Brother Doesn’t Let Elster Stand Pat

Kevin Elster is having the best season in his once-rocketing, once-sputtering career. Blame his brother Pat, everyone else seems to.

Elster, the Texas Ranger shortstop, had surpassed career highs in home runs and runs batted in by the All-Star break. He still plays shortstop with skill that once put his name in the same sentence with Ozzie Smith. Basically, he has been the linchpin for the first-place Rangers.

And the only one who believed it was possible--a group that includes Elster himself--was brother Pat, who took it upon himself to revive Kevin’s career.

“I didn’t care about playing one bit,” said Kevin Elster, a graduate of Marina High School. “I was ready to move on with my life and I was real happy to close the chapter on baseball. But you ever try to say no to Pat?”

Many general managers have during the last three years.

No one in baseball wanted to touch Elster, not with a 10-foot foul pole. He may have been a phenom with the New York Mets, but that was long ago.

Two shoulder surgeries since 1992. More failed comebacks than Robbie Benson. A certain complacency toward the game. The list was extensive and Pat Elster had it memorized. But he wouldn’t take no for an answer.

“I think Pat wanted to see me play more than I did,” Elster said. “That’s fine with me.”

As it is with the Rangers.

Pat Elster talked his brother’s way into the Rangers’ camp this spring. Kevin Elster, 31, came in as a nonroster player--one of seven players competing for two roster spots--and few expectations. Then shortstop Benji Gil needed surgery to repair a herniated disk in his lower back in March.

“Kevin was the only guy in camp who could legitimately play shortstop every day,” Ranger General Manager Doug Melvin said. “We had to go with him. It’s a great comeback story.”

How great?

Elster played in 49 major league games the previous four seasons. He went through five organizations since leaving the Mets after the 1992 season. Even Elster was ready to call it a career.

Now he is hitting .276 with 14 home runs and 61 RBIs, and there was some Texas-sized grumbling when Elster was not named to the American League all-star team. This from a guy who has never hit higher than .241. His previous career bests were 10 home runs and 55 RBIs.

Some have used Elster as an exhibit in making their case about a “juiced” baseball. But Elster said such talk is an injustice. He points out that he led the International League in hits in 1987, driving in 74 runs in the process.

“I like to think this is the kind of year I would have had with the Mets if I had stayed healthy,” Elster said. “I wasn’t an anemic hitter. I was just a lot younger and dumber back then. Then I had a four-year interruption.”

For the moment, the Rangers aren’t all that concerned about the whys and hows.

“I’ve stopped trying to explain Kevin Elster,” Ranger Manager Johnny Oates said. “There’s no way to explain him at this point.”

There’s too much to review.

Elster was among the plethora of talent developed by the Mets during the 1980s. He spent seven seasons with the Mets and once went 88 consecutive games without an error, then a National League record.

Elster still doesn’t know how he injured his shoulder. He suspects it occurred during a brawl with the Padres. No matter the cause, he played only six games in 1992 and was done. The Mets didn’t offer a contract following the season.

He bounced to the Dodgers, where he played 10 games with double-A San Antonio in 1993, to the Padres, who released him after spring training in 1994. He and his agent then parted ways. Elster staunchly refused to play in the minor leagues and no one was willing to give him a spot on their major league roster.

If it wasn’t the end of the road, it was only a block away. Then Pat Elster took the wheel.

“I took Kevin out for a drink and asked him if I could make a few calls,” said Pat Elster, a part owner of the Long Beach Riptide, an independent minor league team. “I told him at this point in his career, he needed a salesman, not a guy to make a multimillion dollar deal.

“I just thought it was a shame that a guy with his gift and was healthy was retired at age 29. Kevin told me I could try.”

That started the phones ringing. Pat Elster called everyone. Few cared to listen.

Kevin Elster, meanwhile, started an acting career and appeared in the 1994 movie “Little Big League.” He was comfortable with playing a baseball player rather than playing baseball. But that spring, Pat Elster called Gene Michael, then the New York Yankees’ general manager.

“I made my sales pitch and Gene said, ‘When you’re done, I’m going to tell you what’s wrong with Kevin,’ ” Elster said. “He went on about how Kevin was out of shape and hadn’t been dedicated. He beat Kevin up pretty good for about a half hour. Then, when I was just about to hang up, fly to New York and punch him in the nose, I asked, ‘What does Kevin have to do to get the New York Yankees interested?’ Gene said, ‘Now you’re talking.’ ”

Elster went to the Yankees’ spring training facility in Tampa to work himself into shape. He went to Class A Albany for 41 games, then was called up by the Yankees. He played seven games, then strained his shoulder and was out the rest of the season.

The Yankees released Elster the next June, but he was back in playing shape. The selling got easier, even if the results were the same. Elster played triple A in the Kansas City Royals’ organization, was released, then hooked up with the Philadelphia Phillies for 26 games.

At the end of the season, Pat Elster started pitching again.

“Pat kept calling and calling,” Melvin said. “He started making me think a little bit. Finally, we talked with Gene Michael and he gave us a good report. So I told Pat we’d let Kevin come to camp.

“We figured he might be able to help us as a defensive replacement. So what happens? His first game, he makes two errors and hits a home run. I thought, ‘Geez, we were supposed to be getting a guy who is a good fielder, but couldn’t hit.’ Who could expect that?”

Elster hit .343 during spring training and hasn’t slowed much since.

He singled home the winning run in a 3-2 victory over the Chicago White Sox April 9. On May 4, he hit a two-run homer in a 3-2 victory over the Detroit Tigers. On June 29, he had a home run and four RBIs in a 9-5 victory over the Seattle Mariners.

The list goes on. The phone calls have stopped.

“At this point, I feel like screaming, ‘I told you so,’ ” Pat Elster said. “I do feel vindicated.”

Said Kevin Elster: “Yeah, it looks like I’m stuck playing this game, doesn’t it?”