With Hot Bat, Renteria No Longer Needs To Hide, But He Tries To Anyway
By Jack Curry
The New York Times
May 29, 2005
Edgar Renteria has wide brown eyes, a round face and a soft
voice, which
combine to make him look a lot younger and lot more innocent than he
really is.
Renteria often seems as if he is trying to find the easiest place to
hide on the
Boston Red Sox, the best cubbyhole until he can play baseball and then
vanish.
But there are no places to hide on the Red Sox, especially when
you are a
$40 million free-agent shortstop trying to become acclimated. Renteria
has
quickly seen the endless scrutiny, high expectations and year-round
passion that
surrounds a team that ended an 86-year drought with a World Series
title last
October.
It has not been easy being Renteria in Boston. He has been booed
at Fenway
Park, berated by sports talk-radio voices and given such enthusiastic
support by
the Red Sox that it almost seemed as if he were sick. Renteria could
not hide
from the attention because his performance was lackluster.
On a long, gray day at Yankee Stadium, there was a new reason
Renteria was
unable to hide. This time, he was too impressive. Renteria continued
with his
most striking play of the season by belting a grand slam and two
singles
yesterday in helping Boston massacre the Yankees, 17-1, to squash a
four-game
losing streak.
True to Renteria's penchant for anonymity, he walked toward the
clubhouse
exit a few minutes after the victory. Reporters had to cut Renteria off
before
he reached the door to quiz him about his day.
''That's me,'' said Renteria, about wanting to blend in. ''I
can't change
myself. I try to play the game hard every day. Outside the baseball, I
try to
keep being the same guy.''
The sputtering Red Sox had lost 8 of their last 11 games and
created the
obvious concerns throughout New England, but they spent nine innings
yesterday
hitting and laughing, hitting and lounging and hitting a little more.
If there
had been a 10th inning, the Red Sox surely would have kept hitting and
kept
laughing. It was that kind of day.
For Renteria, it was another step toward recovery. Renteria is
12 for 19 in
the last five games and has pushed his average up 42 points, to .281.
Slowly,
and as the Red Sox anticipated, Renteria is developing into a
stabilizing force.
His grand slam off Paul Quantrill in the fifth gave Boston a 9-0
cushion.
Manager Terry Francona said Renteria had been aided recently by
facing more
left-handed pitchers and by playing in warmer weather. Francona then
stopped
searching for specifics and simply recalled why the Red Sox signed
Renteria.
''What it is,'' Francona said, ''is he's a really good player,
and he's
getting to where he's supposed to be. I've been saying that since the
first or
second week. Now it's happening.''
When Red Sox fans treated the slumping Renteria as if he were
wearing an ''I
Love Jeter'' button on his uniform, David Ortiz was disappointed. He
said the
team's fans were too knowledgeable and too fervent to be so haphazard
in their
venting.
Renteria is not a 29-year-old journeyman. He is a .289 career
hitter who has
won two Gold Gloves and made four All-Star teams. He had the
game-winning hit as
the Florida Marlins won the 1997 World Series in seven games and played
in
another World Series with the St. Louis Cardinals last season.
''This is a franchise guy,'' Ortiz said yesterday.
A few seconds later, Ortiz sent a message to the fans in Boston.
The words
will undoubtedly reach those die-hards.
''You got to give the guy the chance to get used to it and start
turning
things around,'' Ortiz said. ''I mean, you're talking about a really
good
player. You're not talking about an average guy or 'we'll see.' I think
he
deserves an opportunity to show the fans he can play.''
Not surprisingly, Renteria dodged questions about the fans by
saying that he
did not pay attention to them. Renteria obviously had that line
rehearsed, and
he has clearly been advised not to challenge the fans.
''I concentrate on my game,'' he said. ''Sometimes you play
good. Sometimes
you play bad. Right now, I play good. It's better for everybody.''
Renteria opened the season here and played like an understudy as
he went 2
for 13 with one error in the first three games. With Derek Jeter
winning the
second game with a homer and playing nifty defense, Renteria's
struggles were
magnified. The knee-jerk assessment was that Renteria was overpriced
and
overhyped.
Now the reviews of Renteria's play are drastically different.
They are
starting to glow. Francona called Renteria intelligent and
conscientious and
said Renteria understood how much the Red Sox rely on him, even if he
might
never say that. His goal is to be a good player, not a glib player.
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