BASEBALL DAILY REPORT : Busch Can Barely Enjoy Good News

Mike Busch had just gotten the news 30 minutes before that he was coming up to the Dodgers when the telephone rang. It was his wife, Lyvier. He wondered how she could have already heard.

It turns out Lyvier was informing Mike on Wednesday that their 16-month-old daughter, Shunyl, had suffered a fractured pelvis. She will be in a body cast for six weeks. Busch almost forgot to pass on his news.

Oh, by the way, he said, he won’t be coming home from the trip. He was just told to pack his bags for Pittsburgh. He was going back to the big leagues.

“My wife just started crying,” Busch said. “It was such a roller coaster of emotions.”

Busch, who became a folk hero to Dodger fans last season after being called up as a replacement player, ironically replaces union activist Brett Butler on the roster.

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Butler underwent a tonsillectomy Friday and was even in good spirits and talking. But the last known baseball player to undergo the surgery said that Butler could be in for a rude awakening.

“I think he’s in for a tough time,” said Minnesota Twin pitcher Dave Stevens, who had his tonsils taken out last December. “I wouldn’t wish that on my worst enemy. That’s scary. I hope he bounces back quicker than I did.”

Stevens said that he was bed-ridden for nine days and lost 30 pounds while recovering from the surgery. He still was weak when he came to spring training two months later.

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Tom Candiotti’s strained right knee has recovered sufficiently for him to start tonight, shuffling the Dodgers’ pitching plans. They now will move everyone back in the rotation one day. . . . Ramon Martinez will pitch tonight for double-A San Antonio and then start at Class-A Vero Beach. If he has no setbacks, he then could return to the rotation by May 14.