Floyd

	Valentine

ST. PETERSBURG, Fla. -- The visiting clubhouse at Tropicana Field was virtually empty and Cliff Floyd sat alone at his locker preparing for his first trip to the All-Star Game.

He cleared his equipment bag of items he won't need in Seattle, received confirmation that he had reservations for a hastily arranged flight, and said he's ready to put his feud with manager Bobby Valentine behind him.

"I'm done with it," he said Monday. "Now, I just want to play in the game and enjoy it. I've never had any controversy in my entire career. I've never even charged a mound."

The Florida Marlins outfielder, bypassed for the NL team when Valentine announced his reserves last week, was added Sunday as a replacement for New York Mets pitcher Rick Reed, who has a stiff neck and back.

Valentine's original decision set off several days of sniping between the Mets manager and Floyd, who said he was so certain that he was on the team after talking with Valentine by telephone that he purchased $16,000 worth of plane tickets for family and friends to attend Tuesday's game in Seattle.

"I'm not mad at anybody," Floyd said. "My parents are coming in. I'm just glad I could use the tickets for what they were intended. Actually, the tickets could have been used for a year. So somebody was going to take a vacation."

Floyd would not back down from his original statement that Valentine had told him he was going to the All-Star game, though.

"The whole time I had no reason to lie," he said. "But I'm a believer that things happen for a reason. I'm just thankful for the opportunity. No hard feelings. It's done and buried."

Valentine said he was happy that he had an opportunity to pick Floyd for his first All-Star game Tuesday night, but he didn't sound too happy about the way the media handled the story.

Valentine was asked Monday what he would say to Floyd when he saw him in the NL clubhouse.

"Probably 'Congratulations, welcome, let's go get 'em,"' Valentine replied. "What do you think I'm going to say? What would make a good story?"

Floyd learned he had been added to the team after Florida's 6-1 victory over the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. He said he regretted an injury created the opening, but that he was grateful to be headed for Seattle.

"I pray for nobody to get hurt, but maybe it was meant to be. I'm definitely going to enjoy it," Floyd said. "All the stuff is behind us. I'm going to have a blast. It's a good ending to a bad beginning."

Earlier this season, Floyd called Valentine a "stupid manager." During a Tuesday telephone conversation, Valentine said he told the outfielder he was on the team "if nothing crazy happens in the next 24 hours," then bypassed him the following day, setting off the sniping.

"After long consideration, I determined I should have said something different," the manager said Sunday. "If I had said, '72 hours,' we would not have had all this nonsense.

"What I said was, 'Crazy things could happen in the next 24 hours.' I know he knows I said that. If he had called me a week before like he should have and was told to, a lot of this nonsense would not have happened. All's well that ends well for him. I regret being involved in it and not insisting I get a call a week before when I asked for it. I still don't know why."

Valentine sent a letter to Floyd on Friday expressing regret over the friction caused by not picking him for the team. Floyd, who's batting .342 with 21 homers and 70 RBI, said he just wants to put the situation behind him.

"All you do is go up to him and shake his hand and be a man about it. Things happen," Floyd said. "I'm just going to forget about it and thank him for the opportunity. The issue got out of hand. ... I just want to enjoy it. Some things you just have to let go."

Floyd gets a $10,000 bonus because of his addition to the team. It will be his first trip to the game, one he said is a reward for all the work he put in during the offseason in hopes of establishing himself as one of baseball's rising young stars.

"I get an opportunity to live a dream," he said. "It was always a dream to be in the big leagues. But to be able to go to the All-Star Game and play with the greatest players of the year is a honor and, for me, a great accomplishment."

Reed, who still planned to attend Tuesday's game, was scratched from his scheduled start Sunday night against the Yankees. He left his June 27 start against the Chicago Cubs after 2 2/3 innings because of lower back spasms but made his next scheduled start.

Reed woke up with a stiff neck at 3 a.m. Sunday and was unable to get loose. Glendon Rusch started against the Yankees in his place.

"Obviously, every time it's my turn, I want to go out and pitch," Reed said. "This happened to come up and I can't. I came in early and got some treatment. Maybe if I had not said anything I could have pitched. I want to be cautious. If I try to protect that and I hurt my arm, that would be worse."

He said he would accompany the Mets contingent to the All-Star game. "My ticket says Seattle and that's where I'm going," he said.

Valentine said Reed would have pitched one inning in the All-Star Game but decided he could get through the game with 10 pitchers instead of the 11 he originally picked.

Several of Floyd's teammates stopped by his locker to say congratulations before rushing out to catch a team flight that the slugger had expected to make, too.

"I just planned to chill and do stuff around the house and get ready for the second half. I was all set to have a flight home. Now it's a big rush. But it's all worth it," Floyd said.

Teammate Ryan Thompson asked what Floyd had done with the eight plane tickets he purchased for family and friends.

"I kept them," Floyd said, smiling.

"Everybody's set to go. The only thing maybe is the availability of (hotel) rooms because it's late now," he said, pausing before coming up with a possible solution.

"If they all have to stay in my room," he added, "it would be all good."