Canada's Koskie calls off baseball comeback

Corey Koskie has called off his comeback.

The Anola, Man., native took himself out a spring training game with the Chicago Cubs on Thursday because he felt lightheaded. He was diving for a ground ball when he started feeling dizzy.

"After that play, I kind of thought, 'What am I doing out here?'" Koskie told the Chicago Tribune.

"Whether I got the wind knocked out of me or what, I did feel a little funky after it. I don't think it was a concussive event, but I did feel a little funny."

Out of baseball since a 2006 concussion, spent the first seven of his nine big league seasons with the Minnesota Twins. He came to spring training with the Cubs as a non-roster invitee this year and played in three games, going 1-for-5 with a double.

Koskie said he made his decision to end the comeback bid after talking with the Cubs' medical and training staffs and with his own doctors. In the end, he said, the risks didn't make the potential rewards worth trying a comeback.

"Baseball is great, but you have the next two-thirds of your life to look at here," he said.

Signed by Cubs

Koskie, 35, also was on Canada's roster for the World Baseball Classic but didn't get an at-bat in the tournament.

He began working out in January, and the Cubs signed him to a minor league contract Feb. 28 and invited him to spring training. After he went to the WBC, he rejoined the Cubs and began competing for a backup infield spot.

"I got caught up in the emotion of coming back. I did feel real good," Koskie said.

"My swing felt good. I was able to hit. I was able to field. I felt like when I went out there, I felt like it was just another spring training where I didn't miss 2½ years before that because the whole rust factor, if there was, I didn't feel it. I felt sharp. I was on every pitch."

He became a Toronto Blue Jay in 2005, then moved to Milwaukee the following season. He has a career batting average of .275, with 506 runs batted in.

On July 5, 2006, Koskie ran for a popup in the shallow outfield and tumbled backward in an attempt to make the catch. The ball bounced out of his glove and to shortstop Bill Hall, who made the putout, but Koskie was hurt in the fall.

He hasn't played a regular-season game since.

Koskie hit 26 home runs for Minnesota in 2001, and 25 in 2004.

'Right decision'

"I had a nice conversation with him today," Cubs manager Lou Piniella said. "He made the right decision. He's young. He's got a family. He tried, gave it his all. It just didn't quite work out.

"I think he got it out of his system, and that's the important thing."

Koskie said the experience with Team Canada and the Cubs this spring gave him peace of mind that he could still play baseball.

"Look at the facts," he said. "I'm 35. I still can play. On the other side of it, if I play, I want to be 100 per cent. I don't want to be thinking about, 'What if I do this? What if I dive? What if I do this?'

"It might be a little different if I was 23 and had my whole career ahead of me and I didn't have any kids, didn't have a family, didn't have a wife. It might be a little different.

"Really, what am I trying to squeeze out for two more years?"