Hi, Sierra

Ruban Sierra arrived for work recently in a garish multihued leather jacket with a playing-card motif, set off by a snappy black leather fedora with the brim curled up. He changed into his Seattle Mariners uniform, replete with custom-tailored pants whose elastic stirrups wrap around the bottoms of his spikes. Then he went out and, batting left-handed, smashed a home run to the opposite field on a pitch six inches off the outside corner by Anaheim Angels righthander Lou Pote. Sierra rounded the bases in a stutter-step boogie that no one short of Gregory Hines could duplicate. It was Sierra's 265th career homer, the sixth most in history by a switch-hitter, which sounds impressive until you learn that the man owns more pairs of shoes than big league dingers.

If it wasn't obvious last season, when Sierra was voted American League Comeback Player of the Year by his fellow major leaguers, it's now as impossible to miss as one of the tropical-fruit-colored suits he wears to the ballpark: After blowing through 14 teams, 10 major league organizations and six leagues in three countries—and that's only since 1995—Sierra is back in style.

At week's end the 36-year-old outfielder and designated hitter had the major leagues' highest batting average (.389) and had helped carry the Mariners to the best record in baseball (18-7). His 12-game hitting streak in April was the longest since he began his eight-year world tour.

"I don't hear about going to the Hall of Fame anymore, like when I was young," says Sierra, who in 1989 was runner-up for the American League MVP award after batting .306, socking 29 homers and driving in 119 runs for the Texas Rangers. "I would be hearing it if I'd known then what I know now. But I can't look back. Now I think I can put up Hall of Fame kinds of numbers. I think I'm better than I was back then because of my mind. I have the same ability, but now I also have the experience and knowledge."

Sierra is also an accomplished salsa singer, yet he has more releases from baseball (four) than he has in his CD catalog (three). How Ruben got his groove back is the story of someone who had made $38 million in the majors but still wanted so badly to keep playing baseball, even when baseball didn't want him, that he sought employment with the Canc�n Lobstermen and the Atlantic City Surf.

"Ruben's a great teammate and a real piece of work," says Seattle second baseman Bret Boone. "I've seen him wearing white belts and white shoes and all kinds of stuff. What's really impressive is that the guy was the man back in the '80s. And he really found out how humbling baseball is. For him to stick with it, riding the buses after he had been at the top, really tells you something about his passion for the game."

"Ruben's playing for the right reasons," says former Rangers general manager Doug Melvin, who brought Sierra back to the big leagues in 2000. "He loves being around the ballpark and playing baseball. I think that's what kept him going."

The paso fino horse is bred and prized for its unique gait. When the horse is at corto, or trotting speed, it moves its right legs forward nearly in unison, then its left legs. The result is the Rolls-Royce of equine rides, remarkably smooth. The rider isn't jostled in the saddle. This famous stepping pattern comes naturally to paso finos, who also are coveted for their beauty and sleek physiques. The best paso fino show horses have no exaggerated musculature.

Sierra knows what makes a great paso fino. He keeps and breeds between 50 and 60 of them—they can sell for $200,000 to $1 million each—on a ranch in Ocala, Fla. He shows paso finos at competitions in Florida, the Dominican Republic and his native Puerto Rico. How strange, then, that Sierra ruined his own career by exaggerating his musculature.

At the start Sierra was bound for stardom, and he knew it. As a teenager in the Rangers' system, he told teammates, "I'm going to be the greatest player in the history of this franchise." At 21 he became only the sixth player in history to hit 30 home runs and drive in 100 runs in a season before his 22nd birthday. At 23 he led the American League in RBIs, slugging, total bases and triples and barely lost the MVP vote to Milwaukee Brewers outfielder Robin Yount. Three years later, in 1992, he was the second-highest-paid player in the game, with a $5 million salary.