The 'off' season

At this time of the year, baseball gets a little weird

Somewhere in his journeys between pre-K and the house, my little boy has discovered the word "weird." That's not a good thing, especially in the hands of a 4-year-old.

He sees "weird" in how his Cheerios spin in his milk and how his LEGO robot rolls up into a ball. He thinks it's "weird" that his socks can go on either foot but his shoes can't.

While wrestling around the other day, I discovered that, evidently, I have a funny little whisker on the left side of my face.

"Weeeeird, dad," he says.

As I said, increased vocabulary is not necessarily a good thing.

I bring all this up because the word has its place. It occurs, in fact, when considering the first week of any Major League Baseball season. This one, especially.

You don't think it's a little strange that Barry Bonds has the best season in baseball history, then turns around in this one and acts as it the last six months of relative inactivity never happened? He hasn't seen real live pitching since October. He's a career .278 hitter in the month of April. And after two games, he's hitting .833 with four home runs and nine RBIs?

"Soon," his manager, Dusty Baker, said before Wednesday's game, "he'll be able to levitate."

Wouldn't surprise us at all.

You don't think it's a little goofy that David Wells actually looks good and that Pedro Martinez doesn't? It's the time of year, that's what it is.

The first week of any baseball season is made-to-order for abnormalities. The vacation's over, the weather stinks and nobody -- well, nobody but Bonds and, say, Randy Johnson -- is in a groove yet.

It's just a weird, weird time of year to be playing baseball. Yet, there's baseball to be played. Reputations to be made and upheld. The season waits for no one.

"The beginning and the end," Atlanta left fielder Chipper Jones said the other day, talking about the toughest times of the year to play. "And, in the end [portion], the adrenaline gets you through."

But, surely, there must be some adrenaline pumping at the beginning of the season, too, eh?

"Well," said Jones, after the Braves' second game of the season, "that was the other day."

Yes, by this time, midway through the first week, players are simply trying to find their level for the next six months or so. Not too high, not too low. With all the April strangeness, that's never easy.

A lot of it, of course, is the weather. The wind whips around, the temperatures drop like a split finger on steroids. That Louisville Slugger has the buzz of a live wire on a patch of wet grass -- when you can feel it at all.

Bonds is having no problem. But for every Bonds, for every Johnson, there are dozens of guys just looking for a little grip. They're reaching for that first cup of coffee, still rubbing the sleep out of their eyes.

Take Ryan Klesko, for instance, or Phil Nevin. Those players, both San Diego Padres, are trying to get used to new positions (as is the Braves' Jones, a transplanted third baseman). Outfielders all over the majors have slipped from left to right, from right to center. Everything's new to them.

Ballplayers hate newness. Unless it's in cars or $100 bills.

Rey Sanchez, a true shortstop, is back playing second base, this time for the Red Sox. Roberto Alomar is back in the National League, for the first time in more than a decade, with the Mets. Mo Vaughn, now with the Mets, is in the NL for the first time in his 10 years in the majors. Tino Martinez is in the NL, with the Cardinals, after 12 years in the American League.

They're all figuring out swirling winds and how the ball comes off the bat, how it rolls through the grass or just where the wall is. They're seeing how the ball hops on their new infield and how good their new first baseman is in digging the ball out of the dirt. They're still re-arranging their lockers and finding the best route to the ballpark.

Barry Bonds, for one, has it all handled. Nothing is new to him, even at this new point of the season.

As for everybody else? They'll just have to wait until May for things to get a little less weird.

John Donovan is a senior writer for CNNSI.com. The opinions expressed here are solely those of the writer.

Comments? To e-mail Donovan, click here.

 

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