Now Padres Have the Option of Playing King of Diamonds

The King is back. Back in New York, where this October magic began. Back taking the 4 train from Manhattan to the Bronx. Back at Yankee Stadium in the World Series--or as the King put it Friday while surrounded by notebook clutching serfs, “center stage. You couldn’t ask for a better script.”

He is back as a member of the San Diego Padres, his fourth team since leaving the Yankees after the 1996 World Series in which his Game 4 home run off Mark Wohlers in Atlanta turned that series around, ultimately earning him the championship ring that he still wears on his right hand, the ring with the ‘NY’ in diamonds.

If the King has had to hit the road since then, going from New York to Anaheim to Texas to Boston to San Diego, it goes beyond the black cowboy hat and the country music and the tendency toward individuality.

It basically stems from his often outspoken desire for increased playing time and his requests to be traded if he doesn’t get it.

“The King can do a lot of things to help you win a game,” Yankee Manager Joe Torre said, “but he can also get on your nerves at times.

“He’s very confident and opinionated, and sometimes if you don’t match up well opinion-wise . . . well, there’s the rub.”

The thing is, the King is a valuable and versatile regular-season player who resembles Reggie Jackson in the postseason.

“It’s frustrating at times not to play more,” said the King, who otherwise goes by Jim Leyritz, “but I’ve accomplished a lot of things in the postseason that guys who play every day haven’t, so it kind of evens out.”

Leyritz has never appeared in more than 95 games in his seven full seasons, averaging one home run every 27.7 at-bats.

He has averaged one home run every 6.9 at-bats in the postseason, hitting seven and driving in 17 runs with 15 hits in 48 at-bats.

He has four homers and nine RBIs in 22 at-bats this postseason, hitting three homers to power the division series victory over the Houston Astros and another as the Padres beat the Atlanta Braves to win the National League pennant.

“They wouldn’t be here if it wasn’t for Jim Leyritz,” Torre said. “He believes he’s a big-game player and has the resume to back it up. What he does in the playoffs is remarkable. I can’t be surprised if he beats us.”

Leyritz is expected to serve as San Diego’s designated hitter in tonight’s Series opener. The certainty is that he will be behind the plate when Sterling Hitchcock pitches Game 3, a partnership that began as Yankee teammates.

As for that postseason resume, Leyritz shrugged and said he can’t explain it.

“Maybe it’s a matter of being in the right place at the right time,” he said. “I don’t know. This is the fun time for me, the time of year I like to play. Every pitch and at-bat is important. Maybe my concentration and focus is better. I’ve had success, which breeds confidence.”

Indeed. “They should put his name in the dictionary next to the word confidence,” Padre General Manager Kevin Towers said. “He expects to do these things and does them.”

Said former Yankee teammate Paul O’Neill: “He never seems to play 162 games, but he always seems to come up with the big hit. I have a lot of respect for him. He wants to be in pressure situations. He doesn’t mind seeing his picture on the front page.”

Well, he’s the King, a title bestowed by former Yankee teammate Don Mattingly. It seems Leyritz had borrowed a bat from then-teammate Danny Tartabull to hit against Rick Sutcliffe, but struck out. He returned to the dugout, announced he would use his own bat against Sutcliffe the next time and that he would hit a home run. Leyritz kept his word, and Mattingly dubbed him the King.

The King, however, hasn’t always been treated like royalty on the lineup card. He asked the Yankees to trade him after his ’96 heroics because he didn’t want to sit behind Joe Girardi and the developing Jorge Posada. The Angels traded him to the Rangers for Ken Hill because they had Todd Greene coming, needed the pitcher and had begun to hear some grumbling. When Manager Terry Collins lifted Leyritz for a pinch-hitter on one occasion, Leyritz was heard to say, “I suppose he’s never heard of Mark Wohlers.”

The Rangers sent Leyritz to Boston in a deal that netted Aaron Sele, and the Padres, looking for a right-handed-hitting backup at catcher and first base, acquired Leyritz in June after he had asked Red Sox General Manager Dan Duquette to trade him in the spring, knowing he didn’t fit their plans. The wild-card Red Sox were eliminated from the playoffs in the division series. Leyritz was asked Friday if they had blown it by not keeping him?

“I think Dan Duquette blew it,” he said. “I’m happy to be here and happy Dan Duquette is sitting home.”

Who knows where the King will be next?

The Padres have a 1999 option but have to sort through five key free agents. Leyritz is 34 and said, “I have three or four more years to play and want to play with a contender. If the Padres go in the direction they hope to go, I hope to be with them. I also told my wife the other day, that if they’re out of contention next July 31 [the trade deadline], we may be packing bags again.”

In the meantime, the King is back on center stage, saying he has been dreaming of this since he left.

He is sorting through memories and preparing for an emotional World Series--confident the underdog Padres can survive again.

“People were calling Atlanta the team of the decade, and I think we took that personally,” Leyritz said. “People now say the Yankees may be the best team ever. I think we’re up for the challenge and can prove people wrong again.

“It would be special because of all my ties here, but I want to beat them because I want another ring.”

One for each hand, befitting a King.