Tourists shortstop a double threat

Citizens Time By George Porter Jr. , Sports Writer April 12, 2003 10:49 p.m.

ASHEVILLE - The scouting report on Asheville Tourists shortstop Oscar Materano so far has been that he is a young, skilled infielder with a strong arm and a lot of tools.

Good enough reason there for just about anybody to draft this kid.

But the report forgot to mention that he's pretty good at the plate, too.

"He does have a pretty good bat doesn't he," Tourists manager Joe Mikulik said. "He has definitely been a great surprise. I mean, we knew that he could play defense, but if he can come in here and add a little offense, as well, we get a real good bargain."

After sitting out the Tourists' season opener, Materano immediately made his presence felt the next night as he went 4-for-5 with a double and an RBI. At the end of the first series, Materano was leading the South Atlantic League, batting a robust .583.

Tourists' coach Tony Diaz said Materano's early-season consistency can be credited to a steady routine.

"I've tried to teach him, as well as some of the other guys, how to follow a steady routine," Diaz said. "I want them to learn the ability to set a pattern and follow that pattern every day. If they go through the same routine on a daily basis, they don't have a choice but to get better."

One routine Materano said he always follows is writing his mother's name in the dirt. Materano said when he's at shortstop, he routinely writes his mother's first name, Belkis, in the dirt so that she will be with him on every play.

"I try to keep my family on my mind," said the Valera, a Venezuela native. "I play baseball for them. A lot of guys from my country play baseball for money, but I play for the opportunity. The opportunity to just be on the field when others can't."

Although Materano's hot bat has been one of the reasons other teams have started to pitch him a little more carefully, his defense is as good as advertised.

And Tourists third baseman Ashely Freeman has the best seat in the house.

"He makes a lot of plays at short, that you see guys on television making," Freeman said. "And that's very impressive, seeing as though we're just in single A. I mean, at this level, we see guys all the time with his type of range, but to be able to go deep in the hole and throw a guy out, now that's impressive."

Unlike most up-and-coming baseball players in the states, Materano said he didn't have the opportunity to impress the professional scouts in high school because his high school didn't have a baseball field.

"We just had to play when we could," he said. "We usually played on softball fields and in other remote areas, so it wasn't the best."

No matter what the circumstances were for Materano, he obviously impressed scouts when he had the opportunity. When the youngster with the charismatic smile was 16, he said a scout invited him to a tryout.

The scout, Jorge de Posada, is the father of all-star New York Yankees catcher Jorge Posada. Materano said after the tryout, Posada asked him if he wanted to play professional baseball.

It was a no-brainer.

"I didn't care about the contract or anything like that," he said. "I just wanted to play baseball. And when he offered me the chance to play, I jumped all over it."

Materano admits he's not very knowledgeable about the things that go along with baseball, such as contracts. But what he does know is that he, along with every other guy in the Tourists clubhouse, wants to one day make it to the big leagues.

"That's my goal," he said. "I want to play Major League Baseball. But the only difference between me and other guys trying to make it, is that I don't want to be rich. I just want to play baseball. Money doesn't mean anything to me."

Contact Porter at 232-5832 or GPorter@CITIZEN-TIMES.com