By John Erardi
The Cincinnati Enquirer

Which Ken Griffey Jr. will we see in the second half of the baseball season?

Will it be the Ken Griffey of the last five games he played before the All-Star break, when he hit five home runs in five games? Or will it be the Ken Griffey of the 2 1/2 seasons before that (injured, basically)?

Ken Griffey Jr. hit five home runs in his last five games. (Enquirer file photo) | ZOOM |

Will it be the Ken Griffey of his Reds homecoming season of 2000, banged up but still productive with 40 home runs and 118 RBI? Or will it be the Ken Griffey who made himself famous with 49/140, 56/147, 56/146 and 48/134 season his last four years in Seattle before being traded here?

Almost nobody expects Griffey to return to his Seattle form. His legs appear to be worn out after playing on artificial turf since he was 19 years old.

Does Griffey, 33, think he can be that player of four years ago?

"There's no doubt in my mind," he said. "I can help the ballclub. It's just a matter of getting comfortable."

He says it's the injuries - not lack of desire - that have kept him from being himself the past 2 1/2 seasons. But fans wonder. They always want to blame the mind for the body breaking down.

Is he OK?

The Enquirer asked Griffey just before the All-Star break whether he was healthy.

"No," he said. "I think it's something similar to what (Sean) Casey played with last year. But I don't have the rotator cuff thing he had . . ."

So, how bad is it?

"I have good days and bad days," Griffey said. "I'm trying to work through it."

Will he have shoulder surgery in the offseason?

"We'll see," he said. "I go day by day. We'll evaluate it when it's over. I keep working on it with Lonnie (Reds assistant trainer/physical therapist Lonnie Soloff). We re-evaluate. The strength and flexibility are getting better."

But remember: Hope is what springs eternal, not the legs of a 33-year-old ballplayer.

WHAT OTHERS SAY

Here is what some players at the All-Star Game in Chicago had to say about Ken Griffey Jr.: GARRET ANDERSON, OF, Anaheim Angels, and 2003 All-Star Game MVP - I think if he stays healthy he could get back here. Obviously he's still a great talent. But he's been hurt. When you get hurt at the beginning of the season and don't have a chance to put the numbers up, you probably won't make an All-Star team. You're spotting a guy six to eight weeks. He definitely has the talent to still play this game. It's just a matter of if he can stay healthy. PRESTON WILSON, OF, Colorado Rockies - It's not like he's over-the-hill. He's still a great player. But when you have injuries, it limits a lot of things you can do, your time on the field. Then some chances that you would take with your body before you may not take now ... VERNON WELLS, OF, Toronto Blue Jays - I think everybody still thinks highly of him. It's unfortunate he's been having to fight the injury bug the last few years. I think everybody knows that if he was able to stay healthy he would still be doing the same things he was doing. It's just unfortunate he hasn't been able to stay healthy. BARRY BONDS, OF, San Francisco Giants - You don't see anything diminish. He goes and gets the ball. He's got a great arm. He can still run. He just has to take care of himself. He's just been unlucky. Kevin Kelly

Griffey averaged 152 games a season from 1990-93 and 155 games from 1996-99. Since playing in 145 games as a Red in 2000, he has played in, respectively, 111 and 70 games - and he'll be lucky to get in 100 this season.

With more good days than bad, Griffey could have a big second half. And if he does that - if can hit 19 more home runs - he would reach 500 for his career.

"That ball would bring an auction price of between $25,000 to $75,000 . . . probably closer to $50,000," predicted Steve Wolter, a memorabilia collector and dealer who owns Sports Investments Inc., in Montgomery.

"But this is the guy most people thought would break (Henry Aaron's) 755. Nobody thinks that now. If somebody does break it, that ball (756) will be monumental - close to the $3.2 million paid for (Mark) McGwire's 70th home run ball (in 1998)."

Not only would 19 home runs in the second half give Griffey 500, it would give him 32 for the year - a good number for somebody who has played in only 52 of the Reds' 93 games and had only 163 at-bats. He has 13 home runs and 26 RBI.

Aging can be tough

What is most worrisome is that Griffey's injuries parallel those to Mickey Mantle (legs) and Ted Kluszewski (lower back), two great sluggers who were effectively done by age 32. Griffey, who turns 34 in November, hasn't had a good year since he was 30.

