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Trade Talk Puts Unfair Strain On Vina's Patience
Michael Bauman
March 25, 1999
Phoenix -- During a typical spring training, Fernando Vina would be the happiest, most upbeat, hardest-charging man in camp.
He would normally seem to be consumed by a well-matched pair of emotions: a love for baseball and his desire to prove that he belongs at the highest levels of the game.
This spring, Fernando Vina seems to be somebody else. If he is consumed by anything, it is uncertainty. And no wonder. The Milwaukee Brewers have spent five months trying to trade their second baseman, their leadoff hitter, their only 1998 All-Star Game representative.
He was going to New York. No, Toronto. No, Baltimore. No, Cleveland. No, Atlanta. Now, maybe St. Louis. Maybe not. The Brewers have shopped him all over the solar system. What's next? "Vina to Saturn for Two Rings?"
"This is just a joke now," Vina said Thursday at Maryvale Baseball Park. "It's gone on long enough.
"I always want to be happy and upbeat but so many things have gone on in my mind, and all winter, that it's kind of tough to feel comfortable. It kind of puts you in a sour situation. You can't walk around the clubhouse here like you want to, up and going, because you don't feel as comfortable as you should.
"Any human being would like to get settled in, know where you're going to work every day, be part of that group. It's tough to be in limbo, that's the bottom line. I don't care if you're working at McDonald's, you're a construction worker or you're a major-league baseball player. That's where I'm at."
The Brewers need pitching. Second base is a place where they have more than one capable player. Vina, coming off a breakthrough season, is one of the most tradable commodities on this team.
But he's not a commodity. He's a human being. People always say if you're involved in a trade, it means somebody wants you. However, it also means that the team you were with thinks it would be better off with somebody else.
And in this case, the trade is on and on and on, and then it doesn't happen. And then the same thing happens with the next non-trade. Vina was convinced that he was gone several times over the winter. Now, he's convinced that he's in limbo.
"This is what I didn't want to happen, to come to spring training and still be in limbo," Vina said. "This is something that has dragged on too long.
"It tries to mess with you a little bit. It frustrates you. If we're going to do this, let's do this. I think I've proven myself and have enough respect for myself and pride that, just give me a little respect and if I'm your guy, then commit to me."
After all that has happened, or hasn't happened, just staying with the Brewers day to day without a guarantee of any permanence doesn't seem like an ideal situation, either.
"I don't know if I could be super-comfortable," Vina said. "I'm just going to play and play hard, the way I know how to play. I have no other options. It's been a frustrating winter, and I don't think it's been fair."
Those of us who have seen the way Fernando Vina plays the game do not believe that trading him is the answer, unless the question is: How can the Brewers get worse?
If the latest would-be deal with the Cardinals goes through -- Vina for somebody like pitcher Manny Aybar -- the entire St. Louis front office could be arrested for grand theft.
On the other side of it, even while the uncertainty persists, Vina himself has to somehow put doubt aside and play the game the way he needs to play it.
That's easier said than done but, as he said, there really are no other options.
Milwaukee Journal Sentinel
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