Renteria Deftly Handles This Squeeze Play
By Gordon Edes
The Boston Globe
May 29, 2005
NEW YORK - He's too polite to say I told you so, even after
three hits,
including a grand slam, and five RBIs in the 17-1 hurting the Red Sox
put on the
Yankees yesterday afternoon. And he's too private to volunteer all the
reasons
it was such an absurd notion to begin with, this idea that Edgar
Renteria couldn
't handle the pressure of playing baseball for the Red Sox in Boston.
Renteria was content to let his critics make their snap judgments
and expose
their ignorance, not only of the player but of the man.
Pressure? He survived the barrios of Barranquilla,
Colombia, when his
father, Francisco, died of high blood pressure when Edgar was a year
old, and
his mother, Visitacion Herazo Renteria, went to work as a street vendor
to
support him and his seven brothers and sisters, who slept four to a
room.
Pressure? He showed up at the first minicamp in the history of
the Florida
Marlins, at the Bucky Dent Baseball School in Delray Beach, Fla., when
he was
all of 15 years old in 1992, a forged birth certificate claiming he was
16 so
the Marlins could legally sign him. Tony Taylor, the former Phillies
infielder
who was an instructor at the camp, recalled that Renteria was "very
intimidated,
but he knew how good he could be."
He was so skinny then, having subsisted on a diet of rice and
beans, one of
his teammates said, "The first time I saw Edgar, I thought I was
looking at
Buckwheat."
Pressure? How about being the youngest player in the major
leagues when the
Marlins promoted him in 1996 at 19, a year younger than Alex Rodriguez,
and his
promotion was front-page news in three newspapers back home in
Colombia? At the
time, Rey Ordonez, the Cuban defector with a wizard's glove who signed
with the
Mets, was supposed to be the next great shortstop, but Al Avila, then
the
Marlins' director of Latin American operations, was prescient when he
said,
"Forget about Ordonez. As a shortstop, Renteria's second to nobody."
Pressure? How about driving in the winning run in Game 7 to win
the first
World Series ever for the expansion Marlins in 1997, and playing at a
high level
for the Marlins and Cardinals every year thereafter?
Excuse Renteria for not laughing out loud when his slow start
with the Sox
was construed as an inability to cope with the "pressure."
"I don't know what they've been saying," Renteria said, when
asked if he
found it all somewhat silly, not to mention insulting. "I don't know
what they
've said, if they were good things or bad things. Players have pressure
on them
every day."
Renteria began the week batting .239. By the time Yankees
pitchers got
through with a routine straight out of "Animal House" "Thank you, sir,
may I
have another?" his batting average had climbed to .281, a gain of 42
points.
Renteria was 6 for 12 in three games in Toronto, 6 for 7, plus a
sacrifice bunt,
in the first two games here. His line for the week: 5 games, .632
batting
average, 12 hits in 19 at-bats, 4 runs, 5 RBIs, a double, a triple, and
yesterday's grand slam to the opposite field off Paul Quantrill.
A week ago, Kevin Millar publicly implored people to lay off
Renteria.
Yesterday, Millar, who has his own critics to deal with and the
presence of
another veteran first baseman, John Olerud, who had three hits
yesterday in his
Sox debut while Millar sat said he had gone to Renteria with some
private words
of encouragement as well.
"I just let him know, 'Be yourself,' " said Millar, who played
with Renteria
in Florida. " 'We in this clubhouse don't give a [expletive] what you
do in the
first seven weeks, you're Edgar Renteria. You have nothing to prove to
anybody.
You have a World Series ring, and a $40 million contract, you're one of
the best
shortstops in the game. Be yourself. Have fun.' "
Sox manager Terry Francona said one of the things that makes this
team
special is the way players "take care of each other" when they're
struggling.
"He's really a good player," Francona said. "He's getting to
where he's
supposed to be. I've been saying that since the second week, and now
it's
happened."
Francona said he thinks it helped Renteria to face three lefties
on this
trip, and another plus was playing indoors in Toronto and in warmer
climes here
after a miserable spring weatherwise.
"He's struggled," Francona said. "That has been well-detailed. I
think he's
handled himself great. Put yourself in his shoes a little bit. When the
fans are
on you a little bit, you don't want to go out there and do cartwheels
and act
silly."
Renteria knew where his support was, Millar said.
"Give up on Edgar? What, are you kidding me?" Millar said. "Who
gave up on
the Yankees when they were 11-19? The season is 162 games, 500 to 600
at-bats.
But when you're going through hard times, that's when you know who's on
your
side. It's easy to be there during the good times, but you find out
who's got
your back during the bad times. And those same people who were down on
you, they
're the first ones to jump back on your back when you start going
well."
Renteria may not let on, but he knows what is being said. There
may be
frustration, and even a little anger, behind the smile, but he's not
going to
show it.
"That's me," he said. "I can't change myself. I try to play the
game every
day. But I'm the same guy. A shy guy."
Who knows a little about pressure.
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