While We're At It...Can We Send Pena Packing, Too?

While we're riding athletes out of town here (read: Joey Harrington and Darko Milicic), let's put Carlos Pena on the same one-way train.

To say I am fed up with waiting for Pena to tap into his potential is like saying I've given up on seeing Elvis alive again. In fact, between the two instances -- Pena blossoming and Elvis re-emerging -- I'm not sure which has worse odds of happening anymore.

I wrote a column two years ago this summer asking for Pena (along with Eric Munson) to be jettisoned, so you know where I'm coming from this morning.


Pena: It's time now -- it's BEEN time now


Look, Carlos is a good guy and all that. Angie Mentink of the Detroit Sports Report told me he's her favorite Motown athlete because he's smart, he reads, and he even tried to teach her how to salsa dance. That's terrific. But I'm sure even Angie would agree that Mr. Pena has been squatting far too long on the proverbial pot.

He's at it again -- Carlos Pena is. His spring average is down to .171, and while for many players that's about as much of a concern as a mild headache, for Pena it could be fatal -- from a Tigers career sense. If anyone needed to be nicknamed Hot Springs this March, it was Pena.

Yesterday, after being collared again, Pena got demonstrative. According to John Lowe in today's Freep, Pena threw his helmet after making one of his outs, then he "nailed a video camera in the dugout" after another.

"That's good," Tigers manager Jim Leyland said of Pena's outbursts. "That's real good. I like that."

Leyland wants his Tigers to bare their teeth and be surly at times this season. So he looked at Pena's tantrum in a positive light. Whether or not he looks at Pena's on-field performance with as much positiveness is up to conjecture.

Carlos Pena, truth be told, should be shipped away from Detroit -- traded elsewhere, even if all you get back is an old bag of baseballs and a tube of Ben Gay. It's either that or release him, and in either scenario the Tigers will be chowing down on some losses. It's not going to happen for him here -- let's face it. The same syndrome as Harrington and Milicic experienced here, in their own ways.

Pena's career here -- he joined the Tigers in the 2002 three-way trade that shipped Jeff Weaver to the Yankees -- was summed up in this analysis from new hitting coach Don Slaught after yesterday's game:

"He knows what he has to do," Slaught said. "He just has to do it."

Do I hear a big, fat AMEN? Or, ALLELUJAH? Or, more appropriately, NO S**T!

Slaught is, according to Lowe, "working with Pena on keeping his swing in the strike zone longer." Near as I can tell, that's hitting coach jargon for "he has to get better, and stop striking out once every three at-bats."

I don't even care, anymore, if Carlos Pena goes to another big league team and wreaks havoc on the league. If that happens, then I'll tip my scotch and soda and wish him more success. After all, he is a nice guy; I have nothing against him personally. I'm just tired of singing the same song about his chances with the Tigers.

When you think about it, there are few words in sports that are more biting than "potential." It's code for "He's just not gonna get it, is he?"

So transplant Carlos Pena and his potential somewhere else -- anywhere else. That ship has not only sailed, its waves have even settled.

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Speaking of the Freep, I turned the front page of the sports section, and there on page 3 was a photo of an African-American NASCAR driver, Bill Lester, who is going to make his Nextel Cup debut today at Atlanta Motor Speedway. Now, I'm not a NASCAR fan by any stretch. If it all ended today, in fact, I wouldn't lose a wink of sleep. But good for Lester, who is the first black driver to qualify for a Cup race since Willy T. Ribbs in 1986. Show those good ole' boys, Bill!