Baseball

Halfway Home
His ankle healing, Jason Kendall aims to be at full speed by spring

Manhattan beach, Calif., is not a place known for inspiring hard work. A slice of nirvana just southwest of LA, it is famous for its raging nightlife and an endless beachside exercise path teeming with bronzed hardbodies. Fully reclined on a black leather couch in his swank three-story bachelor pad overlooking the ocean, Jason Kendall appears comfortable in this milieu, but then, everything about the Pirates' All-Star catcher is paradoxical. A catcher with speed, a die-hard surfer who makes his living in blue-collar Pittsburgh, Kendall, 25, has been in Manhattan Beach since August, strenuously rehabilitating his severely dislocated right ankle, an injury of Theismannian grotesqueness that cut short his season and cast doubts on his major league future. So, while those around him are striving for the perfect tan, Kendall gets supine these days only at the end of another rehab session. "I know this coming season is going to be fun because this off-season has been work," he says.

Kendall suffered his injury on Independence Day during the fifth inning of a game against the Brewers. Trying to break up Steve Woodard's perfect game, he dragged a bunt, raced down the first base line and hit the bag awkwardly. Here Kendall picks up the narrative: "I knew I had tweaked my ankle, but I was pissed that I got called out at first and started to turn to say something to the ump. That was when I looked down and saw the bone sticking out of the skin. I was like, There's no way that's what I think it is. It just didn't register, so I took another step toward the ump, and then I saw the bottom of my shoe facing upward, staring back at me. At that point I was like, O.K., I think I'll fall down now."

Though Kendall hadn't broken any bones, the ankle bone had been torn from the joint, shearing virtually all of the ligaments and leaving his foot dangling. That night Kendall underwent surgery to reattach the ligaments, and eight weeks later he was beginning his rehab in Manhattan Beach, about six miles from Torrance, where he grew up. When the cast was removed, his leg had atrophied to the point that, he says, "It looked like a fungo bat."

Since then he has been working out six days a week in hopes of returning to the form he established in 1998, when he finished fifth in the National League in batting (.327) and seventh in on-base percentage (.411), and stole 26 bases—a season record for a National League catcher. At the time of his injury Kendall was again fifth in the league in hitting (.332) and had stolen 22 bases, a pace at which he would have broken the major league record for steals by a catcher (36, by the Royals' John Wathan in 1982).

Kendall's daily five-to-six-hour rehab routine begins at 8:30 a.m. It includes weightlifting, physical therapy involving ultrasound and deep tissue massages, running and jumping in a swimming pool and, finally, a series of 90-foot sprints (he began running again on Nov. 1). Last week Kendall was allowed to swing a bat for the first time since the injury, and he also started lateral-movement exercises.

"Jason's at a point now that's better than any of us thought possible," says Rob Maffucci, Kendall's physical therapist. "He's regained 90 percent of his range of motion, and by the start of spring training he'll be at least as fast as he was, and hopefully faster." Even though he was a very good base stealer, Kendall didn't have proper sprint mechanics. Maffucci has lengthened Kendall's stride, synchronized his arm and leg movements and gotten him to run lower to the ground. Some have suggested that the best thing Kendall could do to maintain his speed would be to give up catching. "If I have any say in it, there's no way in hell that I will," he says.

Clearly Kendall hasn't gone soft, despite the damage to his ankle's soft tissue. "It was a freak accident, and I'm over it," he says. "I'm going to be as reckless as ever. Just don't expect to see me bunting again."

Oakland's John Jaha
Loyalty Comes Before Loot

In one of this year's most meaningful free-agent signings, the dollar amount was of secondary significance. "Believe it or not, money isn't the most important thing to a lot of guys who play baseball," says John Jaha, 33, who on Oct. 5 signed a relatively paltry two-year, $6 million deal to stay with the A's. "I wanted a good community, good teammates, a comfortable life. I knew where to find them."