milky_way
09-13-2002, 10:23 PM
http://www.newsday.com/sports/baseball/yankees/ny-mark132922707sep13.column?coll=ny%2Dyankees%2Dhead lines
September 13, 2002
Robin Ventura has been around long enough to know that you can't play third base if you're looking over your shoulder. If the Yankees wanted him to just keep the seat warm for a year, fine. If he was just a stopgap until Drew Henson was ready to take his spot, that was OK with Ventura.
That is how he has been able to stay on such an even keel. It is how he has been able to make the position look as comfortable as an old favorite easy chair. It is how he makes it just about impossible to imagine Henson unseating Ventura next season.
Ventura has a way of making everyone around him feel relaxed and confident. He does that by taking jabs at himself: A new teammate once watched him hit a rope down the line in batting practice and said, "That's a triple!" Ventura replied, "Obviously, you've never seen me run."
He does it by coming up with just the right non sequitur during a conference on the mound, when the manager's tense mind "is a thousand miles away," Joe Torre said. He does it by making the plays at third, and by approaching 30 homers and 100 RBIs.
Mostly he does it by sharing the benefits of his 13 big-league seasons with everyone, including the player who is being groomed to take his job.
"I had heard he was a good guy before I met him, but he has actually gone out of his way just to talk to me," said Henson, 22, who was promoted from Columbus on Sept. 3, just to soak up the atmosphere. "He's been more than helpful, helping me get used to everything around here."
Henson isn't presumptuous enough to ask a lot of questions, and they don't get too deep into strategy or philosophy. They talk about infielders' gloves or anything else that has to do with playing in the big leagues. It is just Ventura's way of saying welcome to the club.
"You hear stories of a guy getting called up and the guy who is in front of him at his position gets a bad deal. I don't look at it that way," Ventura, 35, said. "It's his first time here, and he should enjoy it. He shouldn't have to sit there and be careful of the things he says around me, or tiptoe around. He should be able to enjoy the experience of being here.
"If things go properly, he'll be playing third base. That's just the fact. The game is always that way. I don't have any animosity toward him just because he's playing third base and he's younger. That's not the way I was taught in baseball."
There are 17 million reasons why Henson will take Ventura's job someday. The club lured the quarterback away from football - with the gaudy likelihood of being chosen No. 1 overall in the NFL draft, and the heady possibility of being a Super Bowl hero like his Michigan buddy Tom Brady - by signing him to a six-year, $17-million deal.
Yet Henson batted only .240 at Triple A, with 18 homers and 65 RBIs in 128 games. He committed 35 errors. In other words, he isn't ready. That puts the Yankees in a tricky spot. They clearly need Ventura for another year, but his 2002 season might earn him a multi-year offer from some other club. He will see what happens this winter.
For now, he is giving exactly the kind of lessons Henson needs. Torre said Henson must ratchet down the intensity level. "You can't be up here all the time in this game," the manager said, holding his hand two feet above his head.
Henson agreed, saying, "You can get emotionally charged in football, and still play focused. Here, you almost have to limit your emotions to being as little as possible. You want to know the situation, you just don't want to get caught up in it."
No one is better at staying level-headed than Ventura. Even his ejections seem calm.
"I didn't say any bad words," he said, referring to the boot he received from umpire Angel Hernandez after a third-strike call Wednesday night. "I could repeat them all to my children."
It just showed how much emotion is percolating under Ventura's serene exterior, which is more of a tribute to his serene exterior. We can't forget the way he snapped a two-year slump last fall, between visits to victims' families after Sept. 11. At the time, Mets manager Bobby Valentine said, "Robin has got a big heart, and his heart is open right now."
That's a heart shaped by being a rookie on the White Sox when veterans Harold Baines and Carlton Fisk were there. "Not that they were the guys directly in front of me, but they were just good guys," Ventura said.
A good-guy veteran helps the new guy, even though they all know the inevitable. "When you get to a certain point," Ventura said, "they want younger players."
