June 22, 2001

BOSTON (AP) - Injured Red Sox shortstop Nomar Garciaparra threw a baseball for the first time Friday since undergoing surgery on his right wrist.

Garciaparra has been swinging a fungo bat and doing light throwing with a tennis ball for a week, but hadn't yet tried tossing a baseball since the operation April 2.

"I'm still not even close to really throwing the ball, letting it go, throwing it across the field or anything like that," he said. "I'm barely just lobbing the ball right now."

He said throwing is difficult, but the injury is improving each day.

"The good thing is, it's progressively going down every time I do it," he said. "When you do it, you see how it feels the next day, and it's been recovering great."

Garciaparra said he wasn't sure when he will start swinging a regular bat or hitting off a tee.

Red Sox officials have said Garciaparra may return within a few weeks after the All-Star break, but he declined to set a timetable.

"If I don't reach it," he said, "then somebody would say, 'He's having a setback."'

Garciaparra split a tendon in his wrist after he was hit by a pitch in September 1999. He played with the injury last season, even though the throwing and swinging motions required in baseball made it worse.