy Ashley in left field and Todd Hollandsworth replacing Butler in center.

The hope is after two week's rest Butler's tear will heal and surgery can be averted. If Butler is better in two weeks, Dodgers team physician Dr. Frank Jobe said Butler would likely rest another two weeks before resuming play.

Asked what the chances of Butler healing without surgery were, Jobe replied, ``Not real good. . . . It's a fairly large tear.''

Butler, 39, mulled over the options Jobe presented him - surgery now or hope for the best. He chose to hope.

``Obviously this option gives me a chance to play,'' said Butler, who will remain with the team, even on the road, during his 15-day stay on the DL.

Speaking after the game, he did not deny the long odds. He even made reference to getting on with his life - ``playing catch with the kids and playing golf.'' But optimism and faith are skills the deeply religious Butler has honed the past 13 months.

``Right now my focus is to get back and play,'' he said. ``I'm not thinking about surgery. I've been through enough surgeries. I don't want to have surgery.''

The decision in two weeks on whether Butler will undergo that surgery will come eerily close to the May 21, 1996 surgery he underwent to remove a cancerous tumor from his tonsils. The cancer was discovered during a tonsillectomy last May 6.

Butler, who also had lymph nodes removed in the operation, was left without functioning salivary glands. He is almost constantly with a bottle of water to keep his mouth moist.

An amazing comeback last year, slightly more than three months after the surgery, was cut short in the fifth game when his left hand was fractured by a pitch from Cincinnati's Giovanni Carrara.

Despite the ravaging his 39-year-old body has taken, Butler sparkled this season. He is batting .455 (25 for 55) in his past 13 games. April 16 in New York, he tied a career high for the fifth time when he singled five times in the Dodgers 5-2 victory. In a span of three days last month, he scored the winning run in extra innings twice.

``He was feeling well, playing well, and all of a sudden. . . .'' manager Bill Russell said after the game. ``I'm sure it's frustrating for him, because he was playing great. He announced this would be his last year, and he was on his way to having a great year. Not that he's not going to end up having a great year, but I'm sure he's disappointed. I know we are.''

The feisty Butler, a 16-year veteran and one of four Dodgers with World Series experience, came back this year in large part because he wanted to win a world championship. The Dodgers will miss his presence in the lineup, though they chose to keep the same optimistic outlook as Butler on Tuesday.

``Injuries are part of the season,'' the said Dodgers executive vice president Fred Claire. ``That's not anything we can fret about. Hopefully in two weeks the picture will be brighter.''

Butler, who was originally diagnosed last week with tendinitis, has said the injury occurred April 26 in Florida when he threw out Bobby Bonilla at home plate. Jobe said Tuesday that play might merely have been the final tear.

``It probably is not 100 percent new,'' Jobe said. ``It could have been there a long time, and the throw finished (the tear) off.''

Butler sat out April 27, a day game following a night game. But he started the next three games, going 6 for 12. In his final start, last Wednesday in Atlanta, he went 3 for 4 with a run. His only action the six games before Tuesday was pinch-running for Billy Ashley in the eighth inning Friday.

Butler had joked Monday about his notoriously weak arm.

``I just can't throw,'' he said of how the injury limited him. ``I can throw, just not very good. But what's new?''

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2 Photos

Photo: (1--color) Juan Castro runs for an errant throw while Cincinnati's Hal Morris races for third base.

(2) Cincinnati's Deion Sanders leaps high in the air to rob the Dodgers' Todd Zeile of a probable home run early in Tuesday's game.

Michael Owen Baker / Daily News