YANKS’ HOPES HIGH FOR JOBA

Girardi, Cash optimistic for injured pitcher

TAMPA — A grim-faced Joba Chamberlain left a Tampa hospital Sunday morning about 11:20 a.m. with a hospital worker pushing him in a wheelchair, his ankle in a cast.

He wore a white Adidas cap, thick, dark-rimmed eyeglasses, a gray T-shirt and athletic pants and was holding crutches.

He did not say anything as a few reporters peppered him with questions, but someone asked him if he was feeling better as he got i nto a white SUV and Chamberlain replied, “Yeah.”

It was a stark contrast from the larger-than-life figure who used to pump his fist and scream on the mound after another one of his strikeouts for the Yankees.

Still, the news that Chamberlain was feeling better brought some relief to Yankee camp.

“It’s good to see him out, that he’s doing well,” Joe Girardi said. “Obviously, the wound has to close up to get through that. But I am optimistic that he is going to pitch for us this year, I am. And we’re going to be right there for him the whole way.”

GM Brian Cashman, who spoke minutes before Chamberlain was released from St. Joseph's Hospital, echoed Girardi.

“That’s obviously terrific and hopefully it continues that way.”

Cashman said Chamberlain will be in a cast for six weeks and “be non-weight bearing through six weeks.” After six weeks, Chamberlain will wear a weight-bearing boot as the next stage of his recovery.

In the meantime, he will continue to receive treatment on the ankle he dislocated while jumping on a trampoline with his son Thursday. Chamberlain had surgery on his right ankle that night.

His cast had tubes sticking out of it and those are likely to be pumping cool water around the ankle. Such a device “aggressively ices the ankle,” said Dr. Peter Salob, a sports medicine specialist and orthopedic surgeon in Englewood, N.J. “It’s definitely a more aggressive measure to treat it, but with pro sports teams, any type of injury they have, usually they will use some type of ice machine.

“This is really critical. With the type of injury he had, often there's a significant amount of swelling around the ankle and that's one way to reduce the swelling.”

Chamberlain was trying to return to the majors after having Tommy John surgery last June and while he believes he can return to a mound by July, the Yankees are more conservative and Chamberlain's career could still be in jeopardy.

Still, the Yankees are hopeful, too.

“Obviously he’s been dealing with a lot, but he's a healer,” Cashman said. “He gets hurt, but his healing process is really significant. We’re counting on that in this case, too. That’s why my heart, my guy tells me he's going to be OK. I hope I’m right on that. I can rely on the history that he’s had a lot of stuff take place and he resolves it. He heals a lot quicker, so hopefully that’ll be the case here.”

Still, as Cashman noted, “the baseball stuff will be secondary” to making sure Chamberlain's ankle is OK. “This was such a unique accident, injury, for just his normal life,” Cashman said.

“All we care about right now for him personally is to get out of the woods on the risky stuff (potential infections),” Cashman added. “After that, we can start worrying about baseball stuff. Right now, that's not the focus. But so far, everything is coming back extremely positive.”

Cashman said Chamberlain’s been down about the injury, but he’s also got an attitude of ‘What do I have to do to get back?’

“He’s frustrated, he’s sad, he’s all those things, he’s down,” Cashman said. “But at the same time, he’s a man and he knows what the road ahead is and he's not afraid of it.

“He knows there are a lot of people who care about him both here, his family and obviously fan-wise. I’m sure he's received a lot of concern and wellwishers and prayers. I know for that he's thankful. He told me to tell everybody thanks for praying for me and thanks for anybody who’s out there supporting him and wishing him well. He did tell me that in the hospital. That stuff helps, it does.” Joba Chamberlain leaves Tampa hospital in down mood but Brian Cashman remains hopeful. Photo by Andrew Theodorakis/ daily News