Phillies Notes | Gordon not sure of his return

Tom Gordon said yesterday that his return to the Phillies bullpen wasn't imminent.

He said he was hopeful he could pitch again sometime before the all-star break, maybe even before the end of June. But he isn't certain, either. Gordon has been on the disabled list since May 2 with inflammation in his right shoulder, but the shoulder isn't as much of a concern as the upper respiratory infection that put him in the hospital May 11-14.

"My health as far as what I went through with the upper respiratory infection was a heck of a lot bigger," he said. "That's life or death. If I can't get healthy in that aspect, then I surely won't be able to pitch. . . . I had chest pains. I didn't really know what was going on. I actually thought I would just blow it off, and that's probably the worst thing I did."

Gordon believes the infection alone would have put him on the disabled list. But while the time off has allowed him to rest his shoulder, he also lost nearly 10 pounds. He played catch for the first time yesterday and has begun a conditioning program to get himself back on track.

"I think I'm pretty much out of the woods with the respiratory infection, but I still have some symptoms," he said. "I'm still short of breath. But for the most part, thank God, I'm a lot better than I was. . . . Right now I'm just going to have to allow things to take [their] course, and not push this thing any sooner than I have to. My body's not as strong as I would like it to be, so that's going to take some time."

But are his shoulder problems behind him? Gordon can't say. He acknowledged that he hasn't been completely healthy since last June or July. Gordon spent time on the DL last season with a strained right shoulder. He entered spring training optimistic an off-season of shoulder-strengthening exercises would help, but it didn't.

"It's come and gone," he said. "I got to a point where I started to feel a lot better, but then it kind of came back and kind of set me back a little bit. ... The doctors I have seen have said that it's something that probably won't get any worse, so just try to work yourself through it.

"Right now I'm just going to have to trust it. Trust that it's not going to get any worse, and allow this thing to heal up on its own."