ALBERT D. NEWMAN : He Wants to Make a Name for Himself

Anybody meeting Albert D. Newman, the Minnesota Twins’ second-year utility infielder, would think he didn’t have a worry in the world.

Chris Berman of ESPN started it all by calling him “What, me worry?” This is the catch phrase of Alfred E. Neuman, whose freckled face and gap-toothed grin are the symbols of Mad magazine.

Newman’s teammates will tell you he always looks like a guy without a care. So will his teammates on the 1981 San Diego State baseball team, which qualified for the NCAA Midwest Regionals.

“The first thing I always remember about Al is that he always had this big smile on his face,” said Jim Dietz, San Diego State’s baseball coach. “He always looks like he really enjoys what he’s doing.”

This season, Newman has been smiling a lot. He is playing more than he expected to and is hitting .297 (11 for 37) with four RBIs. And the Twins are leading the American League West.

So why worry?

“I don’t think I’ve proven myself at the major league level yet,” Newman said. “If I can do that, I’ll be happy. That’s my goal this season.”

And, at the same time, Newman isn’t going to lose that big smile.

“I had to laugh when I heard my nickname on TV,” Newman said. “But I didn’t know the name referred to the Mad magazine guy right away. I just figured it was because I’m smiling all the time. I figured the guy (Berman) thought I was never worried.”

Newman was drafted out of San Diego State in the secondary phase of the June 1981 draft by the Montreal Expos.

He stole 63 bases for Double-A Memphis in his first season to break Tim Raines’ club record. Before the 1984 season, he was traded to the Padre organization, but he was dealt back to Montreal for reliever Greg Harris later in the season.

Newman made it to the major leagues late in the 1985 season. In 1986, Newman started 43 games for the Expos and hit .200 in 185 at-bats. During the off-season, however, the Expos told him that he was going to be sent back to Triple-A.

“They told me I wouldn’t even start down there,” Newman said. “I asked them to trade me.”

A week later, they did, in exchange for pitcher Mike Shade.

Newman, who was assigned to the Twins’ Triple-A team at Portland, made the major league roster during spring training. He’s starting against right-handed pitching to spell second baseman Steve Lombardozzi and shortstop Greg Gagne.

“There’s no doubt that things are working out for me here (at Minnesota),” Newman said. “T.K. (Manager Tom Kelly) is using a lot of different people, and I’m getting my chance. I want to show everyone I can play.”

And, if he can keep it up?

“Then, I won’t have to worry,” Newman said.

Newman has picked up another nickname.

The players and some fans call him “Puckett.”

It seems some people keep confusing him with Kirby Puckett, the Twins’ All-Star center fielder.

Both players are 5-feet 8-inches, but the similarities end there. Puckett is built like a beer barrel and weighs 210 pounds. He hit 31 home runs.

Newman weighs 170 pounds and hits out of an exaggerated crouch. He has hit one major league home run.

“And the wind was blowing out that day, you can be sure,” said Jeff Reardon, the Twins’ relief ace, who was Newman’s teammate last season in Montreal.

“These guys don’t think I can go deep, but I can,” Newman said.

Puckett, who was sitting nearby, disagreed. He remembered a fly ball Newman had hit to the warning track in Oakland a couple of days earlier.

“I saw your fly ball to center field,” Puckett said. “Reardon told me that’s about all you have, and I’ve got to believe him.”

Newman laughed and reminded Puckett that the Twins did not get him to hit home runs. Minnesota had five players who hit more than 20 home runs last season.

“Al’s a good bunter and he’s got good speed,” Kelly said. “If he can get on base some and play some good defense, he’ll be a big help to this ballclub.”

Newman said he’d like to hit .290 this season. Tony Oliva, the Twins’ batting coach, said that because of Newman’s versatility in the field, he’d be happy with .250.

Puckett, meanwhile, would be happy if Newman got another nickname.

“I don’t understand this Puckett nickname,” Puckett said. “I mean, just look at the two of us. I would tend to think I’m a little bigger in the upper body. When he homers, he can come talk to me. But he has to do it first.”

Newman says the nickname has some advantages.

“He rags me, but I don’t know where he’d be without me,” Newman said. “Whenever there’s a big crowd around, he sends me out so all of the fans will try and get my autograph thinking I’m him. Then he slips out the back door.

“I kind of like that, though. That’s about the only way fans will ask for my autograph.”

Newman is used to being on a team where others grab most of the headlines.

When he came to San Diego State in 1981, the Aztecs already had two All-Americans, shortstop Bobby Meacham, now in the New York Yankee organization, and right fielder Tony Gwynn, now with the Padres.

Newman’s value to the Aztecs was his ability to get on base, the same role he has now assumed for the Twins.

He stole five bases in one game to set a school record and finished the year with 45, one more than Meacham.

“I think playing at San Diego State was a good steppingstone for me,” Newman said. “I got to play with some great talent and I got a lot of help there.”

Said Dietz: “Al was blessed with an above-average arm and above-average speed, and that was about it. The rest of it he made with hard work.

“He had such a great attitude. When you asked him to do something, he never asked why. He just went out and did it.”

In 1981, Newman made the all-Western Athletic Conference first team. The Aztecs were eliminated in the Midwest Regional at Tulsa, Okla.

That summer, Newman came to terms with Montreal and he decided to forgo his senior season at SDSU. In the off-season, he attended Cal Poly Pomona and earned a degree in accounting.

“I set a goal for myself to make the major leagues in five years,” Newman said. “I figured, if I couldn’t make it by then, I’d have to start using that degree.”

For now, though, why worry about the accounting business?