Too good to be true

The Cincinnati Reds announced yesterday that Ken Griffey, Jr. will be out for the rest of the season. Griffey will have surgery next week to repair a torn right hamstring, and that will be followed by "rigorous rehabilitation". The hope is that he will be ready in time for Spring Training 2005.

This is not good for Griffey and it's certainly not good for baseball. It looked like we were seeing the return of the old Junior earlier this season, and it was great to watch him get closer and closer to the 500-HR milestone. However, 'old' seems to be the operative word here - or at least 'fragile'.

As a fan, I'll be disappointed not to see him play out the rest of the season with the Reds. I can only imagine how crushed Griffey must be to see yet another season ended by injury, and the question that runs through my mind is: will there come a point at which Griffey decides that his body has given up on him and that it's no longer feasible to keep trying to come back from these serious injuries? The baseball fan in me hopes not, but the baseball player in me also knows how tough it is to come back and play even after the most minor of injuries and even at the lowest levels of the game.