The Face of Baseball
June 4, 2005
Recently there was an interesting development at ESPN.com and ESPN the
magazine. The company announced they were looking for a player
that Major League Baseball would love to market. This player
would become the poster boy for the game, much the way the NBA marketed
Magic and Bird, then Michael Jordan. Tim Kirkjian apparently was
given the final vote and cast it for Derek Jeter, based on his all out
effort and "winning ways". Eric Neel also wrote on the topic,
offering some compelling candidates which ranged from the anonymous
(Clint Barmes) to the infamous (Jason Giambi). In between, he
suggested standout human beings like Sean Casey and Carlos Delgado,
guys who have persevered against expectations like Bruce Chen and even
a few because he thought they were cool (John Smoltz, David Eckstein
and Dontrelle Willis). All of them are worthy to be considered,
but to my mind there is only one player who meets the criteria as the player baseball should most
build their marketing campaign around.
What qualities should such a player have? Well, since fans love
the longball, he should probably be a slugger. He has to not only
have obvious star talent, but star quality as well. People have
to gravitate towards him, players, fans and media alike. He also
has to make his teammates better. He has to be a guy his team and
the fans can count on to play every day and give a special effort each
and every game. He has to embody both the game's intellect, but
also it's youthful exuberance. He has to be a role model,
available to the public for autographs, not just at card shows and fan
fests, but before and after games. And ideally, he has to
represent the fastest growing segment of baseball's player and fan
population, that of Latin Americans.
Fortunately for Major League Baseball, there is such a player.
He's been an All-Star and an MVP, he's set team records for RBI in a
season, he's always among the leaders in home runs and even won a home
run derby at an All Star game. His defense is gold glove quality
and he hasn't missed a game since 2000. He's the most popular
player with his teammates, but such a fierce competitor he never lets
anyone slack off no matter what the score is. His teammates feed
off his never-ending energy as he is always upbeat with an infectious,
goofy, gap-toothed smile and keeping things loose with peppy chatter
and
the occasional prank. As an example, when Napoleon Calzado got
his
first major league hit, the team requested the ball be removed from
play as is the custom. However, when it reached the dugout, our
player switched it secretly with a batting practice ball and then while
Calzado was watching the dugout, he stepped out and tossed the ball to
the fans. Calzado nearly soiled himself. Even the team's PR
director was fooled and was rushing out of the pressbox to retrieve the
ball and replace it with another before he realized what had really
just transpired. He is without question the best player at his
position and one of the best paid in the game, yet after just about
every game he's out in the player's parking lot signing autographs for
30 minutes to an hour. And he's from the heart of Latin American
baseball, the Dominican Republic.
I was kind of surprised that Kirkjian didn't even mention him in his
piece for the magazine considering that this player plays all his home
games less than an hour from where Kirkjian lives. He ran the
gamut of great players from Clemens to Bonds, but did not mention this
guy even once.
But maybe, like so many covering the game, he just didn't realize how
good this guy really is. Folks in Baltimore certainly
know. Miguel Tejada is the face of baseball.