"Real" Pudge Key To Tigers' Success

Rodriguez must lead in order for Tigers to win in '06


In two games, Pudge Rodriguez has a walk and a five-hit game.

Guess which should be considered more impressive?

2005, if you're a Rodriguez fan, should be tossed into a dark closet and forever put away, never again to be seen or relived. It started weird, got weirder, then switched to downright shameful, and ended sadly -- almost seriocomically.

It began with a slimmer -- MUCH slimmer -- almost sickly-looking Rodriguez arriving at spring training. He was truculant, stand-offish, and just not all that happy. Folks around the team wondered who put the sour milk in his corn flakes.

Then they played the games, and it was quickly evident that the '05 version of Pudge was nowhere near the 2004 model, with its .330+ average and run-producing ability. Even the defense was slipping. Whispers began that it was the beginning of the end for the 33 year-old catcher.

Then Ugie Urbina, his friend and confidante, got traded and things started to get ugly. The Tigers' clubhouse was Romper Room gone evil, and Pudge was no help there. He was far from winning any popularity contests amongst the cubicles. He may have been the second-most liked player on the team -- with the other 24 guys tied for first.

His production was less than stellar, despite being named to the All-Star team, which was a paper achievement. Thin, typing paper -- complete with watermark. Stained.

On and on it went, this skinnier impostor playing at being Pudge Rodriguez in 2005. He ended up with 11 walks -- 11 ! -- and his final numbers were very pedestrian: 14 HR, 50 RBI, .276 BA.
He flatly refused to go out of his way to show any public support for manager Alan Trammell -- not that Tram necessarily deserved any. But Pudge, it's generally known, certainly didn't help Trammell's chances at returning in 2006 -- on or off the field. The catcher was, I had written, Drudge Rodriguez.

Already 2006 has been different. In Lakeland, Rodriguez was more of his old self -- both from a paunch standpoint and with the press. He seems ready to lead again -- or at least try to.

As much as he turned me off last season, it's a plain fact that the Tigers need an interested, genuine Ivan Rodriguez if they plan on making any noise in their division. In fact, the team had better start rubbing rabbit's feet and hanging horseshoes and knocking on Pinocchio's head that Rodriguez '05 was a fluke, and that he'll return to form this summer. Because without him -- HIM, not the impostor -- the Tigers have a snowball's chance in you-know-where to do anything fun this season.

"He looks like the Pudge of old," manager Jim Leyland said Wednesday after Rodriguez's 5-for-5 performance in Kansas City helped the Tigers to a 14-3 shellacking of the "woe is us" Royals.
"Last season he got away from the strike zone and he paid the price," Leyland said.

Leyland calls 11 walks in 500+ at-bats "getting away from the strike zone." That's manager talk for "he swung at bad pitch after bad pitch, and had no patience at the plate," which is fan talk.

Here's plain talk: Ivan "Pudge" Rodriguez had better earn his Tigers stripes this season, or else he, his team, and his fans -- however many there are still remaining -- are going down in orange and black flames.

So Pudge had a walk in Game 1, and five hits in Game 2. That means he's on pace for about 80 walks this season. And 400 hits. I'm still not sold that the 400 hits aren't more attainable for him than the 80 walks.

Come on, Pudge -- prove me wrong.