Feeling hip

Rob Johnson ('05) has recovered enough from his off-season surgeries to have an article with the following title written about him.

Mariners’ Johnson feeling pretty hip

About 31/2 hours northwest of here, an Elvis tribute artist swivels his hips and melts the hearts of 70-year-old women during a two-hour show in Laughlin.

Down in Peoria, Rob Johnson can do a similar thing for the trainers and coaches who’ve been watching him work out at the Seattle Mariners’ spring training complex. Well, without the sideburns, hairy chest and jumpsuit.

Johnson is the Mariners’ starting catcher, not an Elvis wannabe. But if he really wanted to gyrate those hips, he can do it now.

It has been nearly four months since Johnson had the first of two operations to repair damaged cartilage and remove bone chips from each hip. Through a winter of recovery and rehab, Johnson has what he hasn’t experienced in a long, long time — flexibility and a lack of pain.

“It’s 100 percent different, 100 percent better, the fluidity in the way my hip joints are moving,” he said.

The real reason I linked this article is for the Elvis references. well done, Mr. Kirby Arnold of the Everett Herald.