JUPITER, Fla. -- There have been more pleasant things to do the last two years than get a few quality minutes with Mark McGwire. Things like painting houses, rotating tires and receiving minor dental procedures.
McGwire was great when the TV cameras came on, using his rare combination of street smarts and intelligence to almost always say just the right thing. But for those who had to cover his home run exploits on a daily basis, getting him to say anything was a daily ordeal. He had his priorities, you had yours and it was a rare day when those elements meshed.
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Fun stuff
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Dept. of boo-boos
When you play for the cursed Anaheim Angels, it's not enough safe to go to sleep. Mo Vaughn, who was at full strength in '99 after tumbling into a dugout on Opening Day, was scratched from a game last Wednesday because of a corneal abrasion in his left eye. He has been in a barfight or two in his time but allegedly suffered this injury when a piece of ceiling tile feel on him as he slept at his aunt's house.
As omens go, this is not good. "We're meeting that curse head-on," Angels manager Mike Scioscia said. "A little drywall isn't going to stop us."
He said it
"Believe me, it's a two-person project with twins. Good thing I don't play for the Sixers." -- Twins utilityman Denny Hocking, whose sleep has been interrupted this spring by 10-week-old twin girls.
Fun with factoids
The Twins have three players signed beyond 2000: Eddie Guardado, Bob Wells and Hocking.
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We don't bring this up in search of sympathy. The point is just this: What happened to the old McGwire?
With most of the national interest focused on Ken Griffey Jr., McGwire has been a pleasure for all who have crossed his path this spring at the Cardinals camp. That includes many of the same reporters he disdained on practically a daily basis each of the last two Septembers.
"I just use common sense," McGwire said about his relative willingness to share his thoughts. "There were days I didn't feel like talking, and I didn't talk. It's not because I'm in a bad mood or something's wrong. I just didn't feel like talking. I'm not the Shell Answer Man every day."
Maybe not, but McGwire has been this spring. He almost seems to miss the attention that has drifted to Griffey after Junior signed a below-market contract to return to his childhood roots with Cincinnati.
"He will have to deal with a lot of things he's not used to," McGwire said of Griffey. "It took me off guard, and I don't think he has experienced it. ... People say Cincinnati's a small-market town. Well, St. Louis wasn't supposed to be a big media town, either."
McGwire says the relative quiet of this year's spring training is "the way it should be." Instead of getting beseiged with questions about chasing or breaking Roger Maris' home run record, he is being asked to talk about his foundation and the documentary it is making on child abuse.
But it is not just the lack of home run hysteria that is putting a little extra spring into the red-headed slugger's stride this spring. He feels like his Cardinals have a legitimate shot at knocking off Houston in the National League Central. His appetite for a return to the postseason is bigger than any craving for a third straight season of 60 homers.
"I haven't been there since '92," McGwire said. "That's a long, long time. Think about it. The last few years, all anybody has seemed to care about is whether I hit home runs. That's not what baseball is about. It's not how I was brought up. Baseball is a team game, and the only way to enjoy it is when your team wins."
McGwire is 36. He had barely turned 27 when he went to his third World Series with the A's in 1990. He's hit 302 home runs (including 159 in 359 games with the Cardinals) and cemented his Hall of Fame credentials since then. But he feels a hollowness to his personal success, in part because of his role with Oakland's powerhouse of the late '80s and early '90s.
In McGwire's second season, Oakland lost to Los Angeles in the 1988 World Series. The A's beat San Francisco in '89 and lost to Cincinnati in '90.
McGwire remembers moments from those games a lot better than most of the home runs he hit en route to his record-setting 70 two years ago. Ditto most of the 65 he hit during his equally stunning encore last season.
"If you are concerned with winning and your team is losing, is out of the race, sometimes it is dreadful to come to games," McGwire said. "I just laughed when people said it was easier to hit home runs because we were out of it. If you're 20 games back coming to the ballpark in August, it's 120 (degrees) out, you know you're out of the playoff picture ... believe me, it's not easy to get up for those ballgames."
McGwire has played on only one winning team in the last seven years, and that was with an also-ran St. Louis team that entered September seven games under .500 in '98. He was thrilled over the winter when GM Walt Jocketty added veteran pitchers Pat Hentgen, Darryl Kile, Andy Benes and Dave Veres along with leadoff man Fernando Vina. Rookie of the Year candidate Rick Ankiel blanked Baltimore in his first spring outing. There's talk that Jocketty is among the group of GMs talking daily with Anaheim's Bill Stoneman about Jim Edmonds.
