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Baldelli Still Not Going Full Speed Ahead

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By MARC LANCASTER, The Tampa Tribune

Published: February 21, 2008

Updated: 02/20/2008 11:46 pm

ST. PETERSBURG - For a few minutes following the Rays' group stretching exercises Wednesday morning, the team's infielders and outfielders did some running. They weren't sprints, and they covered about 100 feet each way, repeated a few times.

Rocco Baldelli was not among them and he wasn't all that pleased about it, but he's beginning to accept his new reality. Exerting himself only when absolutely necessary is a key component of the team-wide effort to keep Baldelli as healthy as possible for as long as possible.

"It's tough," Baldelli said. "You play one way, and I've pretty much always tried to play hard my whole career in every aspect of the game. It's an adjustment to not do that every single time you take the field, but it's something that I'm going to do this year. I'm going to take it easy sometimes."

Baldelli's body has been a source of concern and bewilderment for a while now. He didn't play after May 15 last season, struck down once again by a hamstring injury that was only the latest in a series of maladies, most of them involving the outfielder's lower body. He spent the balance of last season rehabbing and undergoing a wide-ranging battery of medical tests in an effort to determine if something unseen was causing him to break down more often than a player of his age and overall fitness should.

He and the Rays have been evasive about the nature of the tests and the results, but Baldelli indicated Wednesday he and the team's medical staff may have gleaned some information.

"One diagnosis is impossible," Baldelli said. "There's no exact term for it, so whatever it is that the problem is, I think I can work with it by just taking it easy."

Baldelli said before the season ended last fall that catastrophic illnesses had been ruled out, and he said Wednesday that "I think you can call me a healthy, 26-year-old male if you want."

Beyond that, Baldelli would prefer to be known as a ballplayer once again. Though the reins will be tight on him throughout the spring and beyond, he's eager to regain his spot on the field and leave his medical worries in the past.

"It's not easy to deal with, going through all this," he said. "It's not something that most ballplayers have to go through. It's kind of an odd situation that I'm in. ... I don't really worry about it; I don't spend my days thinking about it. When I was hurt I did, and that's not really a great situation when you're not playing and you're injured a lot. But I'm holding up just fine."

Reporter Marc Lancaster can be reached at (813) 259-7227 or mlancaster@tampatrib.com.

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