Jason Schmidt has been harshly portrayed by some people as a hypochondriac, something he confessed to this weekend ? and explained ? for the first time to The Times. "For two to three years I was fearful," he said. "Every time I'd get sick, I thought I had cancer. I never looked at it from a realistic point of view. I could have stubbed my toe and thought I had cancer." The worries had a rational basis. His mother, Vicki, died of brain cancer at 53 about six months after she watched her son pitch against the Angels in the 2002 World Series. Several other of Schmidt's relatives have had the disease. After the 2003 season ? during which he posted a healthy 17-5 record and 2.34 earned-run average ? he was so distraught over headaches and stomach pain that he traveled from his home near Kelso, Wash., to Arizona for tests to rule out the Big C. "He had legitimate symptoms, and because of what he had gone through with his mom, we wanted him to take the right tests and put his mind at ease," said Stan Conte, the Giants' trainer at the time and now the Dodgers' trainer.