"Walt did a great job of making trades, signing the free agents that were out there," McGwire said. "Pat Hentgen's a Cy Young winner. A change of scenery is going to do great things for Darryl Kile. I've always liked Veres. It's great. Just the other day I told Tony (La Russa) it's almost too many (pitchers). We're going to have so many decisions to make."
La Russa shares McGwire's excitement.
"At this time last year, we already knew we had problems to deal with and it was questionable whether we had the solutions," La Russa said. "This year I can't say there's anything we can't surmount. The worst we should be is a pretty good club. We might be real good."
There's nothing McGwire would rather talk about than his team getting back in contention. He wants to be part of an entertaining plot, not just a human exclamation point.
Spotlight: Roger Clemens
While Yankee fans have had little to cheer this spring, the health of Roger Clemens may prove much more significant than the team's sputtering start in spring training. Leg injuries, especially a hamstring pull suffered in April, contributed to his ERA climbing from 2.65 to 4.60 last year.
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| 1999 SEASON STATISTICS |
| GS |
W-L |
IP |
H |
K |
ERA |
| 30 |
14-10 | 187.2 |
185 | 163 |
4.60 | |
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He has been whistling fastballs this spring, already hitting 95 on some guns. He says that was his best in '99. "Right now I couldn't be more blessed," Clemens said.
Because the Yankees have yet to deliver on the much-rumored renegotiation of his contract, Clemens is eligible to become a free agent after this season. He is 53 wins short of 300, and is feeling good enough at age 37 to believe he's got a shot at that plateau.
Spring surprise
There were few headlines in New York when the Mets acquired journeyman outfielder Jon Nunnally from Boston for Jermaine Allensworth last November. Yet Nunnally has been among the early sensations in Florida, hitting four home runs in a three-day stretch last week. He might be able to help as a fourth outfielder and left-handed pinch-hitter.
"You look at his numbers in Triple-A," GM Steve Phillips said, referring most recently to 23 homers and 26 stolen bases in Pawtucket. "He had power and he walked a lot and he's got arm strength. You wonder why he hasn't stuck on a team."
Nunnally, 28, believes he is blooming late because of chronic problems with his feet. He had the sesamoid bones removed from his feet in 1997 and '98. "It's not something you need," he said. "You'd feel it crack and then pop it back in. I kept doing it for five years." Ouch.
Magical mystery tour
If Mike Morgan succeeds in landing a spot as a long reliever with Arizona, the Diamondbacks will become the 12th team of his career. He's already the only big leaguer to ever play for 11, using a '99 stop with Texas to break a mark he shared with Ken Brett, Tommy Davis and Bob Miller. "The Mo Man's career is not over yet," proclaims the 40-year-old Morgan.
Morgan might have a little advantage over his competition. GM Joe Garagiola Jr. was once his agent. Senior vice president Roland Hemond traded for him 12 years ago. Manager Buck Showalter was his teammate at Double-A Nashville in 19 years ago.
Careless whispers
Houston's fast start has eased concerns about the psychological shock value of losing Mike Hampton, Carl Everett, Derek Bell and Ricky Gutierrez . ... The Rangers were caught off guard by the INS ruling that has left former Cuban national team second baseman Jorge "The Spider" Diaz stuck in the Dominican Republic. Texas was considering Diaz as a possible Opening Day alternative. The Rangers are currently using a Frank Catalanotto-Luis Alicea platoon at the position. ... The Cardinals are in the middle of the Jim Edmonds derby. They had hoped to have Eric Davis back from shoulder surgery by Opening Day but it now appears he'll start the season on the DL. Anaheim wants Rick Ankiel, which isn't going to happen. ... The struggles of lefty Ed Yarnall, who gave up 10 runs in an inning on Sunday, make it unlikely the Yankees will deal Ramiro Mendoza to the Angels or anyone else. ... Manny Ramirez and agent Jeff Moorad practically laughed out loud when Indians GM John Hart asked them to consider a Ken Griffey-style hometown discount. Ramirez is a free agent after this season. ... Willie Greene's unproductive spring training has the Cubs giving strong consideration to 31-year-old Alan Zinter, who is returning from Japan. Zinter has hit 167 homers in the minors but never played a day in the big leagues.
Phil Rogers is the national baseball writer for the Chicago Tribune, which has a website at www.chicagotribune.com. | |
ALSO SEE
Previous Rights (and Wrongs) of Spring
ESPN.com's spring training 2000 coverage
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