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Monday, June 11, 2007
If Andruw bolts, welcome Hunter ‘home’
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Terence Moore
Ideally, Andruw Jones stays with the Braves. Not only after this season as a free agent, but forever. Still, if he decides to bolt to the highest bidder with his mighty bat and magic glove, his replacement makes too much sense.
Torii Hunter.
“Me, playing in Atlanta?” said Hunter, with wide eyes, during a chat last week before a game involving his Minnesota Twins in Anaheim. He laughed, saying, “Kind of getting ahead of things with that thought, but if I could go to Atlanta, I’d be highly visible. People would get a chance to see my face as an African-American, and they definitely would get more of the African-American population coming to games.”
That’s African-Americans, Caucasians, Asians, Samoans, Martians.
Everybody loves Hunter. In fact, nobody in baseball is more engaging than this center fielder with six consecutive Gold Gloves in eight full seasons. Jones has nine straight in 10 seasons. And while the 30-year-old Jones is a more prolific slugger, the 31-year-old Hunter has a higher career batting average and swifter legs. If you add all of that to Hunter’s fan-friendly ways, he is a public relations dream for anybody.
He is also a pending free agent, and his Twins, who host the Braves in a three-game interleague series starting tonight, are suggesting they haven’t the funds to keep him.
So listen to this: If Hunter can’t stay with the Twins, he said he wouldn’t mind joining the team he idolized as a youth growing up in Pine Bluff, Ark. He was so much into it while watching TBS that he wore a Braves jersey on June 3, 1993, the day of the major league draft that year.
“I was sitting there thinking I was going to get picked by the Atlanta Braves,” said Hunter, nodding. “I was hoping I would get picked by the Atlanta Braves.”
The Twins got Hunter instead. Even so, the Braves still could make Hunter’s smile blind the sun even more than it does.
With no Jones, they could sign Hunter, but they likely won’t.
See, there is something else you should know about this guy: He owns an honest tongue, and he isn’t afraid to flap it. In other words, he’s a David Justice clone.
We’re talking about the same David Justice who was dealt by the Braves’ Designated Geniuses in his prime for having too much of a tutti-frutti personality in their preferred world of vanilla.
Just last week, when others blasted former Braves outfielder Gary Sheffield for saying many of his fellow African-American players were being replaced by Latin players for various reasons, Hunter agreed with Sheffield. Hunter also went further by saying baseball will lack African-American players within 10 years.
Somewhere, after hearing Hunter’s words, John Schuerholz was probably leading the Braves’ braintrust in a collective cringe.
We can hope, though.
“Atlanta has a big part of my past, because my granddaddy made me watch the Braves all the time, so I was kind of brainwashed with them,” said Hunter, chuckling. “I couldn’t go outside and play, because my granddaddy made me watch what the Braves were doing.
“Terry Pendleton in the eighth or ninth inning getting clutch base hits. I’ve got David Justice in my head hitting two home runs in a game a couple of times. Ron Gant, his power surges for a month at a time.”
What about Hunter becoming the next Andruw Jones? “I would love to, but, wow, he was there for so many years, and even if he leaves, he’s going to leave that mark in center field,” Hunter said. “It’s going to be like, ‘This was Andruw Jones territory.’ I’d have to come in and fill his void. I don’t know if I want to do that. I’ve got my own name. I’ve done my own thing, so it would be tough to go to Atlanta and play after what Andruw has done.”
Then Hunter thought, then thought some more, before saying, “Man, I’ve got so many friends from Pine Bluff in Atlanta, maybe 40 or 50. I also have a couple family members there and a couple of ex-teammates. I wouldn’t be a stranger. It would be right at home for me.”
So come on home.
You know, if the Braves’ honchos don’t lock the door.
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