Vladimir Guerrero: baseball's quiet super talent: Expos all-around performer excels on the field despite limited publicity with Montreal's small fan base - Montreal Expos outfielder

Baseball Digest, July, 2003 by Mike Bauman

PUBLICLY, AT LEAST, VLADIMIR Guerrero is a man of very few words. Recently, he spoke, not at great length, but enough to leave some impressions.

Guerrero is a great hitter, a tremendous all-around talent but, for the purposes of media discussion, something of an enigma. He speaks to the press infrequently. He is obviously very comfortable playing baseball, but he is not at all comfortable answering questions about playing baseball. He is not comfortable speaking English. And he plays, after all, for the Montreal Expos, a fact that does not exactly shine a worldwide spotlight on his considerable talents.

But last spring, Guerrero agreed to speak to a small group of reporters. Still, there was an international flavor to the gathering. The reporters had either English or French as their primary languages. Guerrero had Spanish. Expos third base coach Manny Acta kindly translated the reporters' questions to Guerrero and Guerrero's answers to the reporters, in the third person.

We start with a premise: This outfielder is the greatest relatively unknown superstar in the game. He hit 197 home runs in the last five seasons (1998-2002). In those five seasons, he drove in 582 runs. He is one of five players in major league history to record a .300 or higher batting average, 30 or more home runs, 100 or more RBI and 100 or more runs in five straight seasons. He has stolen 40 bases in a single season. He has twice hit more than 40 home runs in a season. He hasn't had the 40-40 combo in the same year, but you get the picture. The man possesses a very rare and special blend of talents.

He is in the final year of his contract, and he is only 27. He is on the Montreal roster, but he is also on a lot of teams' wish lists. But questions about his status beyond this season provoked only the mildest responses from Guerrero. Would he like to stay with the Expos, the only organization for which he has played, or might he like to try out greener pastures?

"He says he hasn't even thought about that, it's too early," Acta reported, "He's just concentrating right now on starting the season and having a good season. It's just way too early for him to start thinking about that. He says he just worries about doing his job and goes from there.

"He says he has never imagined himself yet using another uniform and as long as he's here, he's not going to think about any other uniform."

In the same way, Guerrero would not speculate on the possibility that he could be traded later in the season, particularly if the Expos fell out of contention in the National League East.

"He said he has no idea about that, it's (general manager) Omar's Minaya's job, front-office stuff, he really has no idea what's going to happen," Acta said.

Trade rumors swirled around the more prominent Expos last winter, including Guerrero.

Guerrero did not think he was going to be traded, particularly after pitcher Bartolo Colon was moved.

"He thought there was no way that they were going to trade more than one guy," Acta said. "So when they traded Colon, he didn't think he was going to be traded, mainly because he feels that he didn't think the fans were going to respond well, if he wasn't on the team, or another guy like (Javier) Vazquez."

The Expos scheduled 22 home games in Puerto Rico this season, which, in essence, means that they will play more than 100 games on the road. But Guerrero, originally from the Dominican Republic, is OK with that.

"He said he feels good about that due to the fact that there are a lot of Dominicans living in Puerto Rico and also because it's close enough that they can bring fans from the Dominican to see him and other guys play," Acta translated.

There were questions, too, about Guerrero's remarkable durability. And in that light, there were questions about goals, because his talents and his durability suggest that the normal limits need not apply.

"His goal is just that God keep him healthy and then the numbers will come," Acta said. "He said that what he does is, he works hard in the Dominican so he can come over here in the best shape possible for spring training. Before, he used to have hamstring problems, but he says he corrected that by working hard in the off-season. He runs a lot on the beach back home and all the time does exercises and just baseball stuff, basically."

And, Guerrero is happy to have Hall of Famer Frank Robinson back for a second season as manager.

"He feels good that he is back," Acta reported, "because now he feels that everybody should work harder for him and keep on going."

The Expos finished second in the N.L. East last season at 83-79. It was a distant second, but it was still second. Most public discussion of this franchise has run the instability gamut from contraction, then, to relocation, now. But there is often little mention of the fact that there is a core of truly talented players around which to build. At the head of that category is Vladimir Guerrero.

During this media session, Guerrero's features were impassive. His voice was soft. His eyes were mostly on the ground, except when he turned to Acta to answer questions. He did not seem aloof or arrogant or condescending, or any of that negative stuff. But he wasn't having a ton of fun, either.