Johnson Upbeat About Comeback

Randy Johnson is having fun again. Anyone would if he had succeeded in getting the knife out of his back and his feet out of the fire.

Johnson, whose absence from the Mariners’ mound most of last year put a damper on Seattle’s season and his, pitched in a game Friday for the first time since he had back surgery last September. His 41-pitch effort in Peoria, Ariz., was an artistic failure but a physical and mental success.

Johnson started one end of a two-city doubleheader. He threw 40 pitches - 17 strikes, 23 balls - and his best fastball was clocked at 94 miles per hour.

Those 40 pitches got him five outs, the first batters he has retired since last August, and in his 1-2/3 innings he gave up three hits, three walks and four runs. Seattle lost the game 11-6.

“I’m starting to have fun now because I realize I feel better,” Johnson said after completing 70 minutes of treatment and a post-pitching workout. “Once I get my mechanics back and my arm strength is up to par, I’ll be back to where I once was.

“In the meantime, I’m having more fun because my body is responding more. If you had asked me two months ago what was my mental outlook, I was still scuffling with some back soreness and leg pain.”

But even that pain was a relief from the agony that Johnson endured last season, when a herniated disk in his back kept pressing on his sciatic nerve.

“Toward the end of the year, it got worse,” he recalled. “Every pitch I was throwing, I felt a knife was getting jabbed in my back. My feet were burning. It was a situation I wouldn’t want my worst enemy to experience.”

It was a condition that robbed the 6-foot-10 left-hander of the ability to pitch as he had in 1995, when he compiled an 18-2 record, led the American League with a 2.48 earned run average and 294 strikeouts, dazzled the Yankees in the playoffs and won the Cy Young award.

Last season, Johnson made only eight starts and six relief appearances. He last started May 12, became a relief pitcher in August after getting off the 60-day disabled list, then returned to the disabled list Aug. 27. Surgery followed 16 days later.

In Phoenix, Geronimo Berroa hit a three-run homer, and the Oakland Athletics scored six runs in the first inning of a 7-2 split-squad victory over the Mariners.

Cards lose two aces

Andy Benes and Danny Jackson, two-fifths of St. Louis’ projected starting rotation, will be sidelined for four to six weeks.

Benes, who had been the likely opening day starter, strained a left rib cage muscle pitching Thursday against the Chicago White Sox. Jackson, hurt while pitching in his spring debut Tuesday, has an injured muscle on the right side of his rib cage.

Padres may deal Japanese star

San Diego is rumored to be talking with Seattle, the New York Mets and the New York Yankees about a possible deal for Japanese pitcher Hideki Irabu.

The Chiba Lotte Marines, Irabu’s team in Japan, gave San Diego exclusive rights, but the pitcher says he won’t sign with the Padres.

Mets manager Bobby Valentine managed Irabu with Chiba in 1995. Seattle, whose majority owner is Japanese, also has Japanese pitcher Mac Suzuki.

Irabu says he will sign only with the Yankees.

Bench returning to Reds

Hall of Fame catcher Johnny Bench is returning to Cincinnati as a special consultant.

Bench, 49, is to be a special consultant to the general manager. However, he also will work with catchers in spring training and help evaluate players.

Angels sign Anderson

Anaheim outfielder Garret Anderson agreed to a three-year contract with a team option for 2000. If he earns performance bonuses, the contract could be worth $7.75 million over four years.

Chuck Finley, who experienced tenderness in his left shoulder during the first week of spring training, is scheduled to make his exhibition debut today against Seattle.