The 'Other' National Hero
After bouncing back from a lingering injury, Edgar Renteria is showcasing the skills that have made him a national treasure in his native Colombia.
Everyone knows the Cardinals have a national hero on the roster.
Few fans are aware they actually have two.
Move over Mark McGwire, you've got company in the icon business. Whenever shortstop Edgar Renteria goes home to Colombia, he gets the same kind of suffocating superstar treatment that goes with being your country's most recognized baseball player.
"It's the same thing," Renteria says. "The people love me over there because I'm a good person. The kids follow me around wherever I go. Everybody wants my autograph; everybody wants to take pictures of me."
After the 1997 World Series, Renteria received Colombia's highest honor - the San Carlos Cross of the Order of the Great Knight - from President Ernesto Samper Pizano. He was named "Man of the Year" and "Sportsman of the Year" by El Espectador newspaper.
Renteria has become such a huge star in Colombia that he's had to move out, to Miami, to gain some privacy.
"It's quieter and I can work out every day and do whatever I want," Renteria says. "In Colombia, there are too many people following me. There's way too much going on."
Sounds just like McGwire, whose fame has made him a bit of a prisoner. But Renteria has kept a sense of humor through it all, knowing that he'll get a hero's welcome everytime he returns, like he did this past Christmas to his hometown of Barranquilla.
"Like Sammy Sosa says, 'Baseball has been very, very good to me,' " said Renteria, who is best remembered in the United States for his game-winning hit for the Florida Marlins in the 11th inning of Game Seven of the 1997 World Series.
At only 23, Renteria doesn't have anywhere near the career credentials of McGwire, who is closing in on 500 home runs and looking for his fourth straight season of 50 or more homers.
Renteria's claim to fame is his uniqueness: He's one of only three Colombians to play in the major leagues (brothers Orlando Cabrera of Montreal and Jolbert Cabrera of Cleveland are the others), and he's the only one to play in the World Series and in the All-Star Game.
"It was a big thing back home," says Renteria. "Nobody had ever done it before."
That's because most Colombian boys grow up playing soccer, which is nearly a religion in the country. Renteria played both sports, but soccer was his first love. Just like everybody else in his neighborhood, he dreamed of playing in the World Cup, not the World Series. And he thinks he might have been able to fulfill that dream.
"I'm pretty good," he says. "I was a scorer. Now I just play for fun."
The path of his destiny changed one day when his older brother, Edison, who was an infielder in the Astros' and Marlins' farm systems from 1985 through 1994, talked Renteria into playing baseball. It was a loose approximation of the sport, played with a rag ball in the street, but he discovered a new love.
It didn't take long for a Marlins scout to notice Renteria and sign him as a 16-year- old, nondrafted free agent in 1992. In 1996, before he'd turned 21, he was promoted to the big leagues to join a team that was about to make a huge jump.
Renteria was an inexpensive piece of the big-ticket team assembled by Marlins owner Wayne Huizenga, who'd amassed a fortune from his Blockbuster Videos empire. Huizenga spent $89 million on six free agents - including Alex Fernandez, Bobby Bonilla and Moises Alou - before the '97 season, instantly transforming the Marlins from a lowly expansion franchise into a power.
"You had to be in the right spot at the right time, and I was," Renteria said.
Of course, Huizenga then scattered almost all of them to the winds after securing his sacred World Series title. Renteria was one of the last to go, traded to the Cardinals last December for top prospects Braden Looper, Pablo Ozuna and Armando Almanza.
The price was high: Looper, the Cardinals' first-round draft pick in 1996, is a middle reliever with Florida, and Ozuna is considered a future star at shortstop.
"We were hoping that Ozuna would someday be Edgar Renteria," general manager Walt Jocketty says. "At that point, we decided we'd go ahead and make the deal. He was a guy we really cherished."
The Cardinals reasoned that while Ozuna had the potential to be a star, Renteria already is one, and that he could help put this team over the top by helping to solidify the middle infield. Manager Tony La Russa is just as effusive in his praise of the player who takes over the position that gets scrutinized by fans, who got spoiled by the acrobatics of Ozzie Smith for 15 seasons.
"He's very good defensively, and in talking to some of the Marlins, he gets good hits against good pitchers," La Russa says. "He really has a feel for the game. He's one of those guys who understand how this game is different from the next one, and some guys don't pay that much attention.
"That's the report, and that's kind of the impression you get when you play against him. So that's a lot of player for a young guy, and he can only get better and smarter."
The high expectations didn't seem to bother Renteria, who fills the void created when the Cardinals traded Royce Clayton to Texas last July.
"I know people are looking for something special from me," he says. "I'm hoping to show them."
The team had to be patient at first.
Renteria arrived at spring training in Jupiter, Fla., with a nagging knee injury from I last season, and he missed the entire exhibition schedule.
He was in the starting lineup on Opening Day, but at considerably less than his best. It wasn't until mid-May that Renteria, who stole 41 bases last year for the Marlins, felt comfortable running the bases and diving for balls in the hole.
"It's hard to play when you're not healthy," Renteria says. "I've never played like that before, never been hurt. The people don't even know I can steal a base."
Not long after Renteria proclaimed "My knee is perfect," he showed the Marlins what they were missing. On Memorial Day, in his first game at Miami against his former team, he enjoyed his second career two homer game.
"Every piece of his game is there," La Russa says. "He's a really good player with good instincts."
Teammates are just as generous in their praise of Renteria. Third baseman Fernando Tatis, 24, hopes he and Renteria can be longtime fixtures on the left side of the infield.
"It's great company," Tatis said. "He's a great, great player, and it's fun to watch him play."
By the time Renteria was at full strength, La Russa had long shelved his plan to bat Renteria in the leadoff spot as part of a grand, unrealized scenario that had rookie J.D. Drew hitting second ahead of McGwire. Drew was hampered much of the first few months by a quadriceps injury that allowed Renteria, who has batted second throughout his career, to stay there.
La Russa says he might try Renteria at leadoff again in the future, but Renteria would prefer not to.
"I think that's all gone because I don't like it," Renteria says. "If he wants to hit me first I'll do it, but I'm not that comfortable. I like hitting second because I know what do in that spot. I know I have to move the runner along, and I'm much more comfortable there."
He was happy to leave the Marlins' sinking ship, which now has one of baseball’s lowest payrolls to go along with one of the worst records. He's looking forward to another shot at being a postseason hero.
"We have a chance to get back there, because this is a good team," Renteria says. "We'll have to fight, but we'll be there someday."
Beyond that, he's appreciative of the knowledgeable Cardinals fans, who applaud when a batter advances the runner with a grounder to second, and the solid cast around him.
"Everybody is helping everybody, and I like that," Renteria says. "We have to be together to win, and if we are we can go a long way."
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