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 Roger Will-Go The Mets' Roger Cedeño dashed to the fore while subbing for his hero
Posted: Tuesday May 25, 1999 02:58 PM By Jeff Pearlman
Rickey Henderson can't tell Roger Cedeño all his secrets. How to time a pitcher's move to first? Sure. Where to find a decent pastrami sandwich in Manhattan? No problem. The goods, however -- well, the goods simply come with years in the big leagues. Henderson, for example, has learned all the little moves and feints that can turn the calmest of pitchers into Jell-O; he knows how to make infielders adjust to him; he can read a catcher like a kindergarten primer. There's no way to simply hand that sort of knowledge to another player. "He's a quick learner," says Henderson of Cedeño, his fellow Mets outfielder and base stealer. "He'll figure it out." Maybe sooner rather than later. In 43 games with New York, through Sunday, Cedeño was batting .325 with 29 runs and 22 stolen bases, best in the National League.
More important for the Mets, the 24-year-old Cedeño has ably filled in for Henderson, who missed 22 games in April and May with hamstring and knee injuries. "When we acquired Roger, we knew he had a tremendous amount of talent," says Steve Phillips, the New York general manager who obtained Cedeño last fall as part of a three-way deal also involving the Dodgers and the Orioles, "but until a young player proves himself, talent doesn't get you much." Just dreams. As a boy in Valencia, Venezuela, Cedeño was a dreamer. He would catch as many U.S. major league games on TV as possible, paying special attention to a swagger-stepping leadoff hitter, a guy with the thick calves and dangling fingers, a guy with the headfirst slide, a guy in green and gold. Simply put, Cedeño worshiped Henderson, then in his heyday with the A's and on his way to the major league record for stolen bases, from his crouched stance to his snatch catch. "He was the Man in so many ways," says Cedeño, looking across the New York clubhouse, watching Henderson dealing cards. Cedeño speaks very softly, in bursts of broken English. He smiles a lot. He played his first game of baseball at age four -- the same year Henderson was a rookie. "When I was younger, I told my brother, 'I want to be just like Rickey Henderson.'" A big grin. "Here we are -- in the same place." Cedeño understands the improbability of it all. Three seasons back Los Angeles tagged Cedeño as a star of the future. Then he started striking out a lot. Confidence was lost. He took to sulking. "It's hard to do well when the team doesn't believe in you," he says, reflecting on last season's 240-at-bat, .242 fiasco. "I would go 0 for 4 with the Dodgers one day and 4 for 4 the next, and then be on the bench for three or four days. To me, that's not the right way to treat a person." By the time Phillips and the Mets came calling, L.A. was more than willing to include Cedeño as a throw-in in the Todd Hundley-Charles Johnson-Armando Benitez blockbuster. Thus far he's been the best of the bunch. "All I ever wanted was a chance," says Cedeño, who signed with the Dodgers as a 16-year-old. "I've always had confidence in myself, but now I can play regularly, contribute and show people I have the ability to win." He looks back toward Henderson, the card game. "Here, how can I complain?"
Issue date: May 31, 1999
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