Griffey angry at hometown treatment

CINCINNATI - Ken Griffey Jr. didn&#39;t want to talk about his injured knee - or much of anything else. The terse answers suggested he was seething about something. <br> <br> Frustration over his latest injury, perhaps? <br> <br> ``No,&#39;&#39; he said Monday. ``There&#39;s a few more issues than that. I&#39;d rather not say.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Moments later, it gushed out. The Cincinnati Reds&#39; outfielder said he&#39;s tired of how he&#39;s been treated by fans and the media in his hometown the last three years. <br> <br> ``I came here to play and it&#39;s like I&#39;ve been fighting an uphill battle every day,&#39;&#39; said Griffey, the words spilling out with an angry edge. ``Am I frustrated about my injury? No, because I know it&#39;s going to get better and I&#39;ll go out and play. Am I frustrated about people taking shots at me? Yeah. <br> <br> ``I&#39;m tired of it. It&#39;s been three years now - not one, not a half year, not a year and a half. It&#39;s been three.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> That&#39;s how long he&#39;s been home. <br> <br> The city embraced Griffey when he accepted a below-market contract - $116.5 million for nine years - to come home in a February 2000 trade with the Seattle Mariners. <br> <br> Now, many of those fans are wondering whether the trade was worthwhile, and Griffey is wondering a few things as well. <br> <br> ``I get consistently beat up for no reason,&#39;&#39; he said, sitting in his locker after batting practice. ``It&#39;s been happening since the very first day I got here, and I&#39;m tired of it. You try to bend over backward to do the right thing, and it just seems to get thrown in my face. <br> <br> ``I came here to play baseball. I took less money. I didn&#39;t whine or anything, and this is the thanks I get? I don&#39;t need that.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> It hasn&#39;t been a heartwarming homecoming for Griffey, who bristled at all the attention he got in 2000 and spent much of last season recovering from a torn hamstring. <br> <br> He was upbeat this spring, even after former teammates said the club&#39;s chemistry was damaged when he showed up in Cincinnati. The Reds won 96 games in 1999, the year before he arrived, but went into a slide and lost 96 last season. <br> <br> He tore the patella tendon in his right knee April 7. While he got therapy, the club went on a winning streak that pushed the Reds into first place in the NL Central. <br> <br> A local TV station conducted a poll asking which player should sit when Griffey is able to return. Griffey was one of the choices, and was picked by 74 percent of the fans. <br> <br> That&#39;s what set him off. <br> <br> ``I don&#39;t think anybody has even given me a chance to know who I am and my personality,&#39;&#39; Griffey said. ``I&#39;m the person that gets beat up the most - for what? For no reason.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Griffey said he&#39;s been treated worse in Cincinnati than he was in Seattle. <br> <br> ``It&#39;s not even close,&#39;&#39; he said. ``You talking about little New York here?&#39;&#39; <br> <br> He said it&#39;s gotten so bad that his wife and children don&#39;t come to Cinergy Field because of comments they hear. <br> <br> Asked for an example, Griffey said a fan told his wife, &#39;``You can go back to Seattle and take your husband with you.&#39; And that was in the family section, so you can imagine how I felt about that. <br> <br> ``I&#39;ve got to sit here and try to get my family to come see me because they don&#39;t like it here because of some of the stuff that&#39;s been said to them. That gets old real quick.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Asked whether it&#39;s bad enough that he wants to leave his hometown, Griffey said, ``I just want to play. I just want to get back on the field.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> It&#39;s still unclear when that might happen. Griffey started jogging last week, but has problems with the knee when he comes to a stop. <br> <br> Dr. Timothy Kremchek said Griffey will run, jump and work on quick starts this week, providing a better idea of when he might be back. <br> <br> ``We&#39;ll see how he does over the next seven to 10 days,&#39;&#39; Kremchek said Monday. ``He&#39;s doing great, but we don&#39;t want to rush him.&#39;&#39; <br> <br> Manager Bob Boone said he&#39;s ``coveting&#39;&#39; the day Griffey can play again, and he doesn&#39;t understand all the talk about the Reds being better off without him. <br> <br> ``It&#39;s laughable to me,&#39;&#39; Boone said. ``When you go through a stretch like we have, when you&#39;re not hitting, having Junior in there makes a huge difference. It&#39;s gigantic.&#39;&#39;