Q&A; WITH PEDRO GUERRERO : Big Bucks, Big Pressure a Package Deal : Guerrero Says, ‘Thank God,’ for the Opportunity Baseball Gave Him

It was the morning after another Dodger defeat when Manager Tom Lasorda called a team meeting in Pittsburgh.

Despite closed doors and concrete walls, Lasorda’s shouts could be heard in the corridor outside the visitors’ clubhouse. While he vented his spleen at the team in general, Lasorda singled out one player for not hustling: Pedro Guerrero.

In Los Angeles the next day, the meeting made headlines, and the familiar litany of Guerrero’s alleged misdeeds was reprinted once again: How the richest Dodger of all had reported to training camp late and fat and now wasn’t hitting and couldn’t play third base and was dragging the team down with him.

That night, during batting practice, Guerrero pointed his bat at a reporter and threatened him with bodily harm.

That was a year ago this week.

When the Dodgers returned to Pittsburgh recently, Guerrero sat with a reporter in the visitors’ dugout at Three Rivers Stadium and discussed that incident and the course of his career before and since--the poverty of his Dominican youth, the slights he believes he has received because he is a Latin player, the expectations the Dodgers have of him and he has of himself, the things that make him happy.

Question: The criticism you received last season--did you consider it justified?

Answer: A lot of people didn’t realize there were 25 guys on the team. At that time, who was hitting?

Even when we were playing away from home, people would call me and tell me, ‘This paper is saying this and that, that Guerrero is not hitting because he’s fat, and he came late and he signed a new contract.’ That was almost every single day in the papers. My wife (Denise) finally stopped getting the paper at home.

That’s one thing that bothered me most. Why did they keep talking about me, about the same stuff?

Now this year, I reported at the same time (before the March 1 deadline)--there’s no rule that says I have to be there before then--but because I’m hitting, nobody is saying anything. And if I had hit then, nobody would have said anything.”

Q: But it wasn’t just the papers. That day in Pittsburgh, the manager also criticized you. Was that unfair?

A: Not really. Probably he saw that I didn’t go after one fly ball the way I should have.

But like I told them, they had to realize I played the first 2 1/2 months of the season with a bad back and a bad knee. I was blamed by everybody because I wasn’t hitting. But it’s hard to play hurt and go 100%.

One thing I don’t like is even if I’m hurt, I don’t like to sit on the bench. If I can give even 60%, I’ll go out and play. Sometimes I’m hurt and don’t tell anybody. If I say something, then they won’t put me in the lineup. As long as I can play, forget it, I’ll do it.

Like this year after I hurt my shoulder when I dove in Atlanta. I was embarrassed when a runner went from second to third on me on a fly ball to left, but my shoulder’s killing me. I know my arm’s not 100%, but I go out there and play.

Q: You’ve mentioned before that Dominican players are not treated fairly, especially by the media. What makes you feel that way?

A: It seems like the only time we get (coverage) is when we do something wrong. Like when Joaquin (Andujar, the St. Louis pitcher) had a bad year, he was all over the papers. This year, he was the first pitcher in the major leagues to win 15 games, and what does he get? He deserves more.

Like with me: I hit over 30 home runs and stole over 20 bases in back-to-back years, the only player in L.A. ever to do that, and was I on the cover of any magazine? Never.

Look at the cover of Sporting News, there’s a little kid like (Vince) Coleman. He’s been in the big leagues for two months. It’s not

because I’m jealous--I know he’s stolen 50-some bases--but this is just the way I feel about things. They’ve got him like he’s a celebrity.

Q: But didn’t you receive a lot of attention when you were named an MVP in the 1981 World Series with Steve Yeager and Ron Cey?

A: I didn’t get any credit. They didn’t even let me talk on the microphone on (national) TV. That was a big deal in Latin America. They talked about it for a year, how they interviewed everybody but me.

Those are the kinds of things you can’t forget. Like hitting the 15 home runs in June. I’ll never forget that. They (NBC) sent me a letter to apologize, but why did this happen? I don’t know. I wish I knew.

There’s a lot of little things that have really bothered me, but I don’t think I’m going to eat more for the credit anybody gives me, I’m not going to make any more money. I still have to do a job.

Q: Have you received many offers for commercial endorsements?

A: No, I haven’t. It’s not something I’m really worried about. Maybe they don’t ask me to do it because they think about the language problem, but my English is fine.

Q: No milk ads, like Dale Murphy?

A: I can’t compare myself to Dale Murphy. To me, right now, he’s the best player in the game. I will give him that credit.

But that doesn’t mean I’m too far away from him.

Q: How long do you think it will take you to be recognized as one of the top half-dozen players in the game today?

A: I don’t know. I hope not too long. I believe if I keep doing the things I’m doing they’ll probably realize it some day.

Q: Why, last winter, did you agree to go back to third base when Lasorda went to the Dominican to see you?

A: I didn’t feel too happy about it, but really, I didn’t want to say no. I couldn’t say no. I knew they had tried to get a third baseman, and I was the only guy they had who could play the position and hit.

When (Lasorda) first told me, the first thing I told him was, “God, why don’t you keep trying (to make a trade).” He told me, “We will keep trying.”

I told Lasorda, “All I want to do is go out and win. If you think we’re going to win by putting me at third base, that’s fine with me.”

When I put this uniform on, all I want to do is win. I was doing it for the best of the team. Like I told him when he moved me back to the outfield, “I’m happy about the change, but if you need me at third base sometimes, don’t be afraid to tell me. I’ll play third base.”

