Giants’ Bedrosian Can’t Close Door on Son’s Illness

SAN FRANCISCO —  The last time the Giants saw their acclaimed closer, Steve Bedrosian was tearing the door off the valuables cabinet in their Atlanta clubhouse to get his wallet.

He had just learned that his and Tammy Bedrosian’s 2-year-old son, Cody, had become ill again. Thursday, the Bedrosians learned that Cody has acute lymphocytic leukemia.

And Sunday the startled Giants saw a thinner, wearier and sadder Steve Bedrosian suddenly appear at their clubhouse door.

Cody was feeling better this Easter Sunday, and Dad decided to follow the doctors’ orders to get on with his life. But even a pressure-packed ninth-inning pitching situation couldn’t capture Bedrosian’s undivided attention.

“It’s impossible to block it out. It really is,” he said. “I dream about him at night. And I wake up in the morning thinking about him. Some things you just can’t block out.”

Maybe if Bedrosian could have blocked out Cody, that ninth-inning fastball to Benito Santiago would have been inside, where it belonged, where Santiago might have swung and missed. Instead, it was over the plate, and Santiago swung and connected for a game-winning homer that spoiled Giants manager Roger Craig’s perfect plan.

“It was a great situation for us to bring in Bedrosian and let him take out his frustrations on somebody else,” Craig said. “But it didn’t work out that way. The situation worked out. The score (4-3) didn’t.”

Bedrosian, who hadn’t worked on the mound since the April 6 Bay Bridge Series game against the Oakland A’s, came to work offering to pitch immediately.

“I’ll be throwing on adrenaline,” he said in a short pregame press briefing.

He spoke alternately of his family’s suffering and its optimism, about how terrible it is for his child’s condition to be diagnosed as leukemia, yet how fortunate it is that this particular form of leukemia is common and sometimes curable.

“It hurts, but our immediate thoughts were, ‘He’s got it. Let’s beat it,’ ” Bedrosian said.

The Bedrosians spent every waking minute at the UC San Francisco hospital to be with Cody, who, Bedrosian said, understands that he is ill but doesn’t understand the gravity of the illness.

Saturday was an especially bad day for Cody, but by Sunday the medication kicked in enough to ease his pain. That’s when his father decided to surprise teammates and report to the ballpark for the first time this season.

Bedrosian got up and started throwing in the bullpen for pitching coach Norm Sherry during the fifth inning. He realized quickly that he needed more work.

“I felt like a robot, to tell you the truth,” he said. “I was flying out, and I was way ahead of myself. So I threw some more and played catch with the outfielders between innings and did everything I could to get some work in.”

The save opportunity was there in the ninth inning. Craig couldn’t pass up this chance to cheer up Bedrosian, and neither could Bedrosian.

The crowd gave Bedrosian a standing ovation when he walked to the mound.

Bedrosian gave up a double to Joe Carter on his second pitch, got Garry Templeton to ground out on his fourth pitch and then, three pitches later, lost the game.

“I wish I could have gotten the pitch inside,” he said. “It’s been a little tough concentrating lately.”

He’s not sure yet whether he will join his teammates for their game tonight at Dodger Stadium. Much depends on Cody’s condition.

“I love the game, and I love my job,” Bedrosian said. “But it’s kind of on the bottom of my priorities right now.”