Speculation of return to Seattle prompts call from Griffey Jr.

The caller's voice was low and slow and said, "This is Ken."

Ken Griffey Jr. was on the phone, but denying emphatically that he was calling in connection with the Times' analysis that speculated the Mariners might have an interest in bringing him back from Cincinnati.

"You know I can't say anything about that," Griffey said, laughing, warming to the subject while not talking about it, sounding much like the happy outfielder/entertainer who played in Seattle before wanting to be traded four years ago. "But everyone's been calling me about the story you had out there."

So, why was he calling?

"Just say ... I'm calling about Edgar," he said. "And I really am. I wish him well in his big decision. He means so much to the city and to the team. Edgar's great for Seattle, great for the Mariners and their fans ... "

Great to have hitting in the heart of a lineup that might run: Boone-Griffey-Martinez-Olerud?

"I can't talk about any of that stuff," Griffey said.

If upbeat counts, and the Junior who left town after the 1999 season was not, the Mariners would love to hear the laughter, the patter, the joy back in his voice.

They also might want to know about his health, with injuries limiting Griffey to 234 games the past three years and derailing a once-glorious run toward Cooperstown. After hamstring and knee troubles the past two years, he went out after only 53 games this year with shoulder and ankle injuries.

"The shoulder is ready to go, full range of motion in less than two months after surgery, and I'm in rehab every day for the ankle," he said. "Have you ever known me not be to be in shape coming to training camp, or not to be in shape in camp?"

That would be a no. But never mind going into the season, how about making it through a season?

A source said the Reds had those concerns and had Griffey go through a series of medical examinations, including blood and bone tests, that reportedly showed no sign of trouble to come.

Given his leg and ankle injuries, Griffey said he no longer slides about five feet from a bag, as he did when he was a kid, hitting the base with ankle-bending force.

"I slide different now, not as close," he said. "But it's tough to practice from where I've been sitting the last couple of years ... on a training table. I can tell you this, I'm tired of that."

What he has done more of than anything in those past couple of years was help his wife Melissa with their growing family, Trey (age 9), Taryn (6) and newcomer Tevin (19 months).

Like any proud dad, he reported that Trey, 4-feet-11 and in fourth grade, is a budding football star, running for 90 yards and three touchdowns in his Pop Warner game last week; that Taryn's sport is basketball, where she is a point guard on three teams and shoots from a foot inside the high-school three-point line.

"Trey said, 'Dad, I like football," Griffey said. "I asked him, 'What about baseball?' and he said, 'It's kind of boring.'

"Taryn? Oh, she's going from high school straight to the WNBA."

When it comes to conditioning, helping with the kids is getting him in shape, in addition to the daily workouts.

"I tell Melissa, 'I don't know how you do it ... I'm going to bed," Griffey said. "It's all making lunches and helping with homework and providing rides. If you are a mother and have more than one child in sports, I have to, like Mike Tyson, 'take my hand off to you.' "

At this Griffey was in full swing, cackling like his old self for using the boxer's malaprop.

The two elder children were in Seattle to see the Mariners play a game just before the All-Star break.

"Yeah," said Griffey, who had issues with the size of the then-new Safeco Field, before it proved to be a lefty power park, "they liked it fine."

Has Griffey changed his mind on the park, has he talked to Seattle CEO Howard Lincoln, with whom there were strained relations around the time of his trade?

"No, but we're not allowed to talk to one another," he said, referring to baseball's tampering rules.

Yet it's not tampering to ask who he thinks will become the Mariners' next general manager.

"Heck, I don't know," Griffey said. "I don't know who's going to be GM in Cincinnati. Or who's going to be manager in Cincinnati."

While no longer GM, Mariners consultant Pat Gillick, who also had a rub with the outfielder back at the time of the trade, did not stomp on the idea of Griffey coming back. Instead, no matter what the team's actual stance is on that longshot, Gillick said, "I can't comment on that."

If not as a Mariner reborn, Griffey seems likely to return to Seattle next summer — for three or four interleague games with Cincinnati.

Lincoln disappointed by Ichiro's agent

Lincoln was not happy to hear agent Tony Attanasio suggest Tuesday that Ichiro would regard salary arbitration, "as a slap in the face, a loss of face."

"It is very disappointing to hear Tony talk on a local radio show about matters that should be negotiated in private and confidential," Lincoln said.

Attanasio countered by saying when he had been invited to speak on the Tuesday morning KJR broadcast, "I sent Chuck (Armstrong) a list of the answers I would give to the questions I expected to be asked on the show. I have said all that to Howard and Chuck several times, so I do not see that as negotiating in the press. That is not my style."

Note

• Gillick's response to all who call about what his interest might be in the New York Mets' GM vacancy is: "At this point I'm focusing on what I'm doing, so how can I have an interest in the Mets' job?"

Bob Finnigan: 206-464-8276 or bfinnigan@seattletimes.com