Friday, August 24, 2001
Griffey striving to stomach stardom
Superstar reveals he had ulcer two years ago
He looks so comfortable now, so fluid and natural, so much like the player everyone expects him to be. Junior Griffey missed hitting for the cycle by the length of his foot Thursday. He hit a flyball in the fourth inning and just kept running, until the relay from center field to second base to third base nabbed him.
The would-be triple would have worked nicely with the single in the first, the bullet double down the right-field line in the third and the home run to left-center in the eighth.
As it was, Griffey settled for four hits: a single, two doubles, his 10th homer of the month and one startling admission: Two years ago, he had emergency ulcer surgery. Griffey went to the hospital in Seattle, doubled over in pain. Doctors stuck a tube down his throat, nearly to his stomach, and pumped in medicine.
“I remember walking to the car after surgery,” Griffey said. “I said, "Take me to the ballpark, I might have to pinch hit.'” The next thing he knew, Griffey woke up on his couch.
No ordinary ulcer
Normally, a two-year-old surgery isn't news. But for an ulcer? At age 29? The more we think we know about the Reds' best player, the less we really do.
Ulcers can grow in people who worry too much, too quietly.
Forever, the Junior image has rested squarely on the shoulders of misperception: immensely talented, fun-loving kid just out there having the time of his life, wearing his hat backward, bonding with little kids, still a little kid himself. Baseball's Peter Pan.
Only, it's not like that.
“I'm never comfortable,” he said. Griffey was talking about hitting. But also about being Griffey. “I'm never relaxed. I'm a high-strung individual. I don't snap and flip things in the ballpark, or at home. I just don't talk.”
Griffey wants everyone to like him. It drives him crazy when they don't. He hears everything and, for better or worse, takes it all to heart. Unlike Barry Bonds, his closest peer when it comes to baseball, big expectations and bloodlines, Griffey is usually a pleasant guy.
Stress for success
No one knows what it's like to be the famous son of a famous father, expected to be the signature player of his era, playing in the town where he grew up.
Only now, maybe we do. Ulcers don't come from trying to score from first on a double.
The hamstring hurt comes and goes. Sometimes, it's loose by the second inning, sometimes it takes until the seventh or eighth. The injury has forced Griffey to throttle down, like it or not. And that's not all bad.
“Trying to do too much. That's the one conversation I have with my dad all the time,” Griffey said. “Now, I'm trying to do as much as I can with the little time I have.”
He's hitting the ball the opposite way more now, a sure sign of taking what is given, instead of forcing the issue. When his hamstring is right, as it has been lately, he's using his speed to create magic. Griffey's game-winning inside-the-park home run Monday went to the front of the 2001 Reds highlight reel. Thursday wasn't far behind.
“I thought it was a double,” Griffey said of the near-triple. “Ronnie (Oester) kept waving, so I just kept going.”
The hamstring felt fine. The stomach is day-to-day.
E-mail: pdaugherty@enquirer.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/daugherty.
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DAUGHERTY: Griffey striving to stomach stardom
