Griffey Jr. making first appearance of spring

[The Entertainer]

[quote][size=3][b]Griffey Jr. making first appearance of spring[/b][/size]
Associated Press


SARASOTA, Fla. -- Ken Griffey Jr. was in the Cincinnati Reds' lineup for the first time Saturday, giving him little more than a week to learn a new position and get ready for opening day.

Griffey broke his left hand while wrestling with his children in December and has been limited to taking batting practice and catching fly balls during workouts. With only eight exhibition games left in spring training, he told manager Jerry Narron on Saturday that he felt good enough to play.

"I asked him if he was ready," Narron said. "He said he was ready."

Narron had indicated earlier that if Griffey didn't play this week, he could be headed for the disabled list.

The 37-year-old outfielder is moving to right field for the first time at the team's request. Narron plans to use Ryan Freel, who is faster than Griffey, in center field. Narron thinks Griffey will have an easy time making the adjustment.

"I've never been an outfielder, so I really can't say, but if you can play, you can play," Narron said.

Griffey has declined to talk about his injury or the position change this spring, other than to make it clear that it wasn't his idea to move to right field.

Since coming to his hometown team for the 2000 season, Griffey has been limited by a series of severe injuries. He's been on the disabled list eight times with the Reds.


Copyright 2007 by The Associated Press[/quote]



[url="http://sports.espn.go.com/mlb/news/story?id=2810730"]ESPN.com[/url]

[Guest oldschooler]

He`s 1 for 2 with a run scored so far.
The Reds are leading 5-0 over the Phillies.

Dun hit a 3 run homer and BP hit a solo homer for back-to-back jacks.

[JC]

Griff almost took his second at bat yard.

But Dunn took one yard in the two hole and right after dunn hit a three run shot Phillips hit a monster shot off the black wall...almost cleared it for a solo home run.

Dunn has a 7 game hit streak at the moment as well and Phillips leads the Reds with 5 home runs i believe and Dunn has 4.

Edit-olds a step ahead of me.

[The Entertainer]

[quote name='oldschooler' post='461825' date='Mar 24 2007, 02:30 PM']He`s 1 for 2 with a run scored so far.
The Reds are leading 5-0 over the Phillies.

Dun hit a 3 run homer and BP hit a solo homer for back-to-back jacks.[/quote]

[The Entertainer]

[quote][size=3][b]Reds lead 7-0; Griffey 2-for-4 [/b][/size]

It's 7-0 Reds over the Phillies at the Ed in Ken Griffey Jr.'s debut. Griffey went to 2-for-4 and made a couple of play in right field. Afterward, he politely declined to speak to reporters.

Bronson Arroyo had a nice outing -- six innings, five hits, no runs, one walk, six strikeouts -- despite not throwing his money pitch the curveball once.

"It was a good one," he said. "I threw all fastballs and change-ups. We were going to try to get by with it and see what happened. We face these guys later in the year."

Brandon Phillips followed Adam's Dunn's three-run shot with a solo shot in the second.
Those are two guys having good springs: Dunn's hitting .439 with four home runs. Phillips' homer was his fifth.

The Reds took a 1-0 lead in the first. Ryan Freel doubled. Dunn's opposite-field single got Freel home. After Phillips bounced into a double play, Griffe singled in his first spring at-bat. Just a nice line drive past short.

In the second, Griffey sent one to the warning track in right. He hit into a double play in the fifth. He doubled in his fourth at-bat and was lifted for a pinch-runner.

Griffey cleanly fielded a single in the second and caught a flyball in the third.[/quote]



[url="http://frontier.cincinnati.com/blogs/redsinsider/"]John Fay's Reds Insider Blog[/url]

[|Bunghole|]

What the hell was that mention in the first article of Griffey "having to learn a new position"?
Like playing RF for him would be such a hindrance.
He just can't figure out RF! It's too hard!
Good for Griff getting the double and going 2-4 in his first outing since injuring his wrist.
God, can the guy stay healthy for just ONE full season? Please?

[Ben]

[quote name='Bunghole' post='461897' date='Mar 24 2007, 06:23 PM']What the hell was that mention in the first article of Griffey "having to learn a new position"?
Like playing RF for him would be such a hindrance.
He just can't figure out RF! It's too hard!
Good for Griff getting the double and going 2-4 in his first outing since injuring his wrist.
God, can the guy stay healthy for just ONE full season? Please?[/quote]

I'm glad he was finally able to swallow his pride and move to RF.. Though i'm not sure how muchof a choice he had this year.

[Guest oldschooler]

[quote][size=5][b]Narron gets his way with Jr.[/b][/size]
[size=3][b]Reds Insider[/b][/size]
BY JOHN FAY | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER


SARASOTA, Fla. - Jerry Narron won. The Reds manager got Ken Griffey Jr. on the field and playing right field in time to have him out there for Opening Day.

That was the objective all along.

I'm not going to pretend to know all that went on behind closed doors, but Griffey's assertion that the switch from center field to right field was no big deal is horse hockey.


But Narron stuck to the plan, and Griffey acquiesced.

Griffey, by the way, went 2-for-4 with a double and made a couple routine plays in right field Saturday in the Reds' 7-0 win over Philadelphia.

When Griffey couldn't play the first three weeks of spring because of a lingering hand injury, Narron could have scrapped the plan for the switch to right and played him in center. He didn't do it for one reason: He didn't think it was best for the team.

The other factor here is the people above Narron, general manager Wayne Krivsky and CEO Bob Castellini, gave him the authority to make the call. There was no going over Narron's head - something that often happened to managers in the previous regime.

Narron didn't take the biggest decision of his Reds managerial tenure lightly.

"It's something that's been talked about a long time," he said. "I'm a fan of the game. I love the game. I know the history of the game."

"I understand what it means when someone's played one position for 17, 18 years," Narron added.

"That part of it is difficult."

In the end, the decision came down to the fact that Narron believes Ryan Freel is a better center fielder than Griffey at this stage of his career.

"The baseball part of it, I just had to strictly go on what I thought was best for our club," Narron said. "My job is to do what's best for the team, or what I think is best for the team. I'm not taking it lightly. I wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something. I talked to managers I have a lot of respect for, past and present. To a man, everybody said: 'Do what you feel is best for the Cincinnati Reds.' That's what I'm always going to do."

Narron gets beat up on a nightly basis on talk radio and Internet fan forums for various moves. Double switches and making out the lineup are a small part of what makes a manager successful or unsuccessful.

"Managing would be easy - I shouldn't say easy - but it would be easier if you could play it like a video game," Narron said. "There's a lot to it. It's not a video game. We're dealing with different personalities. We're dealing with huge egos at times, not all the time."

Egos are as much a part of baseball as batting averages and ERAs.

"You don't get to this level without having a lot of pride, a lot of desire and being a great competitor," Narron said. "That's not just Junior - I'm talking about everybody."

It's pretty clear that Griffey preferred to stay in center. Narron said the Reds were willing to try to that - until time ran out.

That's when Narron forced the issue. First, he said Griffey was going to have to play some games in spring or start the season on the disabled list. Then he said those games would be in right field.

Saturday probably was the drop-dead date for Griffey to play if he didn't want to start the season on the DL.[/quote]



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