Polonia Hopes to Give Angels a Quick Start

Everyone used to tell the little boy that his dream was too big.

The boy’s father, Luciano Polonia, played alongside Juan Marichal and Julian Javier and the Alou brothers. But Luciano Polonia is 5 feet 4, and he never got a chance to leave the Dominican Republic.

They told Luis Polonia that it would be the same for him, even after he had grown to 5-8 and 150 pounds. They told him to forget baseball. Instead, he started teaching himself English at 12, because he knew he would need it when he played in the United States.

“In the Dominican, they didn’t think I was going to make it, because they see how tall people are here, how strong they are,” Polonia said. “I used to fight with the teachers. They say, ‘You’re going to be nothing, you’re going to be this.’ I’d say, ‘Soon, I’ll make what you guys never make in your life.’ ”

The little boy was right. Now the Angels’ left fielder, the player everyone calls “Louie” will make more than a million dollars this year, even though he lost at his arbitration hearing. After hitting .296 and stealing 48 bases last season, he asked for $2.45 million. The arbitrator, however, chose the Angels’ figure of $1.65 million. Polonia shrugs; it’s enough for now.

At home, Polonia’s father, a doctor, wears an Angel jacket and has put aside the moderately priced rum he used to drink.

“He don’t go no lower than whiskey now,” Polonia said. “He say, ‘My son is a professional baseball player and I have to let people know who my son is, and who I am.’ ”

With Wally Joyner and Dave Winfield gone, and Lance Parrish and Gary Gaetti having had sub-par seasons last year, Polonia, 27, is the returning offensive leader, a leadoff man who looms large in the speed-oriented game Manager Buck Rodgers hopes to play.

Polonia has a .302 career batting average and in 1990 was 66 plate appearances short of qualifying for the American League batting title, which his .335 average would have won.

His defense, once weak enough to make him the brunt of jokes, improved last season, when former Manager Doug Rader ignored critics and made Polonia the everyday left fielder. Polonia made five errors in 143 games.

“I was a good defensive ballplayer before I was a professional, but after I turned professional, I forgot about it,” Polonia said. “I say, what it takes to make it to the big leagues is for me to be a good hitter. It’s like I throw my glove away, all my years in the minor leagues. . . . I said, ‘Hey, keep hitting, and you’ll make it.’ ”

That attitude kept him in platoon situations and at designated hitter for most of his first four seasons in the majors. Then Rader put him in left field.

“He was the one who really gave me a chance,” Polonia said. “That’s the guy I appreciate most.”

When Rader was fired, Polonia was angrier than the ousted manager.

“I said he shouldn’t get fired because of us, but he talked to me and made me realize how life is,” Polonia said.

Rodgers took a liking to Polonia too, but was disappointed in his baserunning. Polonia is known for being dangerous on the basepaths--sometimes to both teams. He stole 48 bases last year, but was caught stealing 23 times.

“He’s got the potential to steal 60 and get thrown out 12 times with approximately the same number of attempts,” Rodgers said. “I think Polonia is just a speed guy. We’re going to work on giving him keys. . . . I don’t think he lacks instincts so much as he lacks some of the keys.”

Polonia says he also wants more walks. Last season, he had 50, 18 more than the year before. This season, he is hoping for 70 or 80.

He wants to mean to the Angels what Brett Butler means to the Dodgers, and to be recognized as such.

Butler batted .296 last season, stole 38 bases, walked 108 times and played 161 games in the outfield without an error.

The thing Polonia wants most, he says, is to play in an All-Star game and to enjoy the attention that goes along with it. Rodgers thinks it’s a realistic goal.

“If he has the kind of year we want him to have this year, I’d say he could be close to being an All-Star in 1993,” he said. “He’d have to put up that 60-12 year, 60 stolen bases, and get caught only 12 times, continue to improve in the outfield, score close to 100 runs, hit .296, .300 again. The other two parts, the caught-stealing and the defense, are going to make the difference.”

In an age when many players treasure their privacy, Polonia yearns to have none. At home in the Dominican, his reputation is ensured.

“I’m a big person over there,” he said. “Maybe I don’t get the recognition I should over here, but in the Dominican, I’m more than the president. Ain’t nowhere I can go the people doesn’t know me. The whole country knows my face. . . .

“A lot of people don’t really enjoy that. They think it’s too much, they don’t want people to bother them. But when I go out, I like to talk about baseball. I like when people come up to me and talk about the games. . . .

“I know I’m getting big. I know a lot of people in California are starting to realize I’m one of the stars, but I don’t just want people to realize in California. I want people to talk about it the whole United States.

“I’ve been underrated. Ain’t no doubt about it. It’s a lot of other players out there, they are not better than me and they’re way on top. I just want people to look at me and see what I’ve done and see what I can do and just give me the right spot.”

Polonia acknowledges that part of what he enjoys about fame is being attractive to women. In 1989, Polonia served about half of a 60-day jail sentence after pleading no contest to a charge of having sex with a 15-year-old girl in Milwaukee during a Yankee trip. He says the girl lied to him about her age, but under Wisconsin law, an adult may not have sex with someone under 16 even if there is consent.

Polonia says he now demands that his dates prove their age with two pieces of identification.

Still, he says, although he is more cautious, he hasn’t stopped frequenting nightclubs.

“It’s hard to stop,” he said. “I think to myself, ain’t no way I can live without a woman. I like women the same way I like baseball. Ain’t no way I can quit. If (AIDS) happens, it happens, but it will be with me being careful.”

Polonia is the father of three children, each by a different mother. But he supports all three, and one child, Bianca, who will turn 3 this month, has stayed with him during spring training. Polonia’s brother and cousin care for Bianca while he is working out.

“They’re mine,” Polonia said. “I don’t want them to grow up saying, ‘My dad is a jerk.’ I want them to know they have a father, and to have anything they need.”

He is a young man with a bravado that serves him both well and poorly.

“Some people never have it and never will get it,” Rodgers said. “If you have it, you’ve got to taper it down on the edges. He’s got that burning desire to excel. He never accepts being mediocre. One-half to three-quarters of all the baseball players in Arizona and Florida right now are happy to be here. Luis Polonia is not happy just to be here and pick up a paycheck. The true players want to go out and earn it and won’t settle for being mediocre.”

Rader, a 6-foot-3, 230-pounder who towers over Polonia, paid him perhaps the ultimate compliment after one game last season.

“There’s not a bigger man in this state,” he said.