ON THE SHELF

Pedro Martinez isn't the only player hurting these days. It looks as if Mike Piazza could possibly miss the remainder of the season. He will be out for at least a few months.

The Times reports:

Though Piazza looked better yesterday, the diagnosis of his injury was fairly grim. An examination by the Mets' team doctor, Andrew Rokito, established that Piazza had severely strained his right groin and that a muscle there had partly torn away from the bone. The Mets said they could not specify how much time Piazza would miss. General Manager Steve Phillips said six weeks would be "the low end of it.'' He and Piazza did not dismiss the possibility that the injury could keep Piazza out for the season.

Yankee reliever Steve Karsay had season-ending surgery yesterday. According to the Daily News:

Dr. James Andrews discovered a tear in his rotator cuff.

"We're not expecting him back this year," Cashman said. "My understanding is we'll have him next spring."

After the horrible outing from Contreras last night, the Yankees should pull the trigger on a deal for a relief pitcher by the time the Sox reach the Stadium next week. Kelvim Escobar anybody?

Speaking of the world's most famous sports doctor, Allen Barra had a good piece on Dr. Andrews in last Sunday's Times that is worth checking out:

Slowly but surely, Andrews and his colleagues have changed the public's perception of the value of sports medicine. Only a few years back, it was common for callers on radio talk shows to complain about spoiled, pampered athletes who were given expensive medical treatment not available to the fans who pay their salaries. Not true, Andrews said.

"What we've learned from treating Bo Jackson and Jack Nicklaus has already been applied to thousands of student-athletes and weekend athletes, and even secretaries and computer operators and others whose injuries aren't sports related," he said. "If not for the money available from big-time sports, we could be years behind where we are now in terms of progress."

Neither Andrews nor any other sports physician will say it this way, but in a very real sense professional athletes have served as guinea pigs. So the next time Jeter makes a headfirst slide, think of it this way: He's doing it for all of us.

As always, don't forget to peep Ed Cossette's take on the last night's game over at Bambino's Curse.