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Body language
Raines, Guerrero are ready to make a statement
Posted: Friday February 23, 2001 12:18 PM
Throughout spring training, CNNSI.com will feature regular dispatches from
Sports Illustrated staffers assigned to scout camps in the Grapefruit and Cactus
leagues.
By Jeff Pearlman, Sports Illustrated
TEAM: Montreal
Expos
SITE: Jupiter,
Fla.
WEATHER: A nip on the hot side, minimal wind. No
snow.
PLAYER I SAW WHOM I REALLY LIKED AND WHY: Tim Raines. All signs
point to Rock making the Expos' Opening Day roster, and not as some
grandfatherly former stud who will only get 56 at-bats all season. Manager
Felipe Alou envisions the 41-year-old Raines as a playa, maybe even as a
platooning left fielder. Raines' body is sleek and chiseled, hardly that of a
geriatric poster child. He'll be a great leader for this peach-fuzzed team. Best
of all, Raines is unabashedly confident. "With 450 at-bats," the
wunderkind told me, "I could steal 40-50 bases." Who's to
argue?
AROUND THE HORN:
Vladimir Guerrero worked out for the first time, taking some
cuts on a side field, then easily shagging flies next to Jose Vidro and
Fernando Tatis, the team's new third baseman. Near the end of practice,
Vlad met with the Montreal media. It's funny to watch Guerrero interact with the
press. He refuses to speak English, says he doesn't know the language. Yet when
questions were tossed his way, via interpreter/teammate Fernando
Seguignol, Vlad clearly -- without question -- understood. It's sort of a
game he plays with the press. Not malicious. Cat and mouse, more or less.
Guerrero reported to camp in great shape, but with one stark physical
difference. After the questions were done, a reporter asked the right fielder to
remove his cap. He did, revealing a head full of freshly cropped dreads.
Everyone laughed, and Guerrero -- through Seguignol -- joked that he received
the cut to scare the press. "I call him Coolio, " said
Seguignol. "That's who he looks like." Minutes later, with nobody
around (except me -- hee hee) a couple of TV reporters whispered to Seguignol,
"Uh, who's
Coolio?"
Justin Wayne, the Expos' top pitching prospect and a No. 1
pick from Stanford in last year's June draft, sat alone by his locker early
Friday morning, excited but a bit overwhelmed by his first big-league camp.
"It's odd how people are so hard on the Expos," he said. "It's a
great place to develop. Everyone says I'm in the right organization." We'll
see what Wayne says five or six years from now, when he's a free-agent 20-game
winner.
At day's end, I enjoyed an exciting personal moment. Three weeks
after returning from a vacation to Nicaragua (where English is never heard), I
conducted an interview with Guerrero -- in Spanish. He even seemed to recognize
some of the mangled words I uttered. Understanding his rapid-fire answers proved
a bit more complicated. Asked whether his throwing arm is the best in baseball,
I believe Guerrero responded either, "Maybe one of the best" or
" Richard Hatch is a purple buffoon." Hmmm
...
Sports Illustrated senior writer Jeff Pearlman will check in periodically
with reports from his tour of spring camps.
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