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Pinch me Griffey wants to pinch-hit while hamstring heals
Updated: Wednesday April 18, 2001 11:31 PM
CINCINNATI (AP) -- Ken Griffey Jr. would rather be a pinch-hitter than not get the chance to hit at all. The Cincinnati Reds center fielder said Wednesday he agreed with the club's decision to keep him on the roster rather than put him on the 15-day disabled list while he recovers from a torn hamstring. A magnetic resonance imaging test on Tuesday found the partial tear in the lower part of Griffey's bothersome left hamstring, an indication he's not even close to returning to the starting lineup. Griffey has been limited to pinch-hitting this season -- he's 0-for-8 with three strikeouts and a pair of walks. He prefers to continue in that role rather than go on the disabled list. "It's up to the ballclub," he said, before the Reds' 7-4 loss to Milwaukee. "If I can get one at-bat with a chance to tie the game or put us ahead, I'm going to do it." He pinch-hit in the ninth inning Wednesday and was hit by a pitch from Curtis Leskanic. Manager Bob Boone immediately sent in pitcher Chris Reitsma to pinch-run. Griffey said the club won't be any better off if it replaced him with a healthy player from the minors. "If they call somebody up, what's he going to do? The same job," Griffey said. "They can use a pitcher to pinch-run until I feel better and can run." He will be nothing more than a pinch-hitter for the foreseeable future. The injury that he sustained during a spring training game in March could hinder him well into May. "This is not going to be measured in days," Dr. Timothy Kremchek said. "It's going to be measured in weeks when he's ready to play." The main concern with using Griffey as a pinch-hitter is that he could make the hamstring worse by running after a hit. He's been told to jog when he hits the ball, something that Griffey finds hard to do. "If I hit one off the top of the wall, it could be a single," he said. "I've just got to be smart. I'm not going to do anything to jeopardize (the hamstring)." Griffey hasn't been on the disabled list since 1995, when he broke his left wrist while crashing into the outfield wall. He doesn't like to miss games and didn't want to go on the disabled list because of the hamstring. "It was his decision, and the decision of Bob Boone and the general manager, not to put him on the disabled list and to keep him on the team in that capacity," Kremchek said. There's no way to tell how long it will be before Griffey can play all-out again. General manager Jim Bowden sounded optimistic that Griffey could be back in the lineup sooner. "He's making some improvement, but he's still not there yet," Bowden said. "We do not want Junior to take the field until we know he's not going to reinjure it. We don't know if it will be another week, 10 days or two weeks." Griffey pulled the lower part of the left hamstring when he slipped while rounding third base during a spring training game in Florida. He tore the upper part of the same hamstring late last season. The team didn't send him for an MRI in March because the injury didn't appear to be serious. Griffey had a strength test on Monday that found the muscle was still weak, prompting Kremchek to call for the MRI that found a partial tear in a lower part of the muscle. "This is a significant injury," Kremchek said.
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