...<br><br>Finally after the All-Star break,
Rockies officials, after consulting with trainers and
doctors, pulled the plug on Holly's workouts by placing
him in a cast. <br><br>"There are a lot of different
ideas on what probably happened, and getting off it
finally was probably the key," explained Hollandsworth.
"We all saw what happened to Oakland's Jermaine Dye
in the playoffs, and he's going through the exact
same thing. For whatever reason, and we are not sure
why. When I initially did it, it took it to the point
right where it should have broken and it didn't. Or
maybe it did break and they weren't able to see it for
whatever reason because of all the swelling. Whatever the
case, this thing just didn't cooperate." <br>And it
wasn't like there was a how-to book floating around on
how to handle the problem. Prior to Hollandsworth and
Dye, Arizona's Craig Counsell is the only known player
to have suffered the injury recently. Like
Hollandsworth, Counsell lost nearly a year of his career -- back
in 1996 -- when he was a farmhand with the Rockies.
Worse, he continued to push through the pain until a
vicious break resulted in a rod being placed in his leg.
<br><br>"I understand how difficult it was for Todd. But he
did the right thing by being patient," said Counsell,
a friend of Holly's from their days together with
the Los Angeles Dodgers. "It's hard because we live
in a society where we think that technology will
provide the answers for everything. But sometimes even
the doctors don't have all the answers." <br><br>With
teeth gnashing and his team slumping, Hollandsworth
resisted returning to the field last September. He
desperately wanted to play, even if it was in a few
meaningless games. But his current health has validated his
decision to keep his foot on the brake. <br><br>It's late
November and the chiseled 6-foot-2, 207-pounder is in the
best shape of his life, running stairs "without pain
or even getting winded." <br><br>"I got cleared
about four weeks ago. I obviously still have a dent in
my leg that will probably be there for the rest of
my life," said Hollandsworth, whose good mood has
been emboldened by news that he and his wife Marci are
expecting their first child around the All-Star break.
<br><br>Continued...