Wednesday, July 18, 2001
Griffey dismisses talk of shutting down
Reds doctor doesn't think he'll need surgery
By Chris Haft
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Ken Griffey Jr. appreciates those who fret about his left hamstring injury, including his friend Harold Reynolds of ESPN. But Griffey intends to keep playing for the Reds on his troubled leg, no matter what concerned parties say or think.
Griffey said Tuesday that he didn't hear Reynolds or commentator Peter Gammons declare on ESPN's Baseball Tonight late Monday that the Cincinnati center fielder should stop playing for the rest of the season and have an operation to avoid aggravating his injury.
Griffey interpreted their statements as “(wanting) to make sure that I'm not going to hurt myself when I'm out there.”
But he said he'll stay in the lineup as long as the Reds let him. That's also what he said he told Reynolds a couple of weeks ago.
“They (the Reds) gave me a green light to play. That's the worst thing they could have done,” Griffey said with a smile. “That's the way I've always been. I can't play any differently. I told Harold that if I blow out, I blow out. But I at least want to do it on my own terms.”
Reds medical director Dr. Tim Kremchek reiterated that he doubts Griffey needs an operation, though a remote possibility exists
that he will. The Reds plan on sending Griffey to Dr. Bill Garrett, a North Carolina-based hamstring specialist, near or after the end of the season for a re-examination. Garrett saw Griffey in May and advised the Reds to maintain their rehabilitation plan.
The value in Griffey's playing, Kremchek added, is that it'll demonstrate how much more he needs to recover.
“If he keeps plateauing, he can go on an exercise/strengthening program in the offseason,” Kremchek said. “If everybody in the organization says, "We need better than this; we're willing to take a chance,' then you consider a surgical procedure.”
Reds general manager Jim Bowden declined to comment.
Griffey said he told Reyn olds worsening his hamstring isn't an issue.
“I relayed to him that it's the same surgery, whether I go in there now or I tear it completely off the bone,” Griffey said.
Griffey said Reynolds “yelled and screamed for, like, five minutes” when they talked. But, Griffey said, Reynolds ultimately accepted his view — “because he played.”
Added Griffey: “This is what I do. The main thing was, he was just trying to make sure I'm OK with what I'm doing. And I told him sometimes it's a catch-22. If I don't play, then people get upset; if I do play and I don't make a catch that they think I should have made, I get yelled at.”
Griffey said he has “good days and bad days” with his hamstring. “Sometimes,” he said, “I'm nowhere close to being what I have been before the injury.”
Then again, Griffey homered three times in Cincinnati's two games before Tuesday and made an impressive over-the-shoulder running catch Monday night. “If he swings like he swung the last two nights, it isn't hurt that bad,” Reds manager Bob Boone said.
Concerned about Griffey's swing, which he thought had grown “long,” Boone said he confronted his slugger Sunday about his injury. Griffey insisted he was fine.
Griffey also cited his obligation to the Reds in explaining why he's playing.
“If our team was winning, then it might be a different story,” Griffey said. “The one thing I don't want is to have my teammates think that I gave up on them. I live with these guys for 200-plus days (a year). During those months, these guys are the most important thing to me, outside of my family.”
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Griffey dismisses talk of shutting down
