Meet Edgar Renteria
Renteria a National Star, International Hero
By Derek Glanz
February 22, 2001
At 25 years old, Edgar Renteria is a five-year major-league veteran, World Series hero and, some say, the National League's answer to the American League's shortstop trinity.
He is also a national hero - in Colombia. Difficult to fathom stateside is the magnitude of a Renteria in Colombia or a Sammy Sosa in the Dominican Republic. While Renteria has never been seen as a potential savior to his country as Sosa was after Hurricane Georges in 1998, he is a prominent figure and celebrity in a nation whose international image is one of political corruption, drug trafficking, kidnapping and guerrilla warfare. There are few other role models in Colombia, a culturally and naturally rich country held hostage by paramilitary groups, parasites of the country's fertile soils and endless mazes of jungle in which to hide out. Since January 1998, to give you an idea, 34 elected Colombian mayors have been murdered. Paramilitaries blow up oil lines whenever they need cash.
So while at ballparks in America Renteria is a humble, abundantly talented shortstop with ice in his veins, he is also an athlete who bears great responsibility internationally. For, while in the U.S. we have our entertainment superstars like Mark McGwire and Denzell Washington, political big-shots like Bill Clinton and business superstars like Bill Gates - and we can choose to love, hate or not pay mind to them - a superstar in Colombia must be a hero, must be a superstar, must be a role model. One does not pick and choose heroes, but rather rejoices in the fact that one's country has an international star.
Derek Glanz: What were you up to this past offseason?
Edgar Renteria: Lifting weights. Running, getting in shape. Trying to lose weight and maintain my playing form for next season.
DG: What's your playing weight?
ER: Two-hundred pounds.
DG: Your height?
ER: Six-foot-two.
DG: What part of your game do you want to improve on this season?
ER: My defense.
I think I need to sharpen my defense a bit to help the team. This year we have practically the same team as last year and it's a strong team.
DG: On defense, what, more specifically, do you want to improve? You have good hands, is it going to your right, your left...?
ER: Well, really I need to improve my overall play - make fewer errors. On offense I'm working hard, every year improving, but I think [offense] comes on its own, I don't need to worry about that too much. I'm working on my defense now because that's what's troubling me - a lot of errors, and I don't want that.
DG: You've been working with Fernando Vina as your second baseman for a year now, before with Luis Castillo [in Miami]. Castillo can be a magician, what's Vina like?
ER: Both are very good, both play a good second base. I think that when you have a good second baseman, it makes your job easier, it makes it easier for me to do my job.
DG: How do you compare the two?
ER: Both have quick hands. Vina's are a bit quicker, and he's more experienced.
DG: Does Vina's experience rub off on you?
ER: Yes, he helps me out a lot. He doesn't let you fall asleep on the field. He's always in the game, always in tune with might happen, and that's really the most important thing he does for me.
DG: On the personal side, your life outside the ballpark, and outside this country. Colombian friends of mine say you are a "pride of their country," meanwhile Cuban [Cardinals outfielder] William Ortega tells me you are a "bella persona" (beautiful person). What can you say about your role here in this country as compared to the role you take for your home country?
ER: Well, different. You know that in Colombia there are many children who want me to be their role model. And I try to live up to that expectation to serve as an example for youngsters; and in the United States, too, but here there are already many role models, they have their own people that can serve as examples. That's what I am most conscientious about, is always doing the right thing, to try to triumph here in the United States so that they go on seeing that one can indeed triumph here in the United States.
DG: Your responsibility there, then, is quite large?
ER: Yes. I believe I have a responsibility and it is one that I have taken on, and what I want to see is that more athletes are produced from Colombia and to that end I try to carry that responsibility.
DG: It seems that over there are more role models in entertainment and sport - Juan Pablo Montoya, the most prominent - than there are politicians or professionals.
ER: Yes, Montoya also does great work. I think he's reaching great heights and carrying himself admirably. He carries himself as a Colombian athlete should. That's what we need, not just that one be a good athlete but that off the field of play, away from one's sport that he or she be a good person and help our youth.
DG: What do you do for the Colombian youth?
ER: I have a baseball school in Barranquilla. We tried to do the same thing throughout Colombia, but as you know, it's quite difficult. But hopefully in time we can do everything we're thinking about doing, which is to do this all around Colombia.
DG: Have you ever been with Shakira and Montoya in the same place at the same time?
ER: I actually have never met neither Montoya nor Shakira. I'd like to talk to them, share ideas. I think it would be a beautiful thing.
DG: Are you still in touch with Levy Ochoa, the scout who signed you?
ER: Yes, he moved to Florida recently. We keep in touch.
DG: How did you come to play baseball in a soccer-rabid country like Colombia?
ER: Barranquilla is a baseball town. I loved it from when I was a kid.
DG: And your family, did they play?
ER: Yes, yes. All my older brothers played. I'm the youngest child. And I think I just carried on what my brothers did. I always loved the sport.
DG: Were you always shortstop?
ER: When one is a kid, one plays everything. But shortstop was always my favorite.
DG: Have the Cardinals expressed to you a desire to look for ballplayers in Colombia?
ER: Yes. They have a scout there looking for Colombian players. I think there's still plenty of talent here that if they sign will be successful over here.
DG: Before St. Louis, you played in Miami, which is practically Latin America. Now you live in St. Louis, the epitome of American life. Have cultural changes affected you? Do you like American culture?
ER: Yeah, I like American culture. I've been here for nearly 10 years now. Wherever I play baseball I am at peace. I'll adapt to whatever culture. I think that's a peripheral facet of my life. I can live in any culture as long as I have work. I can adapt to any culture as long as there is baseball.
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