HE’S No Longer All-Bo : Jackson Is Again Going Against the Odds in Comeback With Artificial Hip

Tim Raines calls him “Terminator 3” and frequently reminds him to grease up that artificial left hip.

“We don’t want to hear him squeaking going down to first base,” Raines said with a laugh.

The irreverent humor of the clubhouse continues even as Bo Jackson stands hip deep in what Chicago White Sox trainer Herm Schneider says is uncharted water.

There have been baseball players with one arm, one leg and three fingers but, until now, no one has tried playing with a steel and plastic prothesis replacing a hip.

Of course, Raines suggested, Jackson is one of a kind.

“He could easily have given up, but tell him he can’t do it and he wants it that much more,” Raines said. “He’s been an inspiration with his strength and courage. Regardless of what happens, he’s the greatest athlete I’ve ever seen.”

Regardless of what happens . . .

“I can tell myself I did the best I could do,” Jackson said. “I’m playing the hand I was dealt. I’m trying to lead my life as if I never had an injury. I’m

having fun and feeling good about what I’m doing. If it doesn’t last, if the White Sox decide I can’t play, there’s always a career in business.”

The White Sox were to decide by Monday if they would exercise the option on Jackson’s contract or salute his brave and bionic effort while releasing him.

However, the deadline was extended last week until March 25 because Jackson’s comeback has been complicated by a hamstring strain in his right leg.

“I feel like I’m stuck between a rock and hard place,” Jackson said. “It’s not the hip. I’m trying to get the hamstring well.”

In the process, he is trying to prove he can still play a little in the outfield and at first base.

If he is restricted to serving as designated hitter, the club’s decision becomes harder, General Manager Ron Schueler said, because that position is already occupied by George Bell, who hit 31 homers and drove in 97 runs last year.

“We know we’re dealing with a unique case and we’re trying not to prejudge it,” Schueler said. “We’re trying to react strictly to what we see.”

Said Raines, “Three years ago, Bo was on top of the world, an all-star in two professional sports. At this point he’s probably not a third of what he was then, as far as being a complete athlete.

“I mean, he struggles coming out of the batter’s box and has trouble making turns on the bases. He’ll never run like he once did. But swinging the bat? I don’t see that as a problem, and I honestly feel he believes that what he’s got is good enough to play in the big leagues.”

Jackson was an All-Pro in the NFL and the most valuable player of baseball’s 1989 All-Star game. He was a Heisman Trophy winner at Auburn and a world-class sprinter who, as a right-handed hitter, used to go from home to first base in 3.7 and 3.8 seconds. Now, it’s in the 4.3 area.

“He obviously doesn’t run like he once did, but it’s good enough,” said Schueler, knowing there are more serious questions.

Can he turn that front hip on an inside fastball or is he strictly an arms hitter? Can he slide, breaking up a potential double play? Can he get a jump in the outfield, reaching even the routine fly ball? Can he leg out the slow roller?

Those are baseball issues, but the larger ones pertain to the hip itself.

As manager Gene Lamont said, “A lot of people are talking about the (deadline). I don’t know if we’re going to know enough about Bo’s ability by then, but I know we don’t have enough days (in spring training) to know for sure if his hip can hold up.”

Even James Boscardin, the senior team physician, can’t give the White Sox any guarantee.

“Anything can happen,” Boscardin said. “No one has ever had a hip replacement and tried to do what Bo is doing.”

Boscardin said the prosthesis could wear down prematurely, that muscle tissue could tear away from the hip, that debris could build up in the joint and that the thigh bone could be snapped in two if he collided with another player or caught a spike in the vulnerable area below the prosthesis.

Said James Richards, an orthopedic specialist from Orlando, Fla.: “I admire Bo’s courage and determination, but the issue isn’t whether he’ll aggravate it. The issue is how long it will take him to do it.”

Trainer Schneider acknowledged the pessimism of the medical views but said, “The way Bo is approaching this is, ‘Hey, I understand totally the negative side, but they don’t understand it’s my hip. This is what I want to do.’ ”

Said Jackson, “I’ve never been the type to lay down and quit. I don’t care what some doctors say. I talk to my own doctors.

