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Williams suffers another serious injury


By Barbara Jean Germano, Baseball Weekly
Arizona third baseman Matt Williams during last fall's World Series.

TUCSON, Ariz. (AP) — Arizona Diamondbacks third baseman Matt Williams broke his left leg in practice Monday and is expected to miss the season opener.

Williams was fielding ground balls on a side field at the Tucson Electric Park complex when he rolled his ankle. Taken by ambulance to the University Medical Center, he was found to have a fracture in his left fibula — the long, thin outer bone of the lower leg — about six inches above the ankle.

Williams also dislocated his left ankle, damaging and stretching ligaments, head trainer Paul Lessard said.

"I worked hard to prepare myself, so needless to say I'm disappointed," Williams said. "I can't do anything about it except heal up and do the proper rehab on the field as quickly as possible."

Williams said he slipped in the dirt and got his foot caught underneath his body. He said he immediately realized his ankle was dislocated.

An operation was scheduled in Phoenix later Monday. Such injuries usually take 4-to-6 weeks to heal — the World Series champion Diamondbacks open the regular season on April 1 at home against San Diego.

"The extent of the damage is shocking considering how quickly it happened and how innocuous it looked," manager Bob Brenly said.

Brenly said Greg Colbrunn, Danny Klassen or second basemen Jay Bell, Craig Counsell and Junior Spivey were candidates to replace Williams at third.

"Our versatility is one of the strong points of this ballclub," Brenly said. "A number of people could enter into the mix. We feel very comfortable with anybody that we play over there. Obviously, we wish it was Matty, and we're going to miss him. But, that being said, I think that with the versatility and the experience we have we'll be OK."

Williams has been the Diamondbacks' cleanup hitter and regular third baseman all four years of their existence.

But this is his second serious injury during spring training in three years.

Williams fouled a ball off his right foot on March 29, 2000, breaking the foot in an accident similar to one he experienced in 1995, when he was with San Francisco. Williams didn't get off the disabled list until May 23, but was troubled by a strained quadriceps until September that year and played just 96 games.

Last year, Williams was healthy coming out of camp, but strained his left hamstring early and missed 47 games while on the disabled list for the third time in two years.



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