By Kevin Kelly
The Cincinnati Enquirer

As he begins to detail the January day when this final season buckled before it began, John Vander Wal reaches for and begins to rub his right knee.

The industrial-strength brace underneath his pinstriped uniform pants forms a visible impression and is a sensory reminder.

Reds utility man John Vander Wal is rehabbing a blown out knee he suffered this past winter. (Jeff Swinger photo)

"It started the day before, when I climbed out of my truck and slipped," the Reds infielder/outfielder/pinch hitter extraordinaire recalled recently. "It hurt a lot when I first did it, but the pain subsided and I didn't think anything of it.

"The next day, I'm moving snow so I can get to my snow blower and, bam, I'm on the ground."

After he got up off the snow-covered driveway at his Grand Rapids, Mich., home, Vander Wal hopped into the house on one leg.

"I took my pants off," he said, "and my knee was just huge. I knew something major was going on."

Vander Wal, who signed a one-year, $700,000 contract with the Reds on Jan. 12, boarded a plane to Cincinnati soon after. Doctors diagnosed and repaired a torn anterior cruciate ligament Jan. 27.

The resulting two-a-day rehabilitation sessions, five to six times a week, have led him to the verge of a pre-All Star break return.

"This is a guy that has gone about his rehabilitation very professionally and worked incredibly hard," Reds head trainer Mark Mann said. "He's intent on playing this year."

There is a good chance the left-handed hitter could be in a Reds uniform, and upgrading an anemic bench, before the end of May.

Cincinnati pinch hitters had a .136 batting average with two homers, four RBI and 17 strikeouts through Thursday's game.

Released by the Reds during spring training and re-signed to a minor-league contract, Vander Wal left for Sarasota, Fla., on Tuesday and began the next phase of his rehabilitation at extended spring training.

"I just told myself that I was going to come back," Vander Wal said. "I had already decided that this (season) was it. But I didn't want to go out in my final year and not even get out onto the field and play."

The very reason the Reds remained committed to Vander Wal after the injury is why his return is so anticipated.

At 38 years old, and a veteran of 1,330 games with his eighth team, Vander Wal can play left or right field as well as first base.

But what separates him is his ability to come off the bench and produce.

Vander Wal ranks among the all-time pinch-hit leaders in hits (125), homers (17) and at-bats (506).

"There are a number of people that come off the bench," Reds general manager Dan O'Brien said. "But those types of individuals with his track record are few and far between."

But Vander Wal refuses to view himself solely as a bench player. Maybe that's part of the secret to thriving in one of the most mentally demanding roles in baseball.

"Most of the time, a guy like Vander Wal comes to the plate and faces all the best closers in the world," said Reds manager Dave Miley, whose professional career was cut short because of two knee surgeries. "It's difficult to do physically, but it's got to be tough mentally."

As a non-roster invitee to Brewers spring training in 2003, Vander Wal made the club and started 87 of the 117 games he appeared in last season.

"Wherever I sign, I come in expecting to play," said Vander Wal, a career .263 batter. "If I've got to reprove myself, which I've had to do year in and year out, that's fine.

"But I never come in thinking I'm just going to pinch hit. That's the thing about competing; if I lose that, then I shouldn't be around here."

Vander Wal had substantial offers from two West Coast teams this past offseason, including one that dangled an opportunity to play regularly. Cincinnati appealed to Vander Wal because of its proximity to his family's home in Michigan.

"One team was very adamant about trying to get me to go," said Vander Wal, a husband and father of 7-year-old twins. "I laid it out and said I couldn't move my family out there.

"(Cincinnati) is still a ways from home, but it's close enough that I can get home."

Though he believes he could continue playing for two to three more seasons, Vander Wal has decided this season will be his last.

The pull of family life is stronger than ever.

"It's not so much that I'm sick of the game and don't want to play," Vander Wal said. "My kids are 7 now, and I need to be there.

"They need a dad more now than their dad needs to play baseball."

Even if it's for a few more months in the summer and early fall, Vander Wal plans to enjoy every bit of his comeback.

"I'm very grateful the Reds have given me this opportunity," he said. "It's more than words can say, what they've done for me.

"I'm going to have fun. I'm going to have fun this year."

Pinch-hit kings

CAREER PINCH-HIT HITS LEADERS (through 2003)

1. Lenny Harris - 181

2. Manny Mota - 150

3. Smoky Burgess - 145

4. Greg Gross - 143

5. John Vander Wal - 125

CAREER PINCH-HIT HOME RUN LEADERS (through 2003)

1. Cliff Johnson - 20

2. Jerry Lynch - 18

3. John Vander Wal - 17