Comeback on track

Monday, March 25, 1996 | 11:59 a.m.

MESA, Ariz. -- Duane Ward routinely faced some of the best hitters in baseball when he was the closer for the Toronto Blue Jays during their glory years, but the Las Vegas resident has faced his toughest challenge the past two seasons.

After undergoing shoulder surgery in 1994 and hand surgery last year, Ward has pitched a total of 17 innings the past two seasons -- only 2 2/3 in the major leagues. The 31-year-old right-hander is continuing his comeback this spring with the Chicago Cubs.

Ward, who tied for the American League lead in saves with 45 in 1993 and helped lead the Blue Jays to consecutive World Series championships in 1992 and 1993, said he finally is beginning to see some progress.

"For the first time in two years, I can pick up a baseball and throw it and the arm doesn't hurt," Ward said. "It's exciting to be able to go back out there and face hitters.

"I'm getting better and better each time I go out there. Last year, trying to throw a baseball, most of the time it was aching. I was fighting an uphill battle."

Ward became a free agent at the end of last season and tried out for several teams this winter before finally signing with the Cubs in February. He admitted it took some doing before convincing Cubs manager Jim Riggleman that his rehabilitation program was on track.

No-thrills outing

"They saw me throwing back in January and I was still a month away from being spring-training ready and two months away from being season ready," Ward said.

"They weren't exactly thrilled with the way I was throwing down in Florida, but now I have had the opportunity to go out there and throw every other day and I feel like I'm getting stronger and stronger every time out. My location is getting better and better."

Ward apparently has made believers out of the Cubs with the way he has pitched this spring. Despite his 5.79 ERA in nine appearances, Ward is one of the pitchers Riggleman and Cubs pitching coach Fergie Jenkins are considering taking north when the team breaks camp later this week.

"He has been pitching extremely well," Jenkins said of Ward. "He has gone out, thrown strikes and got key strikeouts when he needed. His velocity is very good; he's throwing in the upper 80s. I think coming off an operation, you're not going to throw 90 again, but what he has done is he has set up the hitters the way a relief pitcher should.

"He has a relief pitcher's mentality -- he hasn't lost that. In my book, he can still pitch."

Riggleman agreed, and added that Ward's showing this spring will force the Cubs to make some difficult decisions when it comes time to finalize the 25-man roster.

On the bubble

"He's one of those guys that's going to be a tough call for, right down to the end, whether we take him with us or see if he would accept an opportunity to pitch in the minor leagues for a little while," Riggleman said.

"He hasn't done anything to not make the club ... but the other (relievers) haven't done anything to not make the club either, and you can't keep them all."

When Ward tore his rotator cuff during spring training in 1994, he said he did not know how to react to the injury and subsequent surgery because it was the first time he had experienced arm troubles since he was selected by the Atlanta Braves in the first round of the June 1982 draft.

"I had no idea what to expect because of the fact that I had never had arm problems," Ward said. "But talking to people who had the same deal, the only thing they kept saying to me was, 'Has it been a year yet?' They said I wouldn't throw good until at least a year, and even then there were going to be some good days and some bad days."

The bad days outnumbered the good for much of the past two seasons, but Ward said he never considered giving up attempting to come back.

"I love playing baseball and that's what kept me going," he said. "When it first happened, I didn't know what to expect. I sat up there and watched the Blue Jays go out there and struggle and get in situations where I would say, 'Hey, I'm supposed to be pitching in this ballgame at this point in time.' It was tough.

"But you can't quit, you can't give up, because there is always something inside that tells you to keep going. I viewed it as a different kind of challenge. Instead of looking at the hitters and saying, 'That's a challenge' -- now it's a challenge to come back from an injury."