Healing time for Lobel, Callahan
Two familiar voices -- Bob Lobel of Channel 4 and Gerry Callahan of WEEI -- have been off the air lately, not because of boss's orders but because of doctor's orders.
Lobel, who had neck surgery last month, started doing sportscasts on early newscasts (5 and 6 p.m.) this week and expects to be back full time in two or three weeks, he said.
"My doctor said to go back slowly," said Lobel, who had four vertebrae fused that had been pushing on his spinal cord and causing his hands and fingers to go numb.
"I think it's getting there; I don't know if I'm going to get all the feeling back in my hands, don't know how much is permanent damage," Lobel added. "They don't know what caused it; it might have been that way for a while. I don't know, there was no trauma; it's not like I was in an accident or anything."
Lobel, who wears a hard brace when he's working and a soft collar when he drives, probably will have to do without one of his passions -- golf -- for the summer.
"They originally said I can't play for nine months, but maybe I can start playing again by August," he said, adding that he is clear to play miniature golf.
Callahan, part of the "Dennis and Callahan" morning show, has been out since the end of April after having throat surgery to remove polyps that made him hoarse.
Declining to go into detail, Callahan wrote in an e-mail, "I feel fine, though I don't sound so good yet. I still sound like a guy who had surgery."
He is incredulous that some listeners regard his absence as a negotiating tool.
"[It] is kind of funny," he said. "I mean, I spent a month on the air sounding like Phil Leotardo from 'The Sopranos,' and then I went out sick for half the spring [ratings] book. So who do I look like, Asante Samuel? . . . I wish I were back now, but for a change I'm not going to do anything stupid. I'm going to listen to my doctor and heal up, and hopefully I'll be back on the air before I run out of [Percocets]."
"Ruffian," a movie starring Sam Shepard and Frank Whaley that documents the horse's short but stellar career, airs tomorrow at 9 p.m. on Channel 5.
William Nack, who was a sportswriter for Newsday and a correspondent for the Thoroughbred Record at the time, served as a consultant for the movie and also wrote a memoir, "Ruffian," for ESPN Press. He said most of the movie is dead-on -- such as when he pushed past a guard to get onto the track to see the fallen horse. But in some cases, well, the filmmakers took liberties, such as in depicting the reporter wearing a three-piece suit at the track.
"But, anyway, I think the movie turned out very well; they did a good job with recreating the racing scenes particularly," said Nack, who saw nine of Ruffian's 11 races.
"It was hard going back there, and I was surprised when I was writing this book that the emotions were still as raw, and as near to the surface as they were."
Nack said by far the most moving part of the filming was having to look at the simulated 5-foot grave the moviemakers dug.
"I had to go up and look inside to see if she looked the same," he said. "It was not an easy thing to do."
Susan Bickelhaupt can be reached at bickelhaupt@globe.com. 
