Kent

San Francisco Giants officials have questioned whether second baseman Jeff Kent actually broke his left wrist while falling while washing his truck March 1.

Baseball Weekly, citing anonymous sources within the organization, reported that Kent may have sustained the injury in a motorcycle accident, and that he made up the story about the truck-washing mishap because it violates the rules in Kent's contract to ride a motorcycle.

"I hear that rumor is floating around," Kent told reporters Saturday. "Sure. I guess. However you want to write it, it's still a broken wrist."

Kent didn't flat-out deny the report, which was written by Baseball Weekly columnist Bob Nightengale, but hinted that it was false.

"I wish I had fallen off a motorcycle," Kent told the San Francisco Chronicle. "I would have been having more fun. This would have had some purpose. There's a lot of stuff in my contract. The main thing in the contract covers motorcycle racing. I think Mr. Nightengale is grabbing at straws."

"If people want to make a good story, then I guess I do a lot of dangerous things. I climb tree stands. I ride motorcycles. I wash trucks. However you want to write it. I guess a motorcycle adds a little more intrigue."

Kent sounded optimistic about returning to the Giants' lineup by Opening Day. He had tests 10 days ago on the broken bone in his wrist, which revealed minor ligament damage. He returned to Arizona on March 7 to begin rehab work with Giants trainer Stan Conte.

"My rehab history has been quick, so I think this prognosis is good for us. Sometimes soft tissue damage can limit what you can do," said Kent, the National League MVP in 2000. "This gives us the motivation to work the area. We can do more than if the tissue damage was worse."

Kent has been the subject of comic routines for San Francisco radio talk show hosts and in the print media.

"People are having fun with it, but it's not funny to me," he said last week. "It's odd. I can't play a game I love to play, and am paid to play. When you make fun of someone washing his truck, that's sad."