Griffey, knee ready to suit up for the Mariners

PEORIA, Ariz. - Now that Ken Griffey Jr.'s swollen knee hascalmed down, he is ready to play in his first game for Seattle in adecade.

The 39-year-old slugger hit for about 10 minutes against twoClass A pitchers in a simulated game on Monday. Mariners manager DonWakamatsu then confirmed Griffey will make his spring debut, asplanned, at designated hitter on Wednesday night against Australia'snational team.

The outing will come 11 days after baseball's leading active homerun hitter signed an incentive-filled deal to return to where hiscareer began 20 years ago. Griffey had arthroscopic knee surgery inOctober.

Griffey was icing his propped-up left knee after workouts a fewdays ago, then spent the weekend with his wife and children, whowere in from Florida.

On Monday, he let a few initial pitches from wide-eyed, 24-year-old Jake Wild go by before he lofted fly balls while Wakamatsu andgeneral manager Jack Zduriencik watched.

Veteran Mike Sweeney, trying to make the team after operations onboth of his knees last summer, first baseman Russell Branyan andshortstop Yuniesky Betancourt also hit to keep themselves sharp. Allbut Branyan have yet to play in a spring game.

"That's all I need," a smiling Griffey told his manager after theshort session.

"Junior did great," Wakamatsu said. "There was some swelling inthe knee a couple of days ago, but everything's good now."

Wakamatsu has said he wants Griffey to have about 30 or 40 at-bats before the opener on April 6 at Minnesota. And Griffey says hedoesn't need games to get that work, adding that spring games areprimarily for pitchers.

He will get more swings in another simulated game planned forFriday, and Wakamatsu may put Griffey in minor league games laterthis month just to keep his swing sharp.

"There are no restrictions on him," Wakamatsu said, reiteratingthe Mariners are trying to preserve Griffey for the entire season.

"(During the season) it's going to be the plane flights, if hehas to slide in games, playing the field a lot. We're going to becognizant of all that and monitor as we go along," Wakamatsu added.

Griffey, fifth on the all-time home run list with 611, signed aone-year contract worth $2 million in base pay on Feb. 21. He couldearn $3 million more if the Mariners have a paid attendance total of3 million, he has 500 plate appearances and he does not go on thedisabled list, according to salary figures obtained by TheAssociated Press.

He wants to play left field as much as he can. The Mariners willalso use him as their designated hitter.

AP-ES-03-02-09 1640EST