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By JOHN ROMANO, MARC TOPKIN
© St. Petersburg Times, published June 18, 2000
ST. PETERSBURG -- For three weeks, Greg Vaughn has been among the Devil Rays walking wounded. Now, he is just wounded.
Vaughn was put on the disabled list Saturday to give his strained right hamstring a chance to finally heal. Vaughn will be eligible to come off the DL on June 30.
"It's not fair to my teammates for me to go out there and play two games and hurt it and then be out for eight days. And it just makes me more frustrated," Vaughn said.
"Hopefully this will get the situation solved, put it behind us and move on."
The Rays recalled Quinton McCracken from Triple-A Durham to replace Vaughn on the roster. McCracken was hitting .269 with 13 RBI in 186 at-bats at Durham.
Vaughn strained the hamstring May 26 while running out an infield hit and has been in and out of the lineup since. He played five straight games before aggravating the hamstring running out another hit. He has started only seven of the past 20 games.
Rays manager Larry Rothschild was willing to play shorthanded to give Vaughn a chance to rest, but said the injury was simply going to need more time to fully heal.
"It just hasn't gotten better. The more he does on it, the worse it tends to get," Rothschild said. "We want to get this behind us completely."
Vaughn still leads the Rays with 13 home runs, but has just one RBI since the injury.
"The DL is probably a good thing for me because I'll just try to talk my way back in the lineup as soon as it starts feeling better," Vaughn said.
MORE INJURY NEWS: Juan Guzman will go to Birmingham, Ala. on Wednesday to see orthopedic specialist James Andrews.
Guzman, who has been battling shoulder pain all season, was examined by team physician Koco Eaton on Saturday.
"He still has pain whenever he tries to turn it loose, so there's something going on there," Eaton said. "He'll go up there and see Dr. Andrews and they'll be able to run the full battery of tests."
Considering the problem has persisted for four months, it would not be a shock if Andrews recommends surgery.
EVEN MORE INJURY NEWS: Jose Canseco has resumed batting practice and says his sore left heel "feels real good." The next step is seeing if he can run the bases. The last time Canseco tried to run, his heel began hurting.
"I don't know that I expect him to steal bases, but I'd certainly like to know that he could score on a base hit if he's on second base," Rothschild said. "Run reasonably hard without having any chance of hurting it."
Canseco is hopeful of being activated by the time the team arrives in Texas on Friday.
AND ANOTHER ONE: Dave Eiland threw 40-45 pitches in batting practice Saturday morning and was encouraged by his progress. "It's a step in the right direction," Eiland said.
Eiland, who has been on the disabled list since May 24 with a hip injury, will talk to Rothschild today to determine whether he should continue throwing batting practice sessions or have a minor league rehab start.
AND ABSOLUTELY THE LAST ONE: Gerald Williams sat out his fifth consecutive game with a hip flexor strain and, although he said the injury was getting better, he has no idea when he will return.
"I can't tell you what the prognosis is," Williams said. "I'm just hoping time gives me the ability to heal."
GET THE HECK OUTTA HERE: Texas rightfielder Dave Martinez must be wondering why he was looking forward to returning home.
The former Devil Ray is 0-for-9 in the series, has hit into three double plays and has left 12 runners on base.
ROCCO ON: First-round pick Rocco Baldelli arrived at Tropicana Field shortly after gametime with his parents and watched from general manager Chuck LaMar's suite.
Baldelli will work out at Tropicana before today's game, go to the spring training complex for a post-draft minicamp and then leave for rookie league Princeton on Tuesday.
"I've been home for 18 years, I've never been out on my own," Baldelli said. "That's what's going to be hard. The baseball part will be the easy part for me."
HELP FOR NEEDY: A food drive organized by Rays wives collected more than 5,000 pounds of food for the St. Peterburg Free Clinic.
The Rays gave a free general admission ticket to fans who donated a non-perishable food item.