Jim Edmonds Searches for A Pennant in St. Louis

Baseball Digest, July, 2000 by Mike Eisenbath

Cardinal Rules

Play Hard, Play to Win, Have Fun, Play Hard, Play to Win, Have Fun

With a new team, center fielder hopes to produce a season like he did for Angels in '95

JIM EDMONDS' first day as a Cardinal was nothing to call home about.

He did a bunch of interviews. Shook a h)t of hands. Pulled on a Cardinals jersey for the first time late last March after being traded from the Anaheim Angels.

Oh, there was that RBI single during an exhibition game against Baltimore. And the warm ovation from Cardinals fans that followed. Maybe he would find a way to tell that story. Maybe he would talk about hitting coach Mike Easler, who talked nonstop with praise about Edmonds' sweet swing during a session in the batting cage. Maybe he would talk about one interview he did in front of a TV camera as he was asked how he thought the Cardinals would do this season.

"I don't even know who my teammates are," responded Edmonds, a slightly mischievous tone in his voice.

He was joking. Edmonds knew plenty about his new team. He knew he could win their affection with the way he plays. He also knew this would be a fresh start and a golden opportunity to dispel the doubts that have dogged his career.

The essential nature of Jim Edmonds? Play hard, play to win, but never forget that it's play.

"I just have fun, laughing on the field and smiling with the guys," Edmonds said. "Maybe not as much right now (learning a new team), but I'm just not going to change my game. I'm just going to play hard and stay healthy. By no means am I going to keep my head down and walk around here like I don't belong.

"It's a lot of fun being on the field. I get excited to play. I mean, why not? It's a great game. It's a good job to have."

And if Edmonds can play at the level he showed in the opening weeks of the season, the Cardinals and their fans will all have fun in 2000. Edmonds hit .382 with eight home runs, six doubles, 22 RBI, 23 runs scored and a .776 slugging percentage during the month of April.

Edmonds is a center fielder now--some say the best in the business--but he played left field for the Angels in his first big league game in 1994. He made an immediate impression by throwing out Detroit's Tony Phillips at the plate.

By the next season, Edmonds was a full-fledged star. He batted .290, hit 33 home runs, drove in 107 runs and scored 120. He won the Gold Glove Award as one of the best defensive center fielders in the American League in 1997 and 1998.

And little by little, the baseball world came to see Jim Edmonds as a unique individual. He slammed into walls to make catches. He trotted off the field beaming after a particularly stunning diving grab. He stood at the plate and appreciated his home runs.

"Jim's a show," Angels outfielder Tim Salmon once said admiringly.

"I have to be this way," Edmonds said, "to survive."

It all seems so natural for the handsome, muscular native of Southern California. A seasoned baseball observer recently watched Edmonds play in a game, marveled at the way he roamed the outfield smoothly, gracefully. He thought Edmonds looked "a bit like a young Mickey Mantle."

Edmonds carries himself like he was meant to do this. Former manager Terry Collins called it a "gait of confidence."

"I've seen Jim make a dozen plays where you just say, `Wow, that's amazing,'" Salmon said. "He has such a beautiful swing, I'd get jealous of it, and in pressure-packed situations he seemed so relaxed. He has that flair."

Edmonds has looked back at his 1995 season and said there is no reason why he can't match it or do even better. But he's not a natural. "I wouldn't be a career .290 hitter if I was," he said. "I'd be hitting .400.

"I just go out and play. Whatever I do, I do. It's not something I think about. What you see is what you get."

Some things you might like to know about Jim Edmonds:

* He took an eye test shortly after the Angels drafted him in seventh round in 1988, out of Diamond Bar High School (California), that revealed he had 20-1.5 vision. "Better than perfect," his mom said.

* He throws and bats left-handed, but he's ambidextrous. Edmonds used to take grounders at second base as a right-hander--just for fun. Surgery on his right shoulder has ended that amusement.

Edmonds grew up in Diamond Bar, within walking distance from his grandparents and aunts and uncles. When he started a family and bought a place to live, it was in that same general vicinity. "There's security," he said then. Close to the high school where he was a three-sport star. Close to his parents. Only 15 miles from where the Angels play baseball.

His entire support system, including two daughters, is in Southern California.

"I'm not really concerned with that now," he said. "I'm concerned with getting a chance to play. I'll try to arrange for my kids to come up, try to arrange for my parents to come in and spend some time here (St. Louis).

He's used to their presence. They remember him playing in the high school Southern Section championship--at Anaheim Stadium that senior year, when he batted .548. He also pitched for his high school team, once striking out 19 of 21 batters faced. Edmonds played quarterback for the football team and starred on the soccer team.