FORT MYERS, Fla. (AP) -Mike Lowell really wanted to play for Puerto Rico in the World Baseball Classic. Instead, he sat in the dugout in his Boston Red Sox uniform before Thursday’s exhibition game.
Hip surgery in October dashed those hopes. His family, which already had made hotel reservations for the tournament, would have to understand.
“It’s not that I don’t want to play,” Lowell said before Puerto Rico won its final WBC tuneup, 9-5 over Boston. “It’s more like it’s just not possible.”
Lowell’s father, Carl, was 11 when he left Cuba for Puerto Rico in 1960. He pitched for his adopted homeland’s national team and is in its athletic Hall of Fame. The chance to see his son follow in his steps excited him.
ay in San Juan against Panama.
“My dad is a very practical thinker, so I think once he knew that I was going to have surgery I don’t think he let himself get his hopes too high,” Lowell said. “He goes back (to Puerto Rico) at least once a year.
“They always have some type of reunion with the national teams, and I think he looks forward to that more than anything in the world. So I think he really would have enjoyed watching me play. I think it’s something that would have been really cool. But I think he understands.”
Lowell was at his first spring training with Boston when the first WBC took place in March 2006 and he didn’t want to miss time with his new team.
He played with a painful hip the second half of last season and was left off Boston’s roster for the AL championship series, won by Tampa Bay. On Oct. 20, he had arthroscopic surgery for a torn labrum in his right hip and a bone spur on the femur.
If his recovery progresses on schedule, he could be ready for opening day. He might make his spring training debut Thursday against St. Louis or the next night against the New York Yankees.
“I wouldn’t be surprised if it’s in another week,” manager Terry Francona said. “We’re getting into that area now where, maybe DH a couple at-bats, then play third.”
ng: “I think I probably would prefer to not go through the drama of a night game against the Yankees as my first at-bat.”
Lowell has succeeded in more stressful situations as part of Florida’s championship team in 2003 and as MVP of the 2007 World Series with Boston.
But last year he was limited to 113 games, his fewest in nine seasons, and batted only .233 in his last 46 games. After going 0-for-8 in the AL division series, his season ended.
Now he has no problems swinging, catching and throwing but feels discomfort when he runs.
“It’s hard for me not to think about my hip when I’m running right now,” Lowell said. “I think that that’s the last obstacle I need to get over.”
The right-handed hitter with 201 homers and a .279 batting average in 10 seasons also wants to get his timing down at the plate.
“I want to get at-bats,” Lowell said. “I don’t want to be inserted in April and have eight at-bats under my (belt) because that’s going to be a little bit hard, a little bit unfair.”
As long as he stays healthy, that shouldn’t be a problem in an exhibition season that’s longer than normal because of the WBC. The Red Sox still have 27 exhibition games left.
him in where he gets comfortable, baseball-wise.”
Lowell might have been more comfortable Thursday if he could have taken batting practice in a Puerto Rico uniform with Carlos Delgado, Ivan Rodriguez, Alex Cora, Carlos Beltran and Alex Rios.
“I think it would have been a cool thing to be on a team with guys like that,” Lowell said, “but I don’t really think I could have done anything to change that.”
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