Former tight end Frank Thomas, Bo Jackson`s football teammate at Auburn, was on the sidelines when his friend was hurt in Los Angeles during that NFL playoff game.
”I thought it was a knee,” said Thomas, who also thought the injury was minor. ”He got up and walked off the field right after it happened.
”It`s hard to believe. Being around the guy, I just know he`s not going to quit. He`s got his head together. He knows what`s going on.”
Unlikely: Sox GM Ron Schueler pretty much, but not entirely, ruled out pursuing Jackson. ”It could change,” he said. What would change it? ”A different doctor report might,” Schueler said. ”But it`s nothing that I`m going after hard.”
Double dip: Charlie Hough, fighting painful bone spurs in his right heel
(”That`s why I haven`t been doing a lot of running”), had his best outing of the spring in his first A game (five innings, three runs, two earned). But a split squad still lost to the Cardinals and Bryn Smith 4-1 in Sarasota. Lance Johnson, back in the lineup after sitting out with a bruised calf, was hitless.
In Winter Haven, the Red Sox, behind Danny Darwin, beat the other half of the club 7-1. Matt Merullo and Craig Grebeck each had two hits.
Curious: Rookie left-hander Brian Harrison, plucked off the Montreal roster in the Rule 5 draft last December, must either open the season with the Sox or be offered back to Montreal. Unless, on Opening Day, he`s on the disabled list.
Harrison hurt his elbow two weeks ago in an intrasquad game, but he`s been throwing on the side-lightly at first, pretty well Wednesday, said Harrison. ”I`m throwing as hard as I was before that little accident,” said Harrison.
Schueler said Wednesday he expects Harrison to pitch in a game within a few days, though manager Jeff Torborg was skeptical. ”I`d have to see him throw,” Torborg said.
Schueler also said Harrison has a chance at making the club-a chance that, according to prevailing opinion elsewhere, is prohibitively tiny.
Anyway, Harrison just seems happy to be here.
”It`s in their hands,” Harrison said. ”The ball`s in mine.”
