Acknowledging that he is considering a comeback to pro baseball, former big league pitcher Onan Masaoka said a transaction report that he signed with the Texas Rangers was not true.

Masaoka, 29, who retired after the 2001 season, said yesterday there was a miscommunication on an agreement with Texas and that he had not signed a contract.

The left-hander spent parts of the 1999 and 2000 season with the Los Angeles Dodgers, who drafted him in the third round out of Waiakea High in 1995. He last pitched in 2001 at Charlotte, the Triple-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, who obtained him in a trade.

"(Texas) proposed something to me in the form of a contract, but I guess there was a miscommunication with requesting to see the contract," Masaoka said in a telephone interview from the Big Island. "It came out in baseball transactions that I did sign with them, but as of right now, I'm unsigned."

Since his retirement, Masaoka earned a business degree from the University of Hawai'i-Hilo and has been working part-time at Kea'au High. He has been working out, but said he does not want to commit to a comeback until he feels confident his arm is back to form.

"At some point, if my arm feels good, and I can get back to where I was, that's when I would really say I'm back in baseball," he said. "Definitely, I have interest (in a comeback)."

Masaoka said he retired because he felt "burned out." He had given his all, even during the offseason.

"When I look back, that's why I had that little burnout at the end," he said. "I wasn't having fun. To me, at that time in my life, not knowing anything else but baseball just coming out of high school, I didn't really have the opportunity to experience the young life. It was right into a career right after high school. I missed a lot of those things."

ELSEWHERE

The start of the World Series is being pushed back an extra day to Oct. 24, meaning Game 7 is scheduled for November for the first time. Because of extra off-days during the postseason, a team sweeping the NL Championship Series would have eight days off before its World Series opener.

—Associated Press

Reach Stacy Kaneshiro at skaneshiro@honoluluadvertiser.com.