SAN DIEGO -- Padres bullpen catcher Mark Merila does not need to look far for inspiration in his battle with a recurring brain tumor.

Merila once formed a battery with pitcher Rob Ramsay, who had surgery for one of the most severe types of tumors. Five years after that surgery, Ramsay is healthy and working as a pitching coach at Couer d'Alene High in Idaho.

"Everything is excellent," he said by telephone recently.

Merila and Ramsay crossed paths in the 2003 Padres spring training camp. Ramsay was a year removed from surgery for a gioblastoma multiforme -- a high-grade, quick-to-spread tumor. A 6-foot-5 left-hander, Ramsay was diagnosed late in 2001, shortly after signing with the Padres. He had surgery in January 2002 and missed that season.

On the comeback trail in 2003, Ramsay threw to Merila in several warm-up and side sessions. Ramsay's comeback fell short as he failed to make it back to the majors with the Padres and his next organization, the Orioles. He previously appeared in 43 games with the Mariners from 1999-2000.

Ramsay, now 33, returned home to the Pacific Northwest and is working to become a teacher. He has enrolled at Northern Idaho College and is a junior varsity basketball coach in addition to his baseball duties. Most important, he and wife Samantha are the parents of a 2-year-old son, Ryan.

"I was fortunate enough to make it to the big leagues, which very few people can say," Ramsay said. "As far as the baseball thing, I can be proud that I accomplished getting there. Then going through all that with the tumor, that's a miracle. There's no comparing the two. Surviving that is everything."

The median survival rate for a gioblastoma multiforme patient is about one year. Ramsay not only has lived much longer, but he has had nothing but clean MRI results for years. Doctors did not remove all the cancerous tissue in his surgery, but the ensuing radiation and chemotherapy seem to have killed the remaining tumor cells.

The only medication Ramsay takes is anti-seizure medication.

- Contact staff writer Shaun O'Neill at (760) 740-3546 or soneill@nctimes.com.