If Pokey Reese really wants out of Cincinnati, there was enough lumber in his locker Saturday night to build a raft.

        His black Franklin bat bag stood upright, but its contents were arranged haphazardly on the floor, along the walls and propped against his chair. The Cincinnati Reds' shortstop picked through at least a dozen bats before he selected two Louisville Sluggers and a single Mizuno to take into battle Saturday night against the Florida Marlins.

        He's tried them all in search of a groove but remains in a rut deep enough to drill for oil.

        “I've tried to move my hands,” Reese said. “I've tried to move my feet. I've tried just about everything and nothing's worked. I want
to be the kind of hitter who, when he gets in a slump, can just snap out of it. I can't do that yet. I'm not young anymore, but I'm still learning.”

Pokey Reese gets a pre-game hug from Dmitri Young, also the subject of trade talk. (Ernest Coleman photo) | ZOOM |

        Two years after Pokey Reese was deemed untouchable, his statistics suggest he has become unteachable. He was hitting .219 after an 0-for-2 Saturday night, locked in a season-long slump and a sustained contractual stalemate with general manager Jim Bowden.

        Two days before baseball's midseason trade deadline, Reese's future with the Reds was an hour-by-hour proposition. Speculation centered on the Colorado Rockies, but Reese also has been mentioned in scenarios with Arizona, Atlanta and the New York Mets.

        “Do I want to be here?” Reese asked. “Not really. There comes a time in your life when you might need a change.”

        From this foggy vantage point, the time to trade the 28-year-old infielder is not now. Though Bowden declined comment on Reese's remarks, this much goes without saying: Reese remains the Reds' rangiest middle infielder, their most accomplished second baseman and their best shortstop alternative behind the disabled Barry Larkin. Because his batting numbers are so bad and his free agency is one year away, the Reds probably would be looking at the low end of Reese's trading range should they be determined to dump him.

        Before the Reds deal Pokey Reese, they should try to heal him.

Soul worth salvaging

        Despite his baffling boycott of Redsfest and his heartfelt hostility toward Bowden, Pokey Reese is a soul worth salvaging. He's an athlete so gifted that Bengals president Mike Brown mused last week about his capabilities at cornerback. Until his 2001 travails, Reese was among the most joyful players in baseball. He played the game with a childlike enthusiasm and played second base to Gold Glove specifications.

        But something has infected Reese's demeanor since the end of last year and it probably traces to his bargaining impasse and the decline in his batting average. He's taking more heat on the talk shows and hearing more abuse from the stands, and he could use some help in handling it.

        “He's been in this trade talk, that trade talk,” Ken Griffey Jr. said. “After a while, if you feel the organization has given up on you, that's tough. Sometimes you can fix it. Sometimes you can't.”

        The simplest way to get everyone to shut up would be to start hitting, but Reese's many experiments have gone unrewarded. Eric Owens advised him to try to get jammed in the hope of producing a bloop hit.

        “I tried it,” Reese said. “And it didn't work. I've just got to keep battling.”

        From here, it looks like a battle worth fighting.

        E-mail tsullivan@enquirer.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/sullivan.

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