Physically Healed, Caminiti Still in Recovery

Ken Caminiti remains in recovery, even though his physical injuries have healed.

After a relapse with alcoholism that landed him in a treatment program and splintered his family life, the former NL MVP still hopes to put his personal life is in order. The next step for the 37-year-old Texas Rangers third baseman is proving that he’s not an old, broken-down player.

“Baseball has always been the downfall, trying to live up to the expectations and trying to do the life off the field,” Caminiti said. I want to show I can play ball, have fun.”

And do so without alcohol, like he did during the four-season span that ended with his winning the MVP award in 1996.

Caminiti doesn’t want to talk about his life off the field anymore. When asked about anything other than the upcoming season, he responds with a hardened stare.

Yet it was his openness during offseason discussions with Rangers officials that persuaded them to give Caminiti a chance to be their everyday third baseman.

“I know he’s driven to change a lot of things, change the perception,” Texas manager Johnny Oates, said. “No. I is to get his personal life straight. We have the team that can help him do that. I think that by playing baseball, it helps him focus.”

So far, Oates and general manager Doug Melvin said Caminiti has lived up to expectations.

After an intense, purpose-driven offseason workout program, Caminiti reported to the Rangers camp in great shape.

He is showing no ill effects from the series of injuries that began during his MVP season, when he hit .326 with 40 home runs and 130 RBIs despite playing most of that season with a torn right rotator cuff.

“He puts in the time. He’s a guy who wants to prove to a lot of people that he still has a lot left in him,” Melvin said. “He is a good guy. I like what he, brings to the clubhouse. People look at him and see a guy that’s determined.

“Obviously we took a risk, but he’s also sharing that risk with his contract status.”

The day before Texas signed Alex Rodriguez to a record $252 million, 10-year contract, the Rangers gave Caminiti a $3 million, one-year contract with two option years, Caminiti’s base. salary goes up at the beginning of each month he’s on the active roster.

Caminiti first tackled his drinking problem was 1993. He spent 16 days in a rehabilitation program and remained sober for three years.

His relapse began at an ESPN ceremony in February 1997. During a night when he won two awards, including top baseball player, he sneaked away to a lobby bar and told the bartender to make him a vodka drink that looked like water.

At first, Caminiti hid his renewed habit. As time went on, more people knew he was drinking again. It didn’t seem to affect his play, but injuries did.

Caminiti was the NL starting third baseman in the All-Star game in 1997, a season he missed two weeks with a right hamstring strain.. He sat out three weeks of 1998 with a strained left quadriceps muscle.

He then returned to Houston, where he began his career from 1987-94, hoping for a rebirth. Instead, a strained right calf muscle limited him his first season, then a problem in his right wrist ended last season after just 59 games, the fewest he has ever played in a full season.

Knowing his season was over and realizing his career might be as well, Caminiti became depressed. He hit bottom during a three-week period late in the summer when he went out drinking almost nightly. That led Nancy, his wife of 14 years, to stage an intervention with his father and a close friend.

Caminiti refused at first, but eventually agreed to fly with his father to New York to check into a rehabilitation center.

“I sat in the hospital for nearly 30 days and looked at myself, and everything runs through your mind,” Caminiti told The Dallas Morning News before spring training began. “You think of everything negative and then, eventually, everything positive. What I finally realized was that I had a second chance and I didn’t want to go out like a sucker.”

While Caminiti and his wife have separated, he says they still have a good relationship and she knows that baseball is a primary step toward his recovery. He remains active in the lives of their. three young daughters.

The next step is getting his swing going again. He believes he can, especially after hitting .303 with 15 homers and 45 RBIs before his injury last summer.

“Things just happen, and then everybody else has a picture that you are old and broke,” Caminiti aid. “I’m just trying to get by all of that. I’m just trying to play one ear healthy and have fun and help he team win.”

“‘I have a love for the game that I didn’t have the last three years.”