Twins' Shannon Stewart strives for injury-free, comeback season in '05: All-Around outfielder seeks to return to form as a .300 hitter, a base stealing threat, a table-setting run producer and a defensive standout.(Interview)

THE MORNINGS WERE THE WORST, when Shannon Stewart would wake up, roll out of bed and get an instant reminder of how bad his right foot was.

He was suffering from a pesky inflammation of the foot tissue which limited him to 92 games last season.

Stewart shook his head one day last March just thinking about it.

"It's probably my worst injury ever," said Stewart, who has been disabled three times because of a strained right hamstring and once because of a left oblique muscle strain. "It was hard to plant and throw, sometimes hard just to run."

It wasn't as bad as not being able to contribute as much as he wanted to the Twins' third consecutive A.L. Central Division title.

Quiet as it had been kept, Stewart played the second half of the season, as well as the playoffs, in pain. It definitely affected his running, and he felt it some while hitting.

During spring training workouts, he seemed to be in a somebody's-going-to-pay mode. His foot is healed. His right hamstring is healed. He's been talking about returning to the early part of his career, when he was a base-stealing threat. He once stole 51 bases with Toronto.