By Kevin Kelly
Enquirer staff writer

An injury ended Ken Griffey Jr.'s season early for the second straight year. Enquirer file/MICHAEL E. KEATING

With one slide on the outfield grass last week in San Francisco, a season in which Ken Griffey Jr. hit his 500th career home run and again became a prominent figure in baseball ended in pain.

The Reds announced Wednesday that the All-Star center fielder will undergo season-ending surgery Monday to repair a torn right hamstring. Doctors believe the injury occurred during Griffey's last start, against the Giants on Aug. 4.

"For him to continue to play baseball - center field, power hitter, any type of speed aspect with quick starts and stops - he'll need to have that hamstring re-attached," medical director Dr. Timothy Kremchek said during an informal news conference.

"The idea will be for him, we hope, to recover from this fully and participate full go at the beginning of spring training."

An MRI performed earlier in the day revealed the tendon had been ripped from the bone.

"With his history of injuries, I think all of us feel badly for him," Reds general manager Dan O'Brien said. "I'm sure it is a big disappointment for him as well.

"There's no question he wants to play. Certainly his efforts in that regard speak for themselves."

The hamstring began bothering Griffey, 34, when he chased after a fly ball against the Brewers on July 10 at Miller Park.

Hesuffered a partial tear of the hamstring on the play and went on the 15-day disabled list the following day. That prevented him from participating in the All-Star Game and the Home Run Derby in Houston.

Griffey came off the disabled list Aug. 3 and suffered the season-ending injury the next day.

In the fourth inning of the eventual 8-7 Reds win, Giants infielder Pedro Feliz hit a double into the gap at SBC Park. Griffey, who had started in right field for the first time in his career, slid in an attempt to make a catch. He was removed from the game as a precaution before the bottom of the fifth inning.

"This is a grossly different injury than he had a month ago, where it showed just a small little strain or partial tear," Kremchek said. "This is completely pulled off the bone."

Griffey appeared as a pinch hitter twice after that game in San Francisco but never returned to the starting lineup.

"He has a very high pain tolerance," Kremchek said. "But he just wasn't the same after that sliding play he made in San Francisco.

"The weakness was very obvious by the MRI changes. It was completely different (from the partial tear)."

A durable player during his 11 seasons with the Mariners - he was on the disabled list just three times - various leg, foot and shoulder ailments have landed Griffey on the disabled list six times since the Reds traded for him prior to the 2000 season.

His 2003 season, which included a dislocated right shoulder, ended July 17 after he ruptured a tendon in his right ankle while rounding first base.

Griffey also spent time on the disabled list in 2002 with a torn right hamstring and in 2001 with a torn left hamstring.

By the end of this season, Griffey will have missed 214 games on the disabled list since 2000. He has played in 462.

On June 20, Griffey became the 20th player in major-league history to hit 500 career home runs, a mark that has long defined baseball's most prolific sluggers.

In 83 games, he batted .253 with 20 home runs and 60 RBI.