Interview by Bill Center / UNION-TRIBUNE

Todd Hutcheson arrives at the ballpark shortly after noon each day and doesn't leave until around midnight. His task is simple: Keep the players on the Padres' 25-man roster in condition to play.

Q: What's the toughest part of your job?
A: “It always comes down to when a guy gets injured and he's never been hurt before. You know how long he's going to be out and he's saying he's going to be back in a couple of days. You have to get them to realize the seriousness of what they are dealing with. A lot of times, how you deal with that is as important as the injury.”

Q: So you need a bedside manner?
A: “All personalities are different. You have to gain trust. What's helped me is a track record. You explain what you've seen before with injuries and what steps they will see along the way. Once they see they progress the same way, it gets easier.”

Q: It sounds almost as much mental as physical
A: “You have to treat the person as well as the injury. No matter how small something might be that is bothering a player, it is bothering him. For me to downplay it makes no sense. The hardest part some time is to treat the person.”

Q: You are a middleman. You treat players and report to management. Both sides have to trust you. Is that difficult?
A: “There has to be trust both ways. The players have to have confidence and trust in you. They have to know you are acting in their best interest. But Bud (Black) needs an honest assessment. But some things are held in confidence. You have to pick and choose.”

Q: The scariest injuries you have seen?
A: “By far the Mike Cameron and Carlos Beltran collision at Petco Park in 2005 is the worst. Wiki Gonzalez being run over at home by Adam Dunn. Ryan Klesko getting hit in the face by a pitch. Any time an umpire is hit by a foul straight back. Frightening. But every major league ballpark has paramedics.”

Q: Is there an injury that has stumped you?
A: The bone bruises of Bret Boone and Brian Giles. When fans hear bruise, they think, 'Why isn't he playing?' Take a hammer and hit the heel of your foot as hard as you can. Bone bruises get worse before better. It's a long process.”

Q: Doug Brocail?
A: “That started with a trip to the dentist for an abscessed tooth. He felt tired right after that. Doug had a history of asthma and it sounded like an asthma attack or an allergic reaction to medicine. He trusted us to find a reason. At the time, who could possibly have known? But we got really fast support.”

Q: But an angioplasty is out of the ordinary. Then again, you must appear to the players as an emergency medical provider?
A: “On the road, if something happens in the middle of the night, they'll call me first. Paul (assistant Paul Navarro) and I are the first line of treatment. We deal with everything. Fever, flu, sore throats. One of my favorites is when a player says, 'I'm dizzy.' What do I do? There wasn't a course in school that covered dizzy. Once in Triple-A I had a player tell me, 'My heart is beating fast' as he was going to the plate. I felt it and his heart was really going. You have to make decisions. That case turned out to be a reaction to medication.”

Q: Speaking of school and background, how did you get started?
A: “In my freshman year at LaVerne, I took an athletic training course. It turned out that I was real good in taping ankles ... under two minutes with no wrinkles. With my career as an athlete (baseball) winding down, I figured training might be something to explore. I worked nine years in the minor leagues.”
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