Features

Photo Credit: Kerry Brett

By Tony Massarotti

In the interest of full disclosure, you should know up front that Adrian Gonzalez regards Manny Ramirez as a role model, at least in some capacities. Thankfully, this isn’t likely to result in a single case of Adrian being Adrian, or of him disappearing into the left field wall as if it were a bathroom stall, or of him skipping out on games to meet friends at the Ritz-Carlton for tea and crumpets.

“No, not at all,” Gonzalez says during spring training when asked if baseball fans in Boston should expect him to lead a life chronicled in the tabloids. “They will not see me in any clubs or out after games. That’s not something I do, at home or on the road. I don’t do much. I basically spend time with my wife. If I had a day all to myself, I’d probably play golf or spend time at home, maybe watching movies. There’s not much other than baseball that’s exciting in our lives.”

But then, in Boston, the baseball is enough.

And it always has been.

The deification of Manny? That’s purely for his work in the batter’s box, where Gonzalez regards Ramirez, without hesitation, as the best hitter in the game. Expand that question to include retired players and Gonzalez would change his answer—“Barry Bonds,” he says—and yet, in the same breath, Gonzalez will go on to say how he studies video of Ramirez, how he tries to pattern himself after Ramirez while at the plate, how “anytime I teach baseball, I try to use him as an example.” For the Red Sox, the good news is that Ramirez ceases to serve as a role model for their new slugger the moment he steps away from home plate, be it to take his place in the field as a two-time Gold Glove Award winner at first base, in the clubhouse as a soft-spoken and gentlemanly teammate, or in the community as a devoted husband and citizen.

In fact, what the Red Sox seem to have here, as they embark on a new season and another era in their history, is a man who’ll counterbalance the maddening qualities Ramirez once represented, as he stands, calmly and imposingly, in the batter’s box at Fenway Park.

With Adrian Gonzalez, the Red Sox organization is moving forward with a different kind of slugger.

 The great myth, of course, is that Fenway Park is perfectly built for right-handed power hitters. It is not. Fenway has always been tailor-made for a skilled left-handed batter possessing at least some degree of power, which is more than just semantics. For baseball novices, the simplest rule to remember is that opposites attract: right-handed batters generally hit to left field; left-handed batters generally hit to right field; most hitters generally excel against pitchers throwing from the opposite side (righties vs. lefties and lefties vs. righties).

And so, when a hitter can excel against what should be a repelling force—namely, left vs. left or right vs. right, both in terms of opposing pitchers and the area of the field they’re hitting to—there exists the potential for true potency.

Fact: As Fenway enters into its 100th season, left-handed batters have dominated team history. Assuming a minimum of 1,000 at-bats at Fenway Park—the equivalent of about four or five full seasons with th e Red Sox—11 of the top 15 (and five of the top six) home batting averages in team history have been produced by left-handed batters, ranging from Wade Boggs (.369) and Ted Williams (.356) to Carl Yastrzemski (.306) and Troy O’Leary (.304). (Data in this category has only been kept over the last 50 years.) The sole exceptions are Nomar Garciaparra, Dustin Pedroia, Jim Rice and, of course, Ramirez, all elite hitters whose skills further amplify a point that should bring further joy to a Red Sox front office and fan base already bubbling with delight.

If Fenway Park could raise O’Leary’s average from .251 (his career number outside of Fenway) to .304, what could it do for someone as gifted as Gonzalez?

“From my perspective, I have a left-center, left-field swing,” Gonzalez says. “I’ll pull a slow pitch, and I’ll pull an inside fastball if I have to, but I’m really not ever looking to pull the ball [to right field]. But to me, leaving Petco [Park, where San Diego plays its home games] for any park that’s smaller is a perfect fit.”

