Bo Not Comfortable With White Sox : Baseball: Jackson, still bothered by hip injury, might ask to have contract restructured.

SARASOTA, Fla. —  Disappointed with continuing discomfort in his left hip, Bo Jackson said Thursday that he wants to discuss the situation with Chicago White Sox management and implied that he will ask to have his contract restructured.

Amid widespread escalation, Jackson suggested he will de-escalate.

“The White Sox have been great to me, but at this point I don’t feel I’m earning my keep,” he said. “I was raised to work hard for my pay, but I don’t feel like I’m working hard enough or progressing enough for the pay I’m receiving.”

This was shortly after the White Sox had defeated the Pittsburgh Pirates, 6-1, in an exhibition opener as Jackson, the designated hitter, doubled, singled and walked.

Both hits were hit hard, but Jackson ran as if he had blisters on the bottom of both feet, high-stepping in the manner of a drum major but maybe not traveling as fast.

“I wouldn’t even call it running,” Jackson said. “And I’ll probably be so sore tomorrow I won’t be able to do anything.

“It felt good to hit the ball hard, and I’d be satisfied if I was running like I was swinging, but I’m not, and I’m real down on myself.

“At this point I don’t feel like I’m giving the White Sox 100%. That may change, but I want to talk with management and see if I can change the situation to make it more comfortable for me.”

Jackson also said he has been coping with a family illness and other problems outside of baseball.

“You can only take so much mentally before you have to get things off your chest,” he said.

He wouldn’t identify the other problems or specify what he intends to discuss with management, but he did say that he recently fired agent Richard Woods and hired Arn Tellem in the last 48 hours.

The White Sox must decide by March 15 whether to pick up his 1992 salary of $910,000, plus $10,000 for every game he is available up to 150 games.

He could earn $2.4 million, but it seems unlikely that he will be able to prompt a favorable decision from the White Sox in only nine more days and it was speculated that Jackson might ask the club to waive the deadline in return for reduced terms and the opportunity to remain in extended spring training if necessary.

Of course, this would guarantee Jackson a salary at a time when he otherwise faces the possibility of being released on March 15.

Reached in Chicago before leaving the owners’ meetings for his club’s training base here, White Sox co-owner Jerry Reinsdorf said he could not speculate on what Jackson has in mind.

“Maybe we’ve been putting too much pressure on him to be ready by March 15,” he said. “Maybe we need to give him more time.”

Jackson injured the hip in a Raider playoff game in January of 1991, and was released by the Kansas City Royals, who felt the condition would prove to be degenerative, in March and signed by the White Sox in April.

He went through a rigorous summer of rehabilitation before surprising many by returning to play several minor league games in August, then batted .225 with three home runs and 14 runs batted in in 23 games with Chicago.

Jackson continued his rehabilitation over the winter, but his progress seems to have been reversed. He walks with an obvious limp and of his running in Thursday’s game, trainer Herm Schneider, a Jackson confidant, said: “It’s not good enough. He’s got to get better.”

General Manager Ron Schueler agreed, and acknowledged that he has contacted free agent Dave Parker as a possible designated hitter if Jackson isn’t available.

“He was going to first base in 4.5 and 4.6 (seconds) when he came back, and I can take that,” said Schueler, who once timed a sound Jackson in 3.65 to first.

“But he’s at a point now where he’s not what he was last August,” Schueler said. “He’s lost speed even from where he was. He’s experiencing deterioration. He’s got to improve, and I don’t know if he can. His bat is fine, but I don’t think he can go through a season putting pressure on the hip the way he is.”

Jackson, who has already given up football, said there is constant discomfort, that there is no longer any cushion between the pelvic cup and femur bone in his left leg, leaving bone against bone.

“I’m not playing for money and I’m not playing to prove the media wrong,” he said. “I’m playing for the love of the game, and if I feel I can’t perform, I won’t.

“I’m not thinking about leaving, but I am looking forward to a life after baseball. I mean, if I ever have to go back on crutches I’ll have the surgery that I’m told most people would have had by now.

“I’m also told that this is the type injury that gets worse before it gets better. I understand that, but I hope this is as bad as it gets. I hope it’s not time to hang up the spikes.”