Miller: 5 things to know | 
Pirates camp
BRADENTON, Fla. -- Ah, spring. The smell of sunblock, the crack of the bat, the most perfect time of year to close your eyes and dream ... of a lanky, 6-2 first baseman named Adam LaRoche and all that he can do?
Whoa, hold tight. Are we in the right dream here?
Well, ah, standing here next to the locker of Pittsburgh All-Star Jason Bay, yes, we are.
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| Adam LaRoche gives the Pirates renewed hope of shaking the pits. (AP) |
"It's kind of weird because they talked about it for so long," Bay says. "It was alive, it was dead, it was alive, it was dead. ...
"It took so long that by the time it happened, it was almost like a new move."
Bay smiles, and continues.
"It's the perfect example that one hitter can make a difference -- in the strategy of the games, in the way the other team uses its bullpen."
Or, as manager Jim Tracy says, last year's Pirates were "strategically vulnerable" with only Bay and batting champ Freddy Sanchez constituting much of a threat. And there was little left-handed presence in the lineup.
LaRoche takes care of the left-handed question. He adds a completely new dimension in the middle of the lineup and his mere presence alone could turn Bay and his now-healthy left knee from All-Star to legend in one hot summer.
Especially when you consider that Bay, even without much lineup insulation, rattled outfield seats for a career-high 35 homers and 109 RBI in '06.
In a town starved for baseball success, this is going to be awfully fun to watch develop, unless you're the guy standing on the mound reading signs from the catcher.
Particularly when you figure that the Bay Watch was as intriguing as ever in Pittsburgh in 2006, even though his doubles total dipped to 29 from 44 in '05, and that he swiped only 11 bases -- down from 21 in '05.
Bay, the dreamer, continues to pretend that the achy knee had little to do with his decline in those categories. He does allow that the knee "feels a lot better already" after doctors cleaned out loose bodies.
"It was a re-tread, if you will," he says.
Others who know hear about Bay denying that the knee significantly affected his burst on the bases last summer and nod in wink-wink fashion.
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"Yes," Tracy says with practically the same inflection as a guy saying riiiight. "What some of us took for granted was that there were some times last year this guy was in some pain, yet he'd come in and get some treatment and then the trainer would say to me, 'Hey Trace, his expectation is to go out and play.'
"A lot of others wouldn't have been out there -- or out there nearly as often."
Tracy pauses.
"That's who he is. He's not an excuse maker. He's a true professional baseball player, in every sense of the word."
Bay is also one of the most pleasant and least appreciated superstars (outside of Pittsburgh, that is) in the game. He is as All-American as they come.
Except, of course, that he comes from Canada. Trail, British Columbia, to be exact.
Details, details.
"He's an institution," Tracy says. "He's the type of player, there isn't a manager doing this who wouldn't want him on his team. He is a complete professional.
"He comes in the clubhouse, and when he opens that door every day, you know exactly who is coming in and what you're going to get from him.
"There is absolutely nothing not to like about the guy. This guy is the way you want to see your three sons grow up. That's the model."
Maybe it's because Pittsburgh is where he cut his major-league teeth, perhaps it's because of the city's similarities to his hometown of Trail -- a big mining town in the mountains -- that Bay is so comfortable as the centerpiece for what the Pirates hope is the nucleus of their long-awaited comeback.
Bay, 28, broke into the bigs in 2003 in San Diego, and the Pirates almost immediately acquired him in that summer's Brian Giles trade. Bay currently is working under a four-year, $18.25 million deal, and though free-agency was still a few years away when he signed the contract, he still jumped at the opportunity.
"I didn't sign the contract to go and spend money I didn't have," Bay says. "As far as the stresses in life go, money is always one of them. At a young age, to not have that stress, it allows us to do other things.
"That's one thing I'm grateful for, especially with a daughter now."
It was quite a winter for Bay. His wife, Kristen, delivered the couple's first child on Nov. 19, a daughter named Addison. His sister, Lauren -- who has pitched in the Olympics and is considered Canada's best softball player -- was married.
Then there was the knee surgery and, toward the end of the winter, finally, the acquisition of LaRoche.
Funny thing is, though, after everybody expended so much breath discussing how LaRoche would provide legitimate protection for Bay by batting behind the left-fielder, Tracy this spring intends to reverse that. LaRoche, a lefty, is expected to bat fourth often this season, with Bay, the right-hander, fifth.
It doesn't figure to be permanent. Rather, Tracy on most nights says he will act accordingly to whether the Pirates are facing a right-hander or left-hander.
"The two are interchangeable," Tracy says of the Nos. 4 and 5 slots. "They are very similar spots in the lineup."
All the manager knows is, with LaRoche joining Bay and Sanchez in the lineup, opponents this summer at least will have to pause and think about it for a few moments if they decide not to serve Bay -- or Sanchez or LaRoche -- anything resembling a meatball over the plate.
"You're still going to have baseball situations, but opponents are going to have to pick and choose now," Tracy says. "That's OK, because there still are going to be two others -- when you choose this, you've gotta deal with this. We didn't have that last year."
So with LaRoche aboard and a healthy knee, maybe Bay's numbers rise to even steeper heights. Maybe he breaks the 20-something threshold in steals again. Perhaps he dents outfield walls for 40-something doubles again. Fifty?
Yes, it's dream time now for the Pirates -- which, truth be told, is a whole lot better than what the alternative has been for the past decade or more.
But even in this perfect world, Bay just isn't the type to get too far out in front of himself.
"I'd like to hope I haven't changed much in the past three or four years," he says. "If I get out there 160 times a year, I'd like to think my numbers are going to be there.
"But every time I come in here I still feel like it's my first or second time walking in a big-league clubhouse. You look at the back of a baseball card and, suddenly, it's been three or for years. But I feel like I've only been here a little while and it's like, really, it's been that long?"
