There is never a good time to be injured.
And thatis certainly the case for Justin Singleton, a St. Paul?s High graduate and a minor league baseball veteran with the Toronto Blue Jays.
Singleton is the son of Ken Singleton, a right fielder for the Orioles when they won the World Series in 1983.
The younger Singleton, who turned 27 earlier this month, went on the disabled list recently after he was hurt in a Class AAA International League game while playing for Syracuse.
“I was playing right field in Indianapolis,” Singleton said Sunday. “It was the ninth inning and a right-hander sliced a ball down the right field line. I banged my knee into the wall. I hit it pretty hard.”
Singleton, drafted out of Clemson by the Blue Jays, injured his left knee. He was slated to have an MRI done on Monday at the spring training home of the Blue Jays in Florida.
This is Singleton?s sixth year in the farm system of Toronto, and he has never played in the majors. He is eligible to be a six-year free agent after this season.
“This is a big year for me. My goal was always to make it to the big leagues with the Blue Jays,” he said. But he knows he could get a chance to play for another organization after this season.
Singleton said he played in more than 10 major league games during spring training, and hit a homer in one game.
But he was sent to Class AAA Syracuse, where he played part of last season, to start 2006. He went hitless in his first eight at bats, and is hitting .194 in 36 at bats.
Singleton does not know how long he will be out of the lineup, or where he will do his rehab work. Singleton graduated from St. Paul?s in 1997, and studied elementary education at Clemson.
He said that he speaks about five times per week with his father, who is now a television announcer for the New York Yankees. Justin Singleton said his father headed back to his Baltimore-area home Sunday night, after working the series at Yankee Stadium with the Orioles this past weekend.
The younger Singleton hit .255 with 10 homers and 36 RBIs in 100 games last season for Syracuse. He also played for Class AA New Hampshire in the Eastern League, where he hit. 213 in 21 games with three homers and nine RBIs.
