Wednesday, April 17, 2002
Griffey won't predict return
Injured outfielder tests knee during batting practice
By John Erardi jerardi@enquirer.com
The Cincinnati Enquirer
Ken Griffey Jr. took batting practice Tuesday but made a point not to land hard on his injured leg. Nine days ago, he partially tore the patella tendon in his right knee when he slipped on the grass during a rundown in a game at Cinergy Field.
“It feels OK,” he said. “I don't have a whole lot of swelling; it's just that I feel more pressure in that spot than normal.”
Given that his leg seems to be healing quickly, does he think he might be back in the lineup more toward the front end of his three-to-six-week prognosis?
“They (the Reds) are going to take their time and make sure,” Griffey said. “There's nothing that I can say about (when he thinks he will be ready). They're the ones who have to sign off on me playing.”
Griffey said this injury isn't as frustrating as his hamstring injury last year, because now he has a timetable for his return. And, thanks to the Ben gals, he might be back even sooner. Tuesday, he used their underwater treadmill at Paul Brown Stadium.
Griffey's absence from the lineup has made a big splash in Cincinnati, but it created a tidal wave in Seattle, where rumors are rampant about the possibility of Junior being traded back to the Mariners. Griffey and his agent, Brian Goldberg, have denied it.
“I can't worry about what other people say,” Griffey said. “I can't do anything about it ... They (the media) don't say it when I'm playing. They say it when I'm at home (injured).”
It certainly would be understandable if Junior had told a friend or two back in Seattle that his return to his childhood stomping grounds in Cincinnati has been less than idyllic, and that he missed the Mariners.
What professional wouldn't feel that way? The Mariners won 116 regular-season games last year. The Reds won 66. Junior took much less money than market value to return home, and the Reds haven't used that money to extend the payroll and become competitive.
And Junior has been hurt a lot more here than in Seattle, where he rarely missed a game.
But he hasn't belly-ached about any of this to his teammates. His friend and fellow Cincinnati native, Barry Larkin, said Junior has made no mention of longing to return to the Mariners.
Griffey insisted Tuesday he is happy in Cincinnati.
“I was raised here, but I grew up (into an adult) in Seattle,” said Griffey, who was drafted by the Mariners out of Moeller High School when he was 17. He opened with Seattle when he was 19.
“A lot of people don't understand (the depth of his connection with the Mariners). ... Now, having kids and all that, a lot of things have changed. And a lot of people don't understand that. I want to watch my kids grow up.”
That is easier to do with the Reds' spring training camp in Sarasota, Fla., a short drive from his home in Orlando, and with the Reds' travel schedule meaning less time away from home. The Mariners spend more time in transit than any other big-league club.
When asked again if he was happy in Cincinnati, Griffey said without hesitation: “Yes.”
“If you're winning, nobody (in the media) is going to say anything. They can't say anything. But if you're losing, then everything is: "He's not happy. He's this. He's that.' If we had won a championship my first year here, nothing would have been said. But it didn't happen. So everything is going to snowball and be blown out of proportion (about his purported unhappiness).”
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Griffey won't predict return
