He Knows Left From Left Out

With apologies to John R. Tunis, the Kid from Left Field isn’t really so much of a kid in the context of spring phenoms.

Let’s check the Seattle Mariners archives - which, as luck would have it, are not overly thick. There was Ken Griffey Jr., who at a cocksure 19 tortured Cactus League pitching in 1989 and gave the M’s no choice but to take him north even when he hadn’t been on the 40-man roster.

And, of course, there was Alex Rodriguez - a callow 20 last spring, the youngest All-Star shortstop ever a few months later and, finally, topless in Sports Illustrated just like those other spring phenoms, Vendela and Kathy Ireland.

By comparison, Jose Cruz Jr. is a ripe 23, just 44 credits short of a college degree and his fallback position: law school.

Great. The world needs another lawyer like, uh … uh …

Well, like the M’s need another left fielder.

Left field. It is the black hole of the Kingdome, real estate you can’t build on, the baseball equivalent of the joint next to the transmission shop on the Division Street hill that’s been a United Nations of restaurants.

No one can make a go of it there.

Since Griffey took over in center field eight seasons ago, the Mariners have trotted out 46 different bodies - some of them warm - to people the void alongside him in left.

Brian Turang - remember him? Dann Howitt. Quinn Mack. Alonzo Powell.

For every Kevin Mitchell, Eric Anthony or Tiny Felder the M’s were sure would be the answer, there’s been a Shane Turner, Keith Mitchell and Greg Litton to prove that, well, your second guess can be as wrong as your first.

Four catchers have played out there. Two pitchers. Possibly the Moose.

Even Randy Johnson did a stretch - a third of an inning - though it was more hide-and-seek than baseball.

The Mariners don’t need another left fielder. They need a left fielder. “If they ask me, of course, I’m going to say I’m ready to go, man,” said Cruz. “Put me out there.”

It’s tempting.

In fact, M’s manager Lou Piniella was tempted even last year, when Cruz was hopscotching through Seattle’s farm system, but was outvoted. Now the vote may be closer.

With a triple and a single in six atbats Wednesday, Cruz’s Cactus League batting average stands at .370. That includes a pair of home runs, 10 RBIs, 12 runs and a .542 on-base percentage, the last two numbers second and fourth in all of baseball this spring.

“He’s played exceptionally well,” said M’s vice president Woody Woodward, “and he’s making everybody take a hard look at keeping him. But we haven’t made that decision.”

Meaning, possibly, that Woodward hasn’t given in yet.

Lou is go-pedal kind of guy. Woody rides the brake. Woodward would rather nurse his young sprouts to the big leagues, fearing for their psyches if they suddenly discover themselves overmatched. Patient, Piniella is not. He has chewed up and spit out a dozen young pitchers - a few out of necessity, it must be said - and had Rodriguez on a yo-yo to Tacoma so manic it’s a wonder the kid didn’t get whiplash.

Maybe Lou remembers languishing in Triple-A for three years himself as a player.

In any case, he said over the winter that he had Cruz “penciled in as my ninth-place hitter and left fielder.” And the fact is, Cruz has done nothing to lose the job.

Except that the M’s have a reasonable alternative - the platoon of Lee Tinsley and Rich Amaral, solid gloves and decent sticks in a lineup that isn’t famished for sensational.

So Cruz may be the left fielder come Opening Day. In Tacoma.

“He’s never had a full year down there,” Woodward pointed out. “The advantage is in being able to let the guy continue to develop. He’s barely out of college. That doesn’t mean he can’t play up here. He may be able to - look what Alex did.

“But you can get spoiled. Alex and Junior came in and were almost a force from day one. But you go back and see that Edgar Martinez had to go up and down a couple of times, and Tino Martinez, too. Not everybody adjusts that quickly.”

But not everybody has Cruz’s head start.

Like Griffey, he is a legacy. Jose Cruz Sr. had a 19-year major league career, during which he hit .300 six times and crunched nearly 200 home runs. Like Ken Griffey Sr., father Cruz took his son into the locker room and on road trips and into the batting cage for a complete baseball education.

“I’ve been prepared pretty much my whole life,” Cruz said.

“My dad instilled the way he played the game and that’s pretty much how I’ve been molded to play. That’s what I know - his style, to a certain degree. But it was more than him just saying, ‘You’ve got to play this way or that way.’ He told me that you’ve got to prepare yourself and take care of yourself, because it’s not just about making it. It’s about maintaining and staying - which he did.”

From 1970 to 1988, in fact - that last season with the New York Yankees, where his manager was Lou Piniella.

“I think I have a better grasp of what it takes than some other young players, just because of my background,” Cruz said.

And he didn’t seem to suffer with the constant moving last season, from Class A ball to Double-A and finally Tacoma. He wound up with 15 home runs and 89 RBI in just 460 at bats. He did slump the last month of winter ball in Puerto Rico, but the month off before spring training seems to have revived him.

“It was probably easier for me to get sharp quicker than a lot of guys who had four months off,” Cruz said.

Now, if Piniella isn’t going to give up on Scott Sanders, say, because of a 10.03 spring ERA, he isn’t going to judge Cruz solely on his batting average. And the manager seems to be backsliding somewhat from an early spring declaration that, “It wouldn’t be the worst thing to start him (at Tacoma), but if he’s ready coming out of spring training, he gets the job.”

Of course, that may be Woodward’s influence.

In any case, Cruz knows he isn’t going to talk his way into the Kingdome’s black hole.

“But I know this - I’m the best I’ve ever been right now,” he said. “Not the best I can be, but the best I’ve been. I’m just hoping my best is good enough.”

, DataTimes ILLUSTRATION: 2 color photos

The following fields overflowed: CREDIT = John Blanchette The Spokesman-Review