Healthy Marlin Floyd Enjoying Fine Season

Cliff Floyd’s day begins with a wince. His legs ache and joints creak as he forces himself out of bed and hobbles to the shower.

“It’s horrible,” he says. “Some days I wake up and say, ‘There’s no way I’m going to be able to play today.’ You have to really push yourself and get through it.”

But feeling lousy actually makes Floyd feel great. His body protests each morning because he has played nearly 100 games, with two months of the season still to go. Daily pain and stiffness are a reward for escaping serious injury, which he has done only once in four previous seasons with the Florida Marlins.

“I’m not used to playing every day,” the slugging outfielder admits.

Because Floyd has been uncharacteristically healthy, his statistics are positively robust, making 2001 a breakthrough season. Long known for dubious durability and enormous but unrealized potential, the 28-year-old Floyd has become an All-Star.

“Probably the best swing we’ve seen this year,” Cincinnati manager Bob Boone says.

Boone ordered Floyd intentionally walked twice last Sunday, including once when the Reds trailed by seven runs. That was during a seven-game span when Floyd hit six homers and collected 12 RBIs. Through Wednesday he had 28 homers to go with a .351 average, 87 RBIs and a major-league-leading 88 runs scored.

“He hits the ball hard every day,” Marlins manager Tony Perez says.

Floyd is enjoying the best season of any hitter in the team’s nine-year history. He’s pace to break franchise records for batting average, slugging percentage, home runs, RBIs, hits and runs.

He’s surprised by his success but expects it to continue.

“I’m still tripping on it,” he says with a grin. “When you go 1-for-3 and your average is going down, it’s like, whoa. But I go out every day and feel like I’m going to go 4-for-4. I may be crazy, but that’s how I feel. That’s the way great hitters feel.”

Even a feud with Bobby Valentine hasn’t deterred Floyd. When initially passed over by Valentine for the All-Star team, Floyd reacted angrily, contending the New York Mets manager had misled him. Floyd later was added to the team, and he and Valentine patched up their differences.

“He’s a good guy,” Valentine said this week.

The amiable Floyd has long been regarded as a potentially great hitter. At age 20 in 1993, he hit 28 homers and stole 33 bases in the minor leagues, then made his big-league debut that September with Montreal.

But he shattered his left wrist in 1995, the first in a series of serious injuries. The Marlins acquired him in a trade in early 1997, and in the next four seasons he went on the disabled list five times with hamstring, knee and Achilles’ tendon ailments.

“It’s not a good feeling to wake up and know that instead of doing what you love to do, you’re going to a rehab center with people who are sick or hurt,” he says. “That wasn’t fun.”

Floyd missed 41 games last year and 93 in 1999. He can only wonder how many hits and homers the injuries cost him.

“I think about that once in a while,” he says. “But there’s nothing you can do about it, so there’s no point dwelling on it.”

The oft-injured legs still give Floyd grief. His speed remains impressive for a 250-pounder, and he had 28 doubles and 12 stolen bases at midweek. But he sometimes limps into a base or after a ball in left field. Floyd’s Achilles’ tendon, torn two years ago, flared up Wednesday and forced him to sit out a game for only the sixth time this year.

“He has worked through the injuries,” Perez says. “He still has his problems, but he has learned how to play with them. He used to go out there hurt and then, boom, he’s out. Now he knows when he needs a day off. That’s better than missing a month.”

Floyd hopes to keep days off to a minimum as the Marlins head into August above .500 for only the second time in franchise history. He got a taste of a pennant race in 1997, when he was a reserve for Florida’s World Series champions, and looks forward to the new experience of playing every day on a contending team.

For that opportunity, he’ll gladly endure the daily pain of getting out of bed.

“It makes it easier when you know you’re not going to get a day off because you’re too hot,” he says. “My mom tells me, ‘Stop hitting the ball if you want a day off.’ I say no. She says, ‘Then don’t complain.”’