 Indeed, for all of the talk about how Gonzalez is perfectly suited for Fenway, somewhat overlooked is the damage Petco has done to his statistics. In his career at the canyonesque home of the Padres, Gonzalez has a modest batting average of .267; everywhere else, Gonzalez has batted .316. In short, Petco has hurt Gonzalez to even a greater degree than Fenway will help him, suggesting that Gonzalez is a convergence of elements that could make him one of the most devastating and productive hitters in the 100 seasons at Fenway Park.

Consider: During the three-year period from 2008-10, despite the presence of Gonzalez, all left-handed batters at Petco Park hit 13 percent below the league average and amassed 41 percent fewer home runs. By contrast, Fenway increased the batting average of left-handed hitters by five percent and lowered the rate of homers by only 12 percent, meaning that Gonzalez could make sizable gains in both areas.

“We like Fenway for left-handed, opposite-field hitters more than we do for right-handed pull hitters because it rewards good habits for the lefties—letting the ball travel, staying inside the ball, etc.,” Red Sox general manager Theo Epstein says. “For righties, Fenway can get you into bad habits—leaking, getting around the ball—that are tough to shake.

“The dimensions obviously favor players who hit the ball to left field a lot, especially hitters who don’t have tremendous raw power that way,” Epstein continues. “[Switch-hitter] Bill Mueller represented a best-case scenario of sorts in that he was a left-handed, opposite-field hitter and a right-handed pull hitter. Adrian’s natural swing path creates a lot of line drives and fly balls in the air that way, so we’re optimistic about how he’ll like Fenway.”

 And if Gonzalez likes Fenway, as most everyone expects, it goes without saying that Red Sox fans are positively going to adore him.

Photo Credit: Michael Ivins/Boston Red Sox

Historically, the Red Sox’ most elite sluggers and hitters form a complex lot. Williams constantly feuded with the media and was legendarily stubborn. Yastrzemski was crusty, Rice standoffish. Boggs was eccentric, Garciaparra often paranoid, Vaughn both defiant and sometimes reckless. Each came with his quirks and imperfections, all of which were magnified in a city with a long history of hitters dating back to Babe Ruth and World
War I.

All those men were a precursor to the incomparable Ramirez, who was celebrated as the biggest free agent acquisition in Red Sox history when the team signed him to an eight-year, $160 million contract between the 2000 and 2001 seasons. And though the Red Sox subsequently obtained David Ortiz in 2003, as well, that signing proved to be a winning lottery ticket, with Ortiz grossly exceeding expectations that were low or nonexistent at the time of his acquisition.

In that way, Gonzalez is the best pure hitter the Red Sox have brought to Boston since Ramirez, putting him in position to face more pressure than any player since Manny himself.

“Everybody tells me you’ve got to be comfortable with the attention and what comes with it,” Gonzalez says. “There’s definitely passion everywhere you go, but that’s something that’s going to be exciting for me to be a part of, especially this year.”

Off the field, Gonzalez also promises to come as advertised, though his profile could change if and when success comes his way. (Look at what Boston did for Ortiz.) Former San Diego general manager Kevin Towers, who acquired Gonzalez when working for the Padres organization, describes Gonzalez as “an all-around baseball player” and as someone “a little more on the quiet side,” which should hardly bother Red Sox fans, so long as Gonzalez makes the expected noise with his bat. After all, the thunder is why the Red Sox are soon expected to announce signing Gonzalez to a seven-year extension worth an estimated $154 million. When added to Gonzalez’ current deal, he’ll essentially get the same eight-year, $160 million deal the Sox gave Ramirez in 2000, a contract that remains the largest in club history.

“He comes prepared. Teammates like him. He’s not a selfish player by any means, and that’s what I liked about him—he wants to win,” says Towers, now the general manager of the Arizona Diamondbacks. “Knowing the type of hitter he is, he’ll wear out that left field wall. He may not hit quite as many home runs in Fenway, but he’ll go up in average.”

 Towers paused. 

“He will pepper that wall,” he says.

 But after Manny, who needs any more spice?

Photo Credit: Kerry Brett