“I mean, when the doctors find a cure for the common cold, they can come talk to me.”

In the meantime, Jackson’s unprecedented comeback attempt is dedicated to his mother, who died last spring.

“I promised her two things before she passed away,” he said. “I promised her I’d get back on the baseball field and that I’d get my college degree.”

He is one class short of a degree in human sciences. Meanwhile, the attempt to confound medical science had its genesis in the hip injury Jackson suffered on Jan. 13, 1991, while dabbling in his hobby as a running back with the Raiders.

The resulting condition was diagnosed as avascular necrosis, a degenerative disease in which the flow of blood to the hip socket is restricted, causing a deterioration of the bone.

He was released by the Kansas City Royals on March 3 of ‘91, their team doctor offering the opinion that Jackson would never play again and that he could impair a normal lifestyle by trying.

He was signed by the White Sox a month later, spent almost four months on the disabled list, made brief minor league appearances at Sarasota and Birmingham, and got in 71 at-bats with the White Sox in September of ’91.

Jackson limped through a painful spring training trial last year, then agreed to a revision of his contract and the hip surgery that sidelined him for the season.

He approached the surgery, performed by Robert Daley in Chicago on April 5, with a thorough understanding of the risks if he tried to play again.

“Bo was probably the most informed patient ever,” Boscardin said.

Said Schneider: “The most important thing to Dr. Daley was making sure Bo could lead a normal life. The second priority was giving him the opportunity to play baseball again. On that basis, he tried to avoid going into the muscles as much as he normally would.”

Jackson began his rehabilitation in Phoenix under the auspices of Mack Newton, a martial arts expert who regenerated his own athletic career after hip replacement surgery. Jackson then returned to the winter cold of Chicago to continue his demanding weight and flexibility therapy at Comiskey Park.

The process will continue for as long as Jackson remains in uniform. He still arrives at the White Sox training facility before eight each morning for 45 minutes or more of specialized work under Schneider, and seldom leaves until after 5.

He has gone up three shirt sizes and down to a 32 waist through a regimen that in some ways, Jackson said, has left him “in better shape” than ever, though there was never much wrong with his sculptured shape.

Now, however, there is an awareness that Jackson simply isn’t doing what comes naturally. The demands of his rehabilitation and attempt to play again have earned Jackson widespread admiration.

“This clearly requires everything he’s got,” Lamont said. “If he didn’t have his heart and soul in it, he would have quit long ago. If he didn’t have his heart and soul in it, he wouldn’t be as far along as he is.”

Is it far enough?

Jackson doesn’t have the running pain of last spring, but the doubts linger. He made three errors in one inning at first base the other day, and it seems inconceivable that he can run well enough to play the outfield or that his hip will allow him to hit with his previous power or get to pitches on the outside part of the plate.

“Besides the physical questions, the one thing people forget is that Bo hasn’t really played in two years,” Lamont said. “There’s bound to be a lot of rustiness.

“With an average player, you’d say no way he could come back. With Bo, you just can’t close the door.”

At the White Sox facility here, fans creep close to the railings and batting cages to plead for Jackson’s autograph. He remains the club’s most celebrated player, the subject of a sales campaign billed “The Hip Season Ticket Plan.”

But the White Sox maintain that their eventual decision on Jackson will be based on the team’s best interests and not possible financial or attendance consequences.

Still associated with Nike and with other commercial contracts, Jackson’s own financial future remains secure. He is trying to defy the odds because he doesn’t accept them, because he made a promise to his mother and because he would like to go out on his own terms.

In Raines’ view, Jackson is a man with “no quit in his vocabulary.” But Raines also believes the White Sox will not have to hand Jackson a pink slip if it comes to that because Jackson is able to balance pride and common sense and “will make that decision for them.”

“He’s not in this for the money or the fan support, and he doesn’t need or want our sympathy,” Raines said. “He’s doing this for himself and he wants to pull his own weight.”

How much weight can a man with one hip pull? The answer rests on the White Sox judgment scale.