The man behind Bonds

www.bayarea.com Posted on Fri, Mar. 21, 2003 By Joe Roderick CONTRA COSTA TIMES

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - It takes a unique individual to hit behind Barry Bonds. Jeff Kent earned his money as Bonds' wing man for years, until even he struggled under the enormous weight of the job last season and was moved ahead of Bonds.

There are certain prerequisites for the job. The man should possess an easygoing demeanor, a steady pulse, or, as new Giants manager Felipe Alou so eloquently put it, he needs to be "a cold-blooded hitter."

Alou bestowed the compliment on third baseman Edgardo Alfonzo, who will hit fifth and try to protect Bonds, if such a thing can be done.

If there are concerns about Alfonzo's ability to function in perhaps the most important role in the team's lineup after his power numbers dropped the past two seasons, consider that he hit behind Mike Piazza in New York last season. He batted .330 with runners in scoring position last season -- .318 for his career -- and does not get embroiled in the machismo of a manager intentionally walking the Big Man to get to him.

"Fonzi checks his ego at the door when he comes to the ballpark," said Bobby Valentine, his former Mets manager. "He's not going to get caught up in those little games. I think he will be absolutely delighted by how many opportunities he has to hit with men in scoring position. When he's hitting behind Barry he's going to cash in enough to where Barry is going to swing the bat more than people think."

After eight seasons with the Mets, Alfonzo left when the team offered him a two-year, $10 million contract, a pay cut of about $1.7 million from 2002, he said. Alfonzo, who wanted to stay in New York, was deeply hurt.

"I think I deserved a little more than that," he said. "Like I told them, I didn't ask for $30 million for four years or $20 million for two years. I wanted something fair for me, for my future. But if they don't want you, they don't want you."

Boston was on the verge of signing Alfonzo to a two-year deal worth roughly $15 million before the Giants, who were close to severing ties with Kent, signed Alfonzo to a four-year, $26 million deal. Critics say the Giants took a gamble considering Alfonzo's slip in productivity and a back problem that lingered for two years until last season.

"As long as I feel good, they can say whatever they want," he said of his critics.

Alfonzo also gained weight in his latter years with the Mets, presumably because of improper offseason conditioning.

"A lot of people don't train as hard as Edgardo," Valentine said. "He might train too much. Obviously he gained weight, but that wasn't because of anything he was doing. He was getting a little older and maybe he had to alter his eating habits a little bit. But he was working out five hours a day during the offseason and worked with a personal trainer last year and the year before that."

Valentine and Alfonzo were together for six seasons and formed an interesting bond. The former manager may have grated on some of his players, but not Alfonzo, even when Valentine was quick to pull his player aside when he felt Alfonzo's performance wasn't first class.

"I think at times when the results weren't up to what he expected them to be, I'd turn up the volume," Valentine said. "He responds to everything. He responds to the pressure of the situation, responds to his teammates' need.

"Fonzi is one of the guys, you don't have to go in any detail with him. He's well aware of what's going on, and sometimes he gets caught up in things that are not of the utmost importance."

Such as?

"Like the previous night's game," Valentine said. "Maybe he hit a double and the guy couldn't score in front of him. He'd go up and try to hit a homer. You can't do anything about last night's game."

Alfonzo didn't mind his manager's occasional prodding.

"Sometimes he'd get really (expletive) at you and you have to understand the guy," he said. "It's part of the game. He came to me and said, 'You should be better than that,' and that's exactly what I needed, for him to come and yell at me and wake me up. To me, it was nice. He knows what I can do and every time he saw me do things I shouldn't do he called it to my attention."

Alfonzo, who still lives in New York, is a hero in his native Venezuela. Valentine remembers watching him play one winter when the Mets were converting him from third to second base.

"Down there he was nicknamed 'The Wall,'" Valentine said. "Nothing gets through him."

There is something else, Valentine said, that rarely escapes Alfonzo: a curveball.

"He can hit a breaking pitch, the best pitch, in the toughest situation," Valentine said. "People are spoiled by how easily Barry does that. This guy (Alfonzo) is a quality hitter. Pitchers wonder how the hell he hit that pitch."