From Lancaster:
Ken Griffey Jr. will have two surgeries Monday, one to clean out his left knee and the other to repair leftover scar tissue from last year's right hamstring surgery.Dr. Tim Kremchek will wield the arthroscope in both procedures, and Griffey is expected to be fully recovered in time for spring training.
You just flat out can't trust anything the Reds medical staff says. Here's what Reds trainer Marc Mann said about the injury shortly after it occurred:
Trainer Mark Mann said it would be ``premature at this point'' to say surgery would be necessary, and ``we fully expect him to play again in the 2005 season.'' Two years ago, Griffey required season-ending surgery on his right ankle.``The MRI showed nothing like what he had a couple of years ago with his ankle,'' Mann said. ``It's not as if he pulled it off the bone. It does show inflammation in the area. A strain by definition does involve inflammation of the tissue, and it can be associated with a tear.''
The surgery Griffey is having was going to happen in the offseason anyway, but the Reds are using the foot injury as an excuse to just go ahead and do it.
Which is fine, but why act like he was going to play again after the foot injury? What does the deception accomplish? It just doesn't make sense to me, and it seems to annoy most fans. If the Reds don't want to tell the truth, that's fine too. But they shouldn't lie, they should just refuse to comment, or say something appropriately vague, the way every other team seems to handle injuries.