The last Red who had the phrase "old 30" applied to him was Frank Robinson - when he was traded to Baltimore following the 1965 season. He proceeded to win the Triple Crown (49 HR, 122 RBI and .316) in 1966 and average 25 home runs for the next eight seasons - through age 39, in other words - back when 25 home runs was like 40 today.

Robinson is the norm, rather than the exception, for sluggers. They usually just keep bombing them into their late 30s. Barry Bonds' second wind after age 30 has been phenomenal simply because he's better after 30 than he was before. Plenty of sluggers have been almost as good.

Nobody ever summarized Griffey's status better than Bonds.

"Nobody ever talks about Ken Griffey Jr. anymore," Bonds said at the All-Star Game in Chicago. "I just want that guy to stay healthy. His talent is unbelievable, phenomenal."

The sunset years

Older ballplayers thinking they "still have it" is not unusual.

Remember Reds great Joe Morgan saying in the late 1970s that his advanced age wasn't depriving him of production, injuries were?

Which is just the point: With age comes injuries, and those injuries take longer to heal. What makes Griffey more of a rare case for sluggers is his injuries came so soon.

But there are precedents for sluggers losing it early. And it always has to do with injuries. Mantle and Kluszewski didn't have those pretty sunsets of productivity in their mid-to-late 30s. They were both shells of themselves by their early 30s.

And what does Griffey appear to be, if not a shell? Consider:

• Mantle: By age 32, "The Mick" had hit 454 home runs. In his next (and final) four years, he hit only 82 to finish with 536.

• Kluszewski: By age 32, "Big Klu" had hit 245 home runs. In his next (and final) five years, he hit only 34 to finish with 279.

• Griffey: At the age of 31, Griffey had hit 438 home runs. In the 2 1/2 years since, he has hit only 43.

Is Griffey through?

"I'm always hoping we'll see the guy we saw (in) spring training," Reds manager Bob Boone said. "He was dominant on every pitch."

Is it a matter of Griffey getting consistent playing time?

"He's been in there consistently since he came back from being sick," Boone said. "He's hitting .242. That's not the old Junior."

Can he be the old Junior?

"I don't know," Boone said. "You're asking the wrong guy. (But) I've been encouraged by the way he's swung lately."

Reds general manager Jim Bowden did not return a phone call for this story.

Brian Goldberg, Griffey's attorney-agent, said Griffey's injuries are a matter of happenstance, not premature aging.

"His run of injuries have come after such a long stretch of non-injuries," Goldberg said. "I know he's in good shape . . . Sure, I understand there's a chance of the body breaking down, but I don't see that being the case. It's more a case of bad luck than anything."

Legs not eternal

Does five home runs in five games indicate Griffey can be "The Kid" again?

"He can get back there," said Reds batting instructor Tom Robson. "When he was healthy this spring, he was swinging better than I've ever seen him. (He was swinging so good) it was ridiculous . .  It's a matter of avoiding the little nagging things. As long as nothing stupid happens to him, it's a matter of getting in a groove. He's getting there. He's something special."

Oh, really?

One would have a tough time convincing Reds fans of that.

They hear comments like that, and their eyes roll back in their heads.

Who can blame them? They keep hearing about "the Seattle Griffey," but they have never seen him. The Cincinnati Griffey doesn't spray the ball to all fields, doesn't look like a great hitter, and though he can still "go get the ball," he doesn't have the Flubber-esque bounce in his legs any more that used to allow him to catapult himself far above outfield walls to steal home runs.

As one Reds insider put it recently: "You remember that (fly) ball he separated his shoulder on? When he was in Seattle, he makes that catch. And maybe he doesn't separate his shoulder in the process. He had more spring in his legs in those early years in Seattle. All those years on (artificial) turf took it out of him."

And therein lies the rub. Griffey is not his old self, physically.

And - if you listen to the talk shows - plenty of people have concluded he is not his old self mentally, either. They think he has quit, thrown in the towel, is mailing it in.

What really drives Reds fans to distraction, however - and Griffey should know this, because he grew up here in the 1970s when Pete Rose was galvanizing the masses at Riverfront Stadium - is that Griffey doesn't always hustle down the first-base line. Yes, Griffey always hustles in the outfield. But fans aren't going to cut anybody any slack if they don't run hard down the first-base line.

That Griffey is no longer the backward-hat wearing, smiling "Kid" is understandable, however.

And most Reds fans seem to understand that. They know Griffey is not at the root of the Reds' woes.

A lack of quality starting pitching is.

John Fay contributed to this report.