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Monday, October 9, 2006
A peek into Andruw’s thoughts
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Cleaning out notepads from the last couple weeks of the season, I came across an interview I did with Andruw Jones in Colorado, on the last trip of the season. Thought I’d share some of it here that I didn’t use (and why I didn’t use it, I don’t know).
A couple things he said that were interesting and perhaps revealing. You decide.
I started by asking him about playing in Colorado, could he imagine playing all his home games there, considering his stunning stats at Coors Field (.351 average, 12 homers, 34 RBIs, 1.161 OPS in 39 games) and the vast outfield expanses where his defensive skills were always evident.
Andruw: “I’m not a cold-weather guy. I don’t even like spring training when it’s cold. When it’s cold, I need to be in the house. I don’t think about it [when I’m playing], but I hate it.”
(Cross a few cities off his list of possibilities should he leave the Braves).
I asked him about playing since the whole waivers stuff made headlines and about his contract status; he’s signed through 2007.
“I don’t think about it. I just let it be. Like I said, I’ve got one more year left. Maybe next year in the middle of the season, if they want to talk, we can work out a deal. I would love to stay in Atlanta. I like it here. I’ve got my house here, my family likes it here.”
On the Braves’ outlook after their first losing season since 1990:
“I think next year we’re going to have a good team again. We’ve got good guys here, and we know our [starting] rotation. We just have to build up the bullpen the right away, and we’ll be fine.”
On whether the possibility of Bobby Cox retiring and not being here for the length of a possible multi-year extension for Jones might affect the center fielder’s decision whether to re-up with the Braves:
“He will [be here],” Andruw said of Cox.
Even if you sign, say, a four-year extension?
“Yeah,” Jones said. “He’ll be here.”
(I found this interesting, since Chipper Jones a couple months back said he couldn’t imagine Bobby Cox retiring, and indicated he wouldn’t be surprised if the manager is still here a few years more).
I asked Andruw what Cox has meant to him and how much he influences his desire to remain a Brave.
“Great person, great manager,” he said. “Being on a competitive team is one thing. Playing at home [where you live full-time] is another thing. But especially playing for him, that’s the best thing.
“So many managers out there are great people. But he’s on a totally different level. He comes and talks to you when he needs to talk to you. He tells you what he wants or what’s on his mind. Some managers don’t do that.”
Considering how much wear and tear he’s put on his body, breaking in so young, playing virtually every day and banging into walls and making sliding catches, I asked him how much longer he thought he could play.
“I’m going to push for 10 more years,” he said (and I had to ask again to make sure I was hearing right.) “We’ll see what happens, but yeah, I’d like to have 10 more years and then I’m done.”
Would he consider playing DH in the American League to stick around a long time?
“If I had to, but I don’t want to,” he said. “I want to stay at one position my whole career. I like how Willie Mays did it. He played one position his whole career. That’s awesome.
“That’s what I want to do, finish as a center fielder, not a DH or first baseman. But we’ll see. It depends how long you can stay healthy.”
Going back to that 10-more-seasons goal, I asked him if that indicated how much he still enjoys playing baseball.
“It’s not a bad job, with the schedule and all,” he said, smiling.
Then he turned serious. “This game is what I do for a living.”
A few days later, back in Atlanta during the final homestand, I asked Andruw again about the waivers thing, when he found out through the media in early August that he’d been placed on waivers (along with many other marquee players in what amounted to a procedural move by the Braves).
I asked him if there was any lingering tension between him and John Schuerholz after Jones had said publicly that he should have at least been notified by someone in the front office and had the situation explained to him.
His answer, in full: “Me and Schuerholz talked already. When we got back from that roadtrip he told me, ‘I should have picked the phone up and called you and told you what’s going on or what’s not going on.’ I said I appreciate that. Only thing I said was, I wish someone had told me something, and he said, ‘I should have, because we have a good relationship and I should have picked up the phone and called you.’
“I said I don’t have a problem, and now I understand what was going on with the waiver thing. I said I don’t have any problem, I don’t want to get traded because of that or anything.
“I know he can’t tell me anything, but what he told me after we got back from that road trip is that if something happens, ‘I’ll call you and tell you what’s going on.’ So we’ll see. It’s a business, and sometimes GMs like to keep things secret from the players. I understand that part.”
OK, so that’s the rest of my Andruw stuff. Stay tuned in coming weeks for possible updates. I’ve heard nothing yet, but that’s to be expected since Braves are just now having organizational meetings and really getting into discussing next year’s team….
On an entirely unrelated matter, everyone’s following the ongoing saga of the Yankees/Torre/A-Rod, etc., and A-Rod’s horrible recent postseason results have been bandied about on ESPN and elsewhere.
What hasn’t been given is his earlier career performance to give it context and underscore just how far he’s slipped in the postseason. Rodriguez hit .363 (33-for-91) with 14 extra-base hits (six homers), 16 RBIs and a 1.062 OPS in the first 23 postseason games of his career.
In 12 postseason games since, beginning with Game 4 of the 2004 ALCS vs. Boston, he’s hit .091 (4-for-41) with one double, ZERO RBIs and a .424 OPS. He’s got twice as many errors (two) as extra-base hits in that span.
But I’m wondering why so few have pointed out Gary Sheffield’s equally absysmal postseason work in that same period (other than the fact that Sheff makes quite a bit less than A-Rod and doesn’t seem to rub people wrong in the same way).
Anyway, here’s what Sheff has done in exactly the same postseason stretch, beginning with Game 4 vs. Boston on Sept. 17, 2004: He’s hit .160 (8-for-50) with ZERO extra-base hits, three RBIs and a .396 OPS, including .236 on-base percentage….
One more thing, Braves fans:
It was on this day a year ago when Chris Burke’s18th-inning homer ended the longest postseason game in baseball history, Houston beating Atlanta 7-6, to advance into the NLCS. The Braves’ late five-run lead was erased by an eighth-inning grand slam by Lance Berkman and a two-out ninth inning solo homer by Brad Ausmus, just above the outstretched glove of Andruw Jones.
Ah, such wrenching memories for Braves Nation. Damn you, Kyle Farnsworth.
And now for something pleasant that came out of the Lone Star State:
“Nothin’”, by Townes Van Zandt (a great Texan)
Hey mama, when you leave/don’t leave a thing behind/I don’t want nothin’/I can’t use nothin’
Take care into the hall, and if you see my friends/tell them I’m fine/not using nothin’
Almost burned out my eyes/threw my ears down to the floor/I didn’t see nothin’/I didn’t hear nothin’
I stood there like a block of stone/knowin’ all I had to know/and nothin’ more/man, that’s nothin’
As brothers our troubles are/locked in each others arms/and you better pray/they never find you
Your back ain’t strong enough/for burdens doublefold/they’d crush you down/down into nothin’
Being born is going blind/and buying down a thousand times/to echoes strung/on pure temptation
Sorrow and solitude/these are the precious things/and the only words/that are worth rememberin’
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