Cincinnati ? The headaches and those depressing thoughts are gone. Sean Casey has completely recovered from a beaning that left him unconscious.

It shows in his swing.

The upbeat first baseman had one of his most frightening moments April 13 at Philadelphia, when a pitch by Robert Person hit him on the right ear flap of his helmet.

Casey doesn’t remember anything except regaining consciousness as he lay on the ground, surrounded by trainers and worried teammates.

“It was pretty scary,” Casey said. “The whole thing of being knocked out, not really remembering those few seconds, just the pain I felt in my head for days afterward. It was more of a life issue than a baseball issue. Thoughts of my family and things like that went through my head.”

Casey was taken to a hospital in Philadelphia. He had a concussion that left him with a headache that lasted a few days and caused him to miss four starts.

In his first five games back, he hit .318 and drove in four runs. He had two hits, including an RBI single, in a 4-3 victory over Colorado in a game that ended at 11:45 p.m. CDT.

“No more headaches or anything,” Casey said. “No more pain in my head.”

The beaning was the second time in his career that Casey, 27, has sustained a major head injury. Two games into the 1998 season, he was hit in the right eye by a thrown ball during batting practice. He needed 20 stitches to close cuts around the eye and surgery to fix broken bones.

He was unmarried when he hurt his eye, and came through that ordeal with his usual enthusiasm. Casey now has a wife and a 6-month-old son, and they were in his thoughts after he got hit in Philadelphia.

“It changes your perspective a lot,” he said. “I don’t know what I’d do if anything happened to me or my wife, having to raise a son. You don’t think about that and when like that something happens, it’s pretty scary. It makes you think a bit.”

Some batters find themselves flinching when they get back into the batter’s box for the first time after a beaning. Casey had no problems.

“Not really,” he said. “It’s one of those things where I’ve got to get back in there and do it. It’s my job, and I get paid to do that. I can’t be afraid to step in the box.”

Casey has had only one other concussion.

“I was in the fourth grade,” he said. “I stood on a kick ball, put two feet on it, and that was it. I don’t remember it. I’d rather like to avoid those at all costs.”

Just as he did when he hurt his eye, Casey has come through the latest injury by putting things in perspective.

“You go through things sometimes that aren’t great, but you get through them,” he said. “Everything turned out all right. There are a lot of people a lot worse off. I was definitely scared, but when you think about what’s going on in the world today, my problem’s not even on the radar screen.”