Big Unit facing unique health issues

TUCSON - Randy Johnson has been many things in his 21-year major league career - multiple Cy Young winner, strikeout leader, World Series co-MVP, Mr. Perfect.

GRAPHIC: Johnson's back issue

Read Jack Magruder's blog, Inside Baseball

This season he will try something new, as medical marvel/guinea pig.

How much of either is another reason they play the games.

Johnson enters 2008 after a third surgery on the same disk - between the fourth and fifth lumbar vertebrae - in his lower back, and it is the medical consensus that he is the only active professional athlete with that resume.

Dr. Robert Watkins, his surgeon and perhaps the foremost authority in the field, said he has encountered only one previous instance in which a patient ruptured the same disk three times, and that did not involve a 44-year-old, 6-foot-10 left-handed pitcher.

So what to expect?

The Diamondbacks enter the season with the same level of suspense as Johnson.

"It's a matter of defying recent history and Father Time a little bit," D-Backs general manager Josh Byrnes said.

The D-Backs can take solace in one issue. Even after three surgeries to trim loose disk, medical opinion appears clear that Johnson's history does not increase the probability of another injury in the same spot.

"Absolutely not," D-Backs orthopedist Dr. Michael Lee said.

Less certain is the effect on the surrounding nerves and muscles.

Chronic lower back pain can result from several surgeries to the same area, and Johnson said Saturday he has learned the veteran's lesson of distinguishing between pain and injury.

The nerves that lead to Johnson's knee, leg and foot also might bark after being pinched three times. Also, the body's ability to recover lengthens as a patient ages.

All those are unknowns as Johnson begins a journey that, whether he is able to last the season or not, will lead to the Hall of Fame after a career that now sits at 284 victories, five Cy Young awards, a perfect game and 4,616 strikeouts.

The D-Backs believe time is on their side this spring as opposed to last.

Johnson had surgery in early August 2007, instead of late October 2006, and had more than six months to rehabilitate before spring training instead of less than four.

A patient normally needs three to four months to heal from a discectomy while a major league pitcher, because of the constant twisting and torque to the area, generally needs six months.

Johnson admitted that he might have hurried back from his 2006 surgery because "I felt in some regard that I owed it to the Diamondbacks to show them I was ready to go."

The medical staff believes his core muscle group is in much better condition now, and no one can question his arm.

The difficulty last season came between starts. Johnson did not have extraordinary pain when he pitched early in the season, but after the disk ruptured he would get severe pain about two days after he pitched, and the pain would not settle down quickly.

He occasionally was forced to miss a start, and when he made one on normal rest did so without being able to adequately recover. Johnson was unable to regain his muscle strength and could not get into the appropriate mechanical position to have his best stuff.