LOS ANGELES -- The limp is virtually gone, and now the only visible evidence of what happened is a lump on his left shin the size of half a golf ball.
But Ivan De Jesus Jr. remembers what that lower tibia looked like on the inside via X-ray.
"It looked like a chicken bone, broken in half, all jagged," De Jesus said. "I try not to remember, but it will be in my mind my whole life."
De Jesus is on the comeback trail this Spring. The 22-year-old infielder suffered a bad fracture with a twisted step at the plate trying to score from second base during a "B" game against the Milwaukee Brewers last spring. He was carted off the field, taken to a local hospital and soon underwent surgery. Dr. Brian Shafer of the Scottsdale Health Care Hospital inserted a permanent stabilizing rod through the leg from the knee to the ankle.
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The son of Ivan De Jesus Sr., a former Dodger and 15-year Major League veteran, De Jesus Jr. was rated the club's best infield prospect and sixth overall in the organization last year by Baseball America. He came to camp with an outside chance of making the club as a backup and was being worked mostly at shortstop, even though it meant giving Chin-lung Hu more time at second base.