Valdes Gets Almost All A’s on Pitching Report Card

Lots of baseball people thought Raul Mondesi was the best right fielder in the business.

One of them was Raul Mondesi.

Of course, another of them was his manager, Bill Russell, and “lots of people” probably included every baserunner in the National League.

You might say Raul Mondesi was born to play right field. He probably would agree with you.

Probably the best right fielder ever was Roberto Clemente. He nearly ruined the position for everybody else. He used to just stand there and dare the runner to take another base.

So does Mondesi.

And yet, Clemente was not Raul Mondesi’s idol. Mondesi is Mondesi’s idol.

It’s not that he’s immodest. It’s just that he’s confident.

“You have to have confidence,” Raul says. “Without it, what good are you?”

Since he was the best right fielder in the business, Raul didn’t take kindly to the suggestion that he move over to center field.

There are subtle differences.

A right fielder, for example, can take up his position 270-280 feet from home plate. He is in charge at that distance--an intimidator. He can throw to the plate on the fly.

The center fielder, on the other hand, has to play in front of a fence 410-420 feet from home plate. Even allowing his ability to get back under a ball hit over his head--Raul’s speed is considerable--he still has to camp out there, 370 feet away. It’s a much longer throw, even to the cutoff man.

Mondesi doesn’t bother with the cutoff man when he’s challenged. He goes for the jugular, throws for an out. He takes it personally when runners dare him. They’ve insulted him.

But center field adds another dimension to the task. Raul says tut-tut, not to worry. If he can no longer be the best right fielder in the business, he’ll just become the best center fielder.

To be sure, being the best center fielder in the game brings a whole new cast of characters into the competition. After all, Willie Mays was a center fielder. He practically retired the position. DiMaggio played there. Mickey Mantle, Terry Moore, Curt Flood, Tris Speaker.

That doesn’t faze Raul. Bring ‘em on.

Mays made the three-base hit obsolete out there. But in right field, Clemente almost made the one-base hit disappear. For five seasons he led the league in outfield assists. Roberto was relentless.

When a ball is hit to right on the bounce, the average right fielder throws to second base to discourage the runner from taking an extra base. Not Clemente. Roberto would throw to first, in case the hitter was taking too wide a turn rounding it. One night in the Coliseum, I saw him throw Sandy Koufax out at first by three yards on a clean single to right.

Mondesi has done the same. He remembers one night he similarly threw out Mark Portugal on a clean base hit. Sometimes, like Clemente, he was a fifth infielder.

Carl Yastrzemski of the Boston Red Sox used to lead the league regularly in outfield assists from left field. But he played in front of Fenway Park’s “Green Monster,” a wall only 310 feet from home plate. He didn’t have much more of a throw than a shortstop.

It used to be said of Dodger Carl Furillo that he was “armed and dangerous.” And he was. There again, though, he was throwing in the chummy confines of Ebbets Field with its short right-field foul lines, where he could position himself just behind the first baseman.

Mondesi plays in these big, round symmetrical ballparks where the outfield is a toll call. But still, baserunners don’t take any liberties with him. Mondy is armed and dangerous, too.

If that’s all he could do, he would be valuable. But Mondesi is more than a disembodied right arm. Even celebrated center fielder Terry Moore hit only 80 home runs--in his career. Mondesi already has 114. And he’s only 27. He is armed and dangerous at the plate, too.

He is the complete player. Mondesi stole 32 bases last season. He hit 30 home runs. He has hit 14 more already this year.

If he has a fault, it is that he over-relies on his hero, himself. Mondy is a Will Rogers hitter. He never met a pitch he didn’t like. He’s harder to walk than a St. Bernard. He walked only 32 times two years ago. His idea of patience at the plate is to lay off the wild pitches. If the ball stays in the air, Mondy tries to nail it.

Clemente did not put too many demands on a pitched ball, either. He walked only 26 and 29 times his last two years.

But Roberto didn’t require a strike. He fanned only 49 times his last season. Mondesi struck out 105 times last year, 122 the year before.

But that’s a small trade-off for the Dodgers. Only last Saturday, Mondesi showed he didn’t need a bat to win games. It was the bottom of the seventh inning in Seattle, runner on second. The batter drove a long single to center. Piece of cake, thought Edgar Martinez, the runner.

Not. He was out at the plate by daylight. He’d just been Mondesied.

The fans were awed. Bill Russell, Mondesi’s manager, was tipping his cap. The baserunner, Martinez, was shaking his head.

Mondesi? Raul was surprised the guy had tried it.