Griffey Leaves ‘Em Talking Mariner’s Wrist-Breaking Dive, Surgical Repairs Both Of Note

Hours after Ken Griffey Jr. underwent nearly three hours of delicate surgery Saturday to rebuild a shattered left wrist, the men who’d seen the injury occur couldn’t stop talking about it.

And one of the doctors who helped put Junior back together again said, the injury was no simple fracture.

“The impact and the torque drove the wrist backward and twisted it,” Dr. Larry Pedegana said. “It was like the bones had exploded - there were six or seven fragments, three major pieces.”

Pedegana and hand specialist Dr. Ed Almquist put the wrist back together like men assembling a puzzle, then used seven screws to implant a 4-inch long metal plate.

“The chances of permanent damage are pretty minimal,” Pedegana said. “The wrist will be immobilized for five-six weeks, then begin a rehabilitation program.”

Bottom line? Junior will miss the three months, doctors predicted Friday night - give or take.

“It’s not an exact science,” Pedegana said of the healing process.

Griffey was operated on Saturday morning and was to be kept overnight in a Seattle hospital before being released today, and neither friends nor teammates had much luck reaching him by telephone.

“They wouldn’t put me through,” Jay Buhner said, “and then his dad called us here at the ballpark and said they wouldn’t put him through either. I’ll go see him (today).

At the Kingdome, where the Baltimore Orioles and Seattle Mariners played the second game of their three-game series, the conversation late Saturday afternoon revolved almost entirely around what had happened Friday night.

Baltimore pitcher Ben McDonald saw Griffey’s injury as a loss for the game, not just the Seattle Mariners.

“This is the last thing baseball needed, to lose someone like him,” he said. “More kids look up to him than anyone in the game.”

And the play on which Griffey was hurt - a catch made after a long run as he slammed hard into the wall in right-center field - earned Junior at least one new fan.

Kevin Bass, the man who hit the ball Griffey caught, had never seen Junior play, having spent most of his career in the National League. When Bass hit a ball up the alley in right-center against Randy Johnson, he didn’t just think the ball was uncatchable, he knew it.

He was around first base when Griffey left his feet in pursuit of the ball, and rounding second when Junior crashed to the warning track after slamming into the fence. When Bass got to third base, Orioles coach Steve Boros told him to stop.

“Griffey caught it,” Boros said.

“No way!” Bass said.

“Everyone said he was fast, but I didn’t believe he was that fast,” Bass said Saturday. “That wasn’t a catchable ball.”

No one in the Seattle dugout disagreed.

“When the ball was hit I thought it was a double,” coach Lee Elia said. “Then I saw caught sight of Junior out of the corner of my eye and I thought, he’s going to try to get there. My God, it was unbelievable.”

Manager Lou Piniella shook his head when asked about the catch nearly 24 hours after he’d seen it.

“I’ve seen a multitude of spectacular plays, but until last night I never saw a man walk on air, and that’s what Kenny did,” Piniella said.

“You can’t understate what his loss means to this team. It would be stupid to try.”