Q: How hard is it for you to be in the position of being the highest-paid Dodger, the player who must hit for the team to win, with all the expectations that carries with it?

A: Sometimes it is hard. It would be different if we still had the Garveys, the Smiths, the Bakers. Those guys, when I first came up, they didn’t have any problem (with that role). On that team, when those guys went out there, it was hard to beat them, the team they had.

Right now, things are different. Everybody is looking up to me, I make the money. When I signed, if it was on anybody’s mind that I didn’t deserve the money ($7 million, five-year contract), they didn’t say anything. But as the season went on, people were saying that I didn’t deserve it.

Plus, it was kind of tough. . . . To me, the best fans in the whole world are here in L.A. They don’t say things like people say to ballplayers in other ballparks, yelling at players, bad words and stuff. You don’t see that in L.A.

You don’t see them booing. But it’s hard when they do boo someone here. Last year, I had a tough time that day when I came out to hit and all I heard was booing throughout the whole ballpark. I think I struck out three times that day.

But what made me feel much better, is probably every day I got maybe 50, 60 letters from fans that were behind me, said a lot of nice things. Every time I read those letters it made me feel much better. I think that’s when things started to turn around for me.

Q: How has your life changed since you signed your last contract?

A: My life in some ways has changed, but I feel I haven’t changed personally. I remember when I didn’t have anything. I say, “Thank God,” because now I have almost everything I want.

Q: How poor were you, growing up in the Dominican?

A: Very poor. To me, it seems like in the States there are no poor people. You go to a poor neighborhood, and they still have the best houses--at least they have three or four bedrooms, or two if they’re not real big.

And they have water, showers, TV, refrigerators. We didn’t have any of those things. I remember I used to walk a mile to go over to my friend’s house to watch TV.

I had two brothers and my mom, my grandparents, and some other kids, cousins, they all lived with us. I remember sleeping on the floor a lot of times.

My father and my mother separated when I was 8, but we always saw each other. My mom and my grandparents raised me. My grandfather died in 1975, right after I left to go to spring training in A ball.

Sometimes I think about it and feel bad, that my grandfather didn’t get to enjoy my money. If any people deserved to enjoy some of my things, it was my grandparents, my aunt, and my mother, No. 1.

Q: Are you still close to your family?

A: This medal I’m wearing has the same name as my mother--Altagracia--which is the name of a saint from the Dominican.

I call my mother once every week. I bought her the house she lives in. I’m supporting all of my family. I have a sister, she’s 15, a very smart girl. All I want her to do is go to school.

Q: How much schooling did you have?

A: I went through the eighth grade. That’s about it.

Q: Does that bother you?

A: No, it doesn’t bother me at all. There are many professionals in my country who are not making any money--lawyers, engineers who finished university but are not doing anything. I am, thank God, making money and helping my family.

My grandfather never went to school, and he was smart. If you talked to him for a while, you would have thought he was a lawyer. Finishing the eighth grade, that was a big thing. And I was smart. I was always one of the best students every year.

If I wasn’t playing baseball, then I’d feel bad about not going to school.

Q: What would you be doing if you weren’t playing baseball?

A: Shoot, I wish I knew. There’s not too many things to do over there.

Q: Did you ever work in the sugar fields?

A: I worked for a while. I did a lot of different jobs, but no one paid me more than $3 every eight hours. And by the time I made those $3, I probably had eaten $5 worth.

There was a time when I wanted to go to work to learn how to fix cars--what do you call it, a mechanic? But I couldn’t go, because I had just one pair of tennis shoes. I didn’t have any street shoes, and I couldn’t use my only pair of shoes because they would have gotten too dirty. I owned two pair of pants.

Q: Why have so many big-leaguers come out of your hometown, San Pedro de Macoris?

A: The water (laughing). I wish I knew. I used to look up to Rico Carty, Pepe Frias--they had cars, money, anything they wanted, big houses. I saw that if I wanted to be like them and make money, I could do it by playing baseball.

I’m sure kids in my country now, they look up to me and say the same thing. They’d like to be like Pedro, get $7 million for five years, drive a Mercedes like he does, have a house like he has, play baseball. You see kids playing baseball in the streets everywhere, just like I did.

I remember having to get up at 8 o’clock to play baseball on Saturdays and Sundays. We’d start at 9 and finish around 12, 1 o’clock. I’d play without eating. Then we’d go and eat somewhere and come back and play that afternoon.

For some reason, that’s probably why I love the game so much. I used to get up without eating, walk two miles to play, then play two games, without getting paid for it. Now I get paid for it.

A lot of players, they don’t want to play. They say their finger hurts or they’ve a headache. Those things won’t stop me from playing.

Q: What fantasies do you have for yourself, that you hope to achieve, off the field and on?

A: A house as big as a mansion, a dream house in the Dominican Republic. Twelve, 15 rooms, a big yard and a swimming pool, things to work out with, a batting cage, a place to work out with my kids someday.

I’ve been dreaming about that. I told Denise that last year. Right now, we have a beautiful house in the Dominican, a swimming pool and everything, but it’s not the house of my dreams.

Q: And as a baseball player?

A: I’d like to be able to hit 50 home runs one day, drive in 150 runs, just do something that will make people say someday, “He’s got to be one of the best.”

Q: Are you happy?

A: I’m always happy. Sometimes I don’t want to smile, but even if I don’t look happy, I’m happy inside. I’m not happy when we lose.