DODGERS NOTEBOOK : BUTLER'S RECOVERY ON TARGET FOR SEPT. 6-9 RETURN TO ACTION.Three weeks ago Brett Butler Brett Butler can refer to different people:
His teammates joked about his name being in the lineup that night, and Butler laughed and told them to look again in September. They told him all right, that they'd see him then. Out of earshot ear·shot n. The range within which sound can be heard by the unaided ear; hearing distance: listened until the parade was out of earshot. , though, they wondered. They shook their heads sadly and said, ``No way.'' No way would Butler return to them this season. No way would he play this season, and probably not ever again. A few days later, in New Orleans New Orleans (ôr`lēənz –lənz, ôrlēnz`), city (2006 pop. 187,525), coextensive with Orleans parish, SE La., between the Mississippi River and Lake Pontchartrain, 107 mi (172 km) by water from the river mouth; founded , Dr. John Burvant examined Butler for the first time. ``That was my impression when I saw him as well,'' Burvant said Thursday. ``His neck was so burned, and the scabs were just starting to come off. He looked like he was in the middle of treatment, rather than somebody who was about to play major-league baseball. When he first came in, he couldn't lift his right shoulder enough to wipe his brow brow (brou) the forehead, or either lateral half of it. brow n. 1. The eyebrow. 2. See forehead. brow the forehead, or either lateral half of it. .'' At that point, Burvant pulled trainer Mackie Shilstone aside and told him that it was good for Butler to have goals, but not to expect much. ``I thought,'' said Burvant, an orthopedist, ``that his whole time schedule was a little aggressive.'' On Wednesday, 17 days after the first examination, Burvant re-examined Butler. And, with astonishment, he wished Butler well on his trip back to the big leagues. In that period, Burvant said, there was marked improvement in three critical areas. Butler gained 16 pounds, he strengthened the atrophied at·ro·phied adj. Characterized by atrophy. muscles around his right shoulder and neck, and the nerves in the same area began to fire those muscles again. ``He's not there 100 percent,'' Burvant said. ``But he evidentally is able to swing a bat without total return. Not all of that nerve is working.'' Burvant estimated the percentage of dormant Latent; inactive; silent. That which is dormant is not used, asserted, or enforced. A dormant partner is a member of a partnership who has a financial interest yet is silent, in that he or she takes no control over the business. nerves as ``a fair amount.'' ``I think he has to continue what he's already started,'' Burvant said. ``Not just his right shoulder, but his whole body.'' Butler, who had cancer surgery in late May and intends to join the club Monday in Montreal, said he hopes to be activated sometime around Sept. 6-9. |
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