ALTOONA, Pa. -- It's no secret that Francisco Cervelli loves baseball, and for the first time since the Pirates placed him on the concussion disabled list June 22, he was able to do so.
"I feel good because I'm playing and I'm able to be at the baseball field. That's the first step," Cervelli said Thursday night following the first game of his rehab stint with Class AA Altoona, in which he went 0 for 3 with two strikeouts and two walks against the Trenton Thunder, though he didn't catch.
This is the fourth documented concussion in Cervelli's career, but he downplayed any long-term concerns. Even though, as he acknowledged in his first public comment since going on the DL, he made the decision to step away after a series of balls to the facemask contributed to this concussion.
"I love this game. I'm not going to stop playing because of this," he said. "We got good doctors. They do so many things to keep me on the field and also be good after baseball. It's crazy. Some days, it's weird, man, you feel like you're hungover or something like that. That's in the past. I've been really good for over a week. Now, it's time to play baseball."
Cervelli said his decision was made in part because he felt he was letting teammates and fans down by playing at a lesser level following an All-Star type start. He's at .257/.390/.486 with nine home runs for the season, but that dropped to .162/.354/.297 in June.
"Sometimes you think you're ready and you have post-concussion symptoms, and that's what happened. I started feeling bad. I wasn't playing the way I was supposed to and that's not fair for my team, that's not fair for me and the fans, either. I'd rather just step away and recover 100 percent, come back and give everything I've got."
Cervelli said he doesn't feel that he will need any time behind the plate with Altoona before he returns to Pittsburgh, that he's focused on hitting.
"I just need to hit because I was having problems to see the ball," he said.
Prior to this game, Cervelli was doing drill work with his teammates that consisted of popups, throws to each base, as well as blocking drills.
"It was great,"Altoona manager Michael Ryan said. "What he did through the work day today, he did everything, popups, throw to bases, field bunts, caught a bullpen, and took BP."
Cervelli will DH again Friday night. The next step after that is undetermined.
"Depends on how I feel tomorrow, then we decide what to do," he said.
