ST. LOUIS — Injured Cardinals first baseman Lance Berkman has stepped
up his rehab and hasn't ruled out a return when the Cardinals open play
following the All-Star break on Friday, July 13, in Cincinnati.
Berkman, who rejoined the club Monday after rehabbing his knee for several
weeks in Houston, jogged in the outfield and took about 50 swings off soft toss.
He plans to continue to amp up his rehab daily and hopes to be back in a couple
of weeks.
"The leg feels good," Berkman said. "It's just the rest of me
that needs to get in shape. I haven't swung a bat in six weeks. You've got to
kind of take a little spring training all over again and get back ready to go.
I don't know how long that will take.
"It's coming along. I'm running and I'm not having any trouble with it.
We're right on schedule. I swung the bat today and felt good. I'll be happy to
get back in baseball shape, but outside of that, I think it won't be too much
longer."
The 36-year-old Berkman thought his season was over when he had surgery on his
right knee on May 25. But he awoke to find that his ACL was fine and the only
repairs made were to fix his meniscus and cartilage damage.
He's played in just 13 games this season and was hitting .333 with one home run
and four RBI when he went down. The winner of the Comeback Player of the Year
Award last year, Berkman is set to become a free agent after the season.
"The plan all along was to get it in Houston to where I could do the
baseball stuff and then come back here and do the baseball stuff and be ready
to go," Berkman said. "So far it's worked exactly like we anticipated
it. I'll slowly build into doing stuff like taking grounders. I don't
anticipate it being too long. I do need 10 days or so before the second half
starts to get back into shape.
"Unless there's something that comes up that I'm not seeing right now, I
can't imagine that it would take much longer. Basically, I've got to get back
into playing shape. That includes building my endurance when I swing. Today, I
think I took maybe 25 swings from both sides of the plate. I've got to build
that up to about 100 from each side, where I can do that and feel good about
not being sore and get my bat speed back."
His return would be a welcomed boost to an already dangerous Cardinals lineup.
But his return to the clubhouse Monday may serve as another big boost anyway.
"It's just nice to have him around," Cardinals manager Mike Matheny
said. "I saw him take a few swings, which is nice to see. We're going to
continue to move forward. He looks in good shape, too. His response was that he
hasn't been sitting around on the couch the last month. He looks like he's fit
and ready to go. It'll just be how his knee responds to the tests that we give
him.
"We just like having him around for what he brings to the team ... his
personality, what he adds to the leadership. And obviously having him on the
field is a huge deal, too. He's got to heal. However long it takes, it takes.
Hopefully it's sooner rather than later."
Berkman was non-committal on a rehab assignment but said a decision would
likely be discussed and made this weekend or early next week. His preference
would be to avoid one if at all possible.
