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Pudge
seems comfortable enough in his Marlins
uniform
By Gil Lebreton, Star-Telegram Staff
Writer
Tue,
Feb. 18, 2003
JUPITER, Fla. -
For 12 seasons he wore a uniform.
A Rangers uniform.
 It
was the uniform that he wore to 10
consecutive All-Star Games. The uniform
that he wore in the playoffs when
the Rangers won three division titles.
The uniform that
he wore in a life-sized mural that
once graced the wall of his Texas
home. The uniform that he wore in
the pose that's painted onto the side
of his speedboat.
The uniform that
he often got dirty. The uniform that
so many Rangers fans hoped Ivan "Pudge"
Rodriguez would wear for the rest
of his life.
It's not this uniform.
Not this black shirt. Not these pinstriped
pants.
Teal pinstripes.
Oh, good grief.
At 10:45 on a gray
South Florida morning, the door to
the Florida Marlins' spring training
clubhouse swung open, and there he
was.
Pudge Rodriguez.
Erstwhile free agent. Catcher. Future
Hall of Famer. Wearer of teal.
"It looks different,"
Rodriguez conceded, "but it's
still a major-league uniform."
(Rangers fans may
feel free to insert their Marlins
contraction wisecracks here).
It was the official
opening workout for the Marlins' pitchers
and catchers, but there was little
doubt who was the marquee attraction
here.
"I go over
to pitch, and I see this big crowd
of fans gathering, and I'm thinking,
'Heyyyy,'" said 23-year-old Tim
Spooneybarger.
"Then I look
up and see Pudge Rodriguez squatting
down. And I'm thinking, 'Whoa. Just
like on TV.'"
Not every Marlin
was as impressed as young Spooneybarger.
Down Interstate-95 at Pro Player Stadium,
pitcher A.J. Burnett was throwing
on his own, boycotting the workout
out of respect for his arbitration
hearing today. Burnett went 12-9 last
season, with a 3.30 earned-run average
and a major-league-leading five shutouts.
He and his agent
have asked for a 2003 salary of $3.075
million. The Marlins have countered
with $2.5 million, and Burnett is
miffed. Yearlong negotiations went
nowhere.
"They didn't
even try," Burnett told reporters.
When the club lavished
a one-year, heavily deferred, $10
million free-agent contract on the
best catcher in baseball, owner Jeffrey
Loria explained how he was able to
find some "special money"
to acquire Pudge.
"I guess 'special
money' is only for some people,"
Burnett promptly told the Palm Beach
Post.
Hmm. Maybe Burnett
will come around once he sees Rodriguez
in teal.
The Marlins faithful
-- all dozens of them -- already appear
to be hooked. A big crowd gathered
Monday as Rodriguez first warmed up
Spooneybarger, then franchise thoroughbreds
Brad Penny and Josh Beckett.
If he is angry that
fate led him to the Marlins, Pudge
won't say so. Again Monday, he refused
to burn a single bridge.
He talked about
the full-page ad that appeared in
this newspaper two months ago, where
he thanked the Rangers and the Texas
fans for "12 of the best years
of my life."
"It was something
I wanted to do," Rodriguez said.
"I'm pretty sure the owner, Mr.
[Tom] Hicks, and Mr. [John] Hart saw
it, but that's OK. I respect those
two gentlemen. They were very professional.
I respect all of my ex-teammates and
all of the coaches there.
"I can't say
anything bad about the organization,
starting from when I was in the minor
leagues all the way to the end. For
me, it was probably one of best organizations
in which I could have started in baseball."
But it was a rough
winter, Pudge admitted. When the bottom
fell out on baseball's free-agent
market, Rodriguez's agent, Jeff Moorad,
even rattled samurai swords about
taking his client to Japan.
"The winter
was very tough," Pudge said.
"I was sitting with my wife,
and we were wondering, 'Am I going
to have a job this year or not?'
"Free agency,
I learned, can be a tough thing. Sometimes
you're lucky, sometimes you're not.
Unfortunately, it happened that my
first time in free agency wasn't a
good one."
He blames no one,
he said. Not Hart, the Rangers' general
manager who slammed the door on him
by trading for Einar Diaz last December.
Nor does Pudge blame Alex Rodriguez,
whose top-heavy salary has to be considered
in any discussion of Rangers economics.
"I don't blame
Alex for that," Rodriguez said.
"I think if they had plans for
me, they would have signed Alex and
still signed me. They probably couldn't
afford another big-salary player on
the team. I just happened to be the
unlucky one and not able to come back."
His health is fine,
Rodriguez assured Monday. He thought
he proved that last season, when he
came back from a back injury and ended
up hitting .314.
"The thing
is, I'm the only one who can tell
you whether I feel good or not,"
Pudge said. "Nobody else can
tell me how I feel."
Florida manager
Jeff Torborg said that he wants Rodriguez
to take some regular days off.
"It'll be better
for him," Torborg said.
Beyond that, life
couldn't be happier, Ivan Rodriguez
said Monday. For most of this season,
he plans to make the hour's commute
from his home in Miami Beach, the
one with the 15 rooms and the two
boats. He wants to sail one of the
boats, a 70-foot yacht named after
his wife Maribel, and anchor in Palm
Beach harbor for part of spring training.
"The good thing
is that I'm going to be in my own
house the whole year," he said.
"My wife and children are going
to be there, and there's nothing better
than to live at home and play at home.
I'm going to be very relaxed, sleeping
in my own bed each night."
He's a Marlin now.
And the sight -- not just the thought
-- is going to take some getting used
to.
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Gil LeBreton, (817) 390-7760 sports@star-telegram.com
Posted on Tue, Feb. 18, 2003
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