Once a future star, Darren Dreifort is left with scars

Darren Dreifort plans to be there this week when he is inducted into the College Baseball Hall of Fame.

Body willing, of course.

His attendance at Friday's enshrinement in Lubbock, Texas, Dreifort notes without hint of irony or pathos, depends on "whether I can walk, or how well I'm getting around."

He's recovering from surgery.

This probably will come as no surprise to anyone who closely followed the star-crossed professional career of the former Dodgers right-hander. A seemingly can't-miss prospect, he wound up spending as much time rehabbing injuries as he did dueling batters during 11 major league seasons.

A hip procedure last Wednesday in Beverly Hills was his 22nd surgery -- his 20th since he left Wichita State after being the second player taken in the 1993 amateur draft behind only a slugging high school shortstop from Miami named Alex Rodriguez.

A dark cloud has followed Dreifort, 37, into retirement. He has endured eight surgeries since his last game Aug. 16, 2004, when he suffered a season-ending knee injury at a time when he already was scheduled for three other postseason operations.

Divorced, he lives in Pacific Palisades after moving from La Canada to be nearer his three sons, ages 7, 5 and 3, who live most of the week with their mother in Santa Monica.

Life hasn't played out as he'd hoped -- or major league scouts envisioned -- but Dreifort says he's OK with it.

"I've been able to do what I wanted to do," he says over coffee during an interview at a Starbucks near his home. "I wanted to play major league baseball and I wanted to raise my kids. I wish I could raise my kids full time, but that's the way it goes."

He and his ex-wife, Ann, have a "good relationship," Dreifort notes, "so the kids are doing very well."

They are his priority.

Financially secure -- who can forget the controversial $55-million contract the Dodgers lavished upon him? -- Dreifort is free to spend time with his sons without worrying about having to work.

Asked how he fills his days, he says, "Raising the kids," noting that he coaches them and is a school volunteer.

A call from the College Baseball Hall of Fame, which inducted its first class of honorees in 2006, caught Dreifort by surprise.

Among nine others being enshrined this week are former World Series star Joe Carter, who preceded Dreifort at Wichita State, and former Mississippi State slugger Rafael Palmeiro.