ANAHEIM, Calif. -- Alex Rodriguez briefly opens the window on his eroded friendship with Derek Jeter, and a nation quivers.
Manny Ramirez burps and the entire city of Boston quakes.
Meanwhile, in Southern California, the game's most under-appreciated superstar goes down for a few days with a wrist injury, and barely anybody outside of his own clubhouse notices.
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| Vladimir Guerrero's ability to hit any pitch anywhere is becoming legendary. (AP) |
With the usual mixture of both awe and fear.
"I love watching that guy play," Detroit manager Jim Leyland says. "There's no sense having a scouting report on him, if you want to know the truth. You might as well throw the scouting report out the window.
"How you get him out, nobody knows. You have just as good a chance of getting him out if you throw it down the middle as you do if you bounce it.
"And he's got as good a chance to hit a home run if you bounce it as he does if you throw it down the middle.
"I've never seen anything like it."
Four seasons after leaving Montreal, Guerrero, long recognized as the game's best bad-ball hitter, mostly remains baseball's version of an offensive lineman.
No player in the game is more important to his team's lineup than Guerrero, yet even after winning the 2004 AL MVP, he does most of his best work with little public acclaim.
When Guerrero was forced out of that game in Boston in the first inning April 16 after Red Sox pitcher Josh Beckett drilled him on the right wrist with a fastball, the Angels went on to get hammered 7-2. And when he subsequently missed the following two games in Oakland, the Angels lost both to finish a 1-7 road trip.
Since his return, the Angels have gone 10-2 and moved back into first place in the AL West. Tuesday, he blasted a grand slam in the first inning to put the exclamation point on another Angels victory.
