TUCSON - Veteran reliever Danny Graves is trying to resurrect his career with the Rockies this spring.

But be careful in describing him as being involved in a battle for a bullpen job.

Graves has a different perspective than most in assessing life, much less baseball.

Reality hit him a year and a half ago. Graves was born in Vietnam, although he left when he was 14 months old, shortly before the fall of Saigon. It wasn't until 30 years later, in January 2006, that Graves returned.

He was accompanied by his mother, a native of the Southeast Asian country, as part of a promotional program of the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund and baseball.

And he had his eyes opened.

"When we left Vietnam, we just picked up and left," said Graves, whose father was an American serviceman. "I really didn't know much about the situation until January. It was a touchy subject at home, growing up. Neither me nor my brother ever brought it up. We knew not to ask questions."

What Graves discovered on his visit last year was that his mother still lived in fear of retaliation from the Viet Cong, who had held her brother as a prisoner of war for 11 years.

The uncle now lives in the United States, but Graves met an aunt and another uncle who still live in Vietnam. The aunt's name is Lien, but Graves said he doesn't remember the names of either uncle.

It takes some of the urgency out of the baseball world for Graves. It allows him to put things in order on a day such as Thursday, when, in a spring training debut delayed by a battle with a pulled side muscle, he walked four of the five batters he faced. But he gave up only one run, and the Rockies beat the Chicago White Sox 7-4 at Hi Corbett Field.

With no outs and the bases loaded, he induced a first-to- short-to-pitcher double-play grounder. After reloading the bases with another walk, he faked a pickoff at third, got Darrin Erstad to break off first, and eventually saw Juan Uribe tagged out in a rundown between third and home.

"I was a little too excited," he said. "The good thing is, personally, I felt awesome. I've definitely got some things to work on."

The mind-set, though, is strong.

"I realize how spoiled we are over here (after the visit to Vietnam), especially major league ballplayers," he said. "The people in Vietnam have absolutely nothing and they are happy."

They also still are dealing with the residual effects of the Vietnam War, including, Graves said, the fact that there are still tons of live ordnance buried in South Vietnam, an area that has been a focal point for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund, which raises money to help defray the expense of detonating the explosives.

"There are still people who unknowingly touch off the bombs and are being killed," Graves said.

For Graves, the trip to Vietnam was a quick lesson in personal history.

"We went back to the place where all the GIs lived, and now it's a dump," Graves said. "The people pay $5 a month to live there. We saw the tunnels where the tunnel rats would hide to ambush the Americans. We went to the Buddhist temples."

And he saw a side of his mother that she so carefully had guarded throughout the years.

"We would see places and she would bring up things that happened, but you could tell she didn't really want to talk about it," he said. "She was afraid (the Viet Cong) might remember (her brother as a prisoner) and come after her because she came back."

But Graves said he was encouraged by the reception from the Vietnamese people.

"There were hard feelings for many years, but about 10 years ago, that changed," he said. "Now they value the Americans. Why that changed, I have no idea, but we were treated so well."

It was, Graves said, an unreal event that got started because one of the women who works for the Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund is "a huge baseball fan" and contacted the New York Mets about getting in touch with Graves after noticing he was born in Vietnam. He was asked to make a promotional trip to his Asian homeland.

The Vietnam Veterans Memorial Fund has invited Graves to make the trip again this year, but the visit is planned in August, in the middle of the baseball season.

"I told them I'd like to go back, but I hoped I couldn't make the trip this year," Graves said.

Rockies 7, White Sox 4

CHICAGO (A)	COLORADO
	ab	r	h	bi		ab	r	h	bi
Erstad cf	3	0	0	0	Taveras cf	2	1	0	0
Lopez 2b	1	0	0	0	Spilborghs cf	2	0	1	0
Iguchi 2b	3	1	0	0	Matsui 2b	3	1	1	0
Sisco p	0	0	0	0	Nix 2b	2	0	0	0
Logan p	0	0	0	0	Atkins 3b	3	1	2	2
Sweeney	1	0	1	0	Stewart 3b	1	0	1	0
Konerko 1b	3	0	1	1	Koshansky 1b	4	1	1	0
Rogowski 1b	2	0	1	0	Holliday lf	3	2	1	0
Dye rf	2	1	0	0	Bautista p	0	0	0	0
Roberts rf	2	0	0	0	Gil c	1	0	0	0
Crede 3b	3	1	2	1	Baker rf	4	1	1	3
Gonzalez 3b	1	0	1	0	Gallo p	0	0	0	0
Pierzynski c	1	1	0	0	Keppel p	0	0	0	0
Molina c	2	0	0	0	Torrealba c	3	0	1	1
Uribe ss	2	0	0	1	Affeldt p	0	0	0	0
Valido ss	1	0	1	0	Gomez rf	1	0	0	0
Owens lf	3	0	1	0	Tulowitzki ss	3	0	0	0
Floyd p	1	0	0	0	Bucholz p	0	0	0	0
Armstrong ph	1	0	0	0	Smith ph	1	0	0	0
MacDougal p	0	0	0	0	Graves p	0	0	0	0
Thornton p	0	0	0	0	Barker ph	1	0	0	0
Jenks p	0	0	0	0	Veras p	0	0	0	0
Terrero ph-cf	2	0	0	0	Salazar lf	1	0	0	0
Totals	34	4	8	3	Totals	35	7	9	6
Chicago (A)......011	101	000	-	4	8	2
Colorado......015	010	00x	-	7	9	1

E - Crede, Valido, Baker. DP - Colorado 1. LOB - Chicago 9, Colorado 7. 2B - Torrealba, Spilborghs. HR - Baker. SB - Iguchi, Taveras, Holliday, Spilborghs. CS - Uribe.

CHICAGO (A) (SS)	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	Floyd, L	3	5	6	2	1	1
MacDougal	1	0	0	0	0	2
Thornton	1	2	1	1	0	1
Jenks	1	1	0	0	1	0
Sisco	1	1	0	0	0	2
Logan	1	0	0	0	1	1
COLORADO	IP	H	R	ER	BB	SO	Bucholz, W	3	3	2	2	1	1
Graves	1	0	1	1	4	0
Veras	1	0	0	0	0	0
Bautista	1	1	1	1	0	2
Affeldt	1	0	0	0	0	1
Gallo	1	2	0	0	0	1
Keppel, S	1	2	0	0	0	0

HBP - by Bucholz (Dye).

T - 2:37. A - 2,471.

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