With their third basemen, though, the Yankees haven't reached that point.
September 13, 2002
Robin Ventura has been around long enough to know that you can't play third base if you're looking over your shoulder. If the Yankees wanted him to just keep the seat warm for a year, fine. If he was just a stopgap until Drew Henson was ready to take his spot, that was OK with Ventura.
That is how he has been able to stay on such an even keel. It is how he has been able to make the position look as comfortable as an old favorite easy chair. It is how he makes it just about impossible to imagine Henson unseating Ventura next season.
Ventura has a way of making everyone around him feel relaxed and confident. He does that by taking jabs at himself: A new teammate once watched him hit a rope down the line in batting practice and said, "That's a triple!" Ventura replied, "Obviously, you've never seen me run."
He does it by coming up with just the right non sequitur during a conference on the mound, when the manager's tense mind "is a thousand miles away," Joe Torre said. He does it by making the plays at third, and by approaching 30 homers and 100 RBIs.
Mostly he does it by sharing the benefits of his 13 big-league seasons with everyone, including the player who is being groomed to take his job.
"I had heard he was a good guy before I met him, but he has actually gone out of his way just to talk to me," said Henson, 22, who was promoted from Columbus on Sept. 3, just to soak up the atmosphere. "He's been more than helpful, helping me get used to everything around here."
Henson isn't presumptuous enough to ask a lot of questions, and they don't get too deep into strategy or philosophy. They talk about infielders' gloves or anything else that has to do with playing in the big leagues. It is just Ventura's way of saying welcome to the club.
"You hear stories of a guy getting called up and the guy who is in front of him at his position gets a bad deal. I don't look at it that way," Ventura, 35, said. "It's his first time here, and he should enjoy it. He shouldn't have to sit there and be careful of the things he says around me, or tiptoe around. He should be able to enjoy the experience of being here.
"If things go properly, he'll be playing third base. That's just the fact. The game is always that way. I don't have any animosity toward him just because he's playing third base and he's younger. That's not the way I was taught in baseball."
There are 17 million reasons why Henson will take Ventura's job someday. The club lured the quarterback away from football - with the gaudy likelihood of being chosen No. 1 overall in the NFL draft, and the heady possibility of being a Super Bowl hero like his Michigan buddy Tom Brady - by signing him to a six-year, $17-million deal.
Yet Henson batted only .240 at Triple A, with 18 homers and 65 RBIs in 128 games. He committed 35 errors. In other words, he isn't ready. That puts the Yankees in a tricky spot. They clearly need Ventura for another year, but his 2002 season might earn him a multi-year offer from some other club. He will see what happens this winter.
For now, he is giving exactly the kind of lessons Henson needs. Torre said Henson must ratchet down the intensity level. "You can't be up here all the time in this game," the manager said, holding his hand two feet above his head.
Henson agreed, saying, "You can get emotionally charged in football, and still play focused. Here, you almost have to limit your emotions to being as little as possible. You want to know the situation, you just don't want to get caught up in it."
No one is better at staying level-headed than Ventura. Even his ejections seem calm.
"I didn't say any bad words," he said, referring to the boot he received from umpire Angel Hernandez after a third-strike call Wednesday night. "I could repeat them all to my children."
It just showed how much emotion is percolating under Ventura's serene exterior, which is more of a tribute to his serene exterior. We can't forget the way he snapped a two-year slump last fall, between visits to victims' families after Sept. 11. At the time, Mets manager Bobby Valentine said, "Robin has got a big heart, and his heart is open right now."
That's a heart shaped by being a rookie on the White Sox when veterans Harold Baines and Carlton Fisk were there. "Not that they were the guys directly in front of me, but they were just good guys," Ventura said.
A good-guy veteran helps the new guy, even though they all know the inevitable. "When you get to a certain point," Ventura said, "they want younger players."
With their third basemen, though, the Yankees haven't reached that point.