|
|
|
|
|
|
Vina Is "The Key" To Cardinals; Willingness To Put Team First Earns Him Respect
Mike Eisenbath of the Post-Dispatch
April 11, 2001
The Cardinals can pitch. The Cardinals can slug. The Cardinals have as much star quality as almost any team in baseball.
So where does smallish second baseman Fernando Vina, seemingly easy to overlook, fit into that landscape?
"He's the key for the team," shortstop Edgar Renteria said.
That seems rather far-fetched, or at least overstated. Vina never has hit more than seven homers or driven in as many as 50 runs in a season. He played in one All-Star Game, in 1998, but he wouldn't exactly inspire the long lines from autograph hounds on a national stage that many of his teammates would.
If not for Vina's high, bright-red socks; his friendly, hand-shaking personality; and his energetic, bouncy style, he might blend into the scenery.
But it's that style that makes him stand out. That's what makes him the club's leadoff man, spunky enough to get on base however possible. That's what makes him a steady, often flashy second baseman, proud enough to feel a burning desire to be recognized as the best at his position.
That's what makes him so important to the Cardinals. And make no mistake about it, feeling important to the Cardinals is important to Vina.
"That's kind of my style," Vina said. "Slide hard into second. Dive to make a play. That type of spark, people feed off that. A team needs that. You need to know your role and your style, how you fit into a club and different situations. I have to get things rolling."
In the Cardinals' first three games, Vina made 13 plate appearances and reached base only twice, on a hit by pitch and a single. He didn't score a run. The team lost all three games.
In their past four games, he has gone to the plate 20 times and gotten on base 11 times, with nine hits and two more times hit by a pitch. He scored three runs and drove in five. The Cardinals won each of the four games.
Coincidence? He had a .380 on-base percentage, one of the best in baseball for a leadoff man, and scored 81 runs in 123 games last year. The Cardinals felt certain his work had plenty to do with their offensive success.
"That's how we got off to a good start last year," manager Tony La Russa said. "He's as good at that as anybody in baseball. He will not give up an at-bat. He battles every at-bat. So he really sparks you."
Renteria goes as far as calling Vina the "best leadoff man in baseball." There are others who run faster and steal more bases, such as Atlanta's Rafael Furcal and the Cubs' Eric Young. Others break the mold of the traditional leadoff man by hitting at least a dozen homers each year.
The Cardinals don't ask that of Vina. They want him to battle from the beginning, get on base, set an example of putting the team first. In 2000, Vina led off the game by reaching base in 40 percent of his starts.
"That's my job. Not being cocky, but I've learned how to do it pretty well," Vina said.
He has the bruises on his body as evidence of that desire - a major-league-leading 28 times hit by a pitch last season could be piddling compared with what he could produce this season. The club record is 31, and he could threaten it.
"To me, he's one of the best in baseball," teammate Placido Polanco said. "You see how hard he plays. Anything to get on base, he will do it."
Polanco batted first in the lineup several times last year when Vina was injured. The veteran leadoff man advised that if Polanco had to take a fastball off the back or hip or arm to reach first base, then so be it.
"I don't know if I could do that every game," Polanco confessed. "He's very special in all the things he does for the team."
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
|
| |
