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Nationals notebook Date published: 6/2/2007
BY TODD JACOBSON WASHINGTON--Nick Johnson still walks with a slight limp and the pain in his broken right femur doesn't subside when he tries to field ground balls. His once-potent swing, in his own words, remains "out in left field somewhere." Johnson has weeks, if not months, to go in his recovery from a violent on-field collision with right fielder Austin Kearns that broke Johnson's leg last September, but as he walked into an outdoor batting cage at RFK Stadium for the first time yesterday, a few of his teammates stopped to watch. Just the sight of the burly first baseman hacking at slow fastballs thrown by manager Manny Acta four hours before the Nationals' game against the San Diego Padres was reason for optimism. "We just went out there and joked with him," third baseman Ryan Zimmerman said. "He is coming along well. The team wants to make sure that he's healthy all the way. There is no reason to rush him and I think that's what they are doing." For the last few weeks, Johnson has batted off a tee, hit balls tossed to him and taken his cuts in an indoor batting cage, but he hadn't ventured outside until yesterday. Johnson batted for about 10 minutes yesterday, hitting at least one home run, but the rust from months of inactivity was evident as he peppered the right side of the infield with ground balls and sprayed pop-ups around the outfield. "He looked good," Acta said. "He's still not as sharp as obviously he would like to be. Finally you can get him to roll over on balls because he's not in shape hitting-wise. It is a significant step because he swung the bat and didn't feel any pain or anything." Still, hitting comes easier than running and fielding, Johnson said. He still has trouble going side-to-side at first base, or coming in on slow rollers. He still feels pain when he sprints, and he won't begin to talk about a return date--not after he predicted June 1 when he arrived at spring training. But progress was progress, and his stint in the batting cage yesterday represented one more step toward returning to the field.
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