In Year of Home Run, Let’s Not Forget Vaughn

Greg Vaughn got all of the pitch, driving the ball high into the Arizona sky, all the way to the outfield wall.

But no further.

As it caromed off, San Diego Padre teammate Ken Caminiti good-naturedly said, “You’ve got nothing. The ball didn’t go out.”

Vaughn, however, wasn’t biting.

“It doesn’t matter,” he replied calmly, a look of satisfaction on his face.

That was in spring training. But Vaughn knew he had rediscovered the smooth batting stroke, which had been missing since he first put on a Padre uniform in 1996.

Fast-forward to the final stretch of the season.

Vaughn has more than made up for missed opportunities and is sending balls over walls like never before.

But talk about forgotten stars.

Only 23 times before this year had major league batters hit 50 home runs in a season. Vaughn, with a career-high 49, is poised to join them. But unfortunately for him, he has picked a year when when men named McGwire and Sosa have surpassed 60. He will be little more than a footnote in the home run chase.

But, he said, it doesn’t matter.

What matters to Vaughn is that his roller-coaster ride through the major leagues has smoothed out. No longer worried about remaining a Padre, or about remaining in the starting lineup, he has relaxed enough to have his greatest power year at the plate and become a shoo-in for comeback player of the year in the National League.

He batted .206 with the Padres in 43 games in 1996, with 10 home runs and 22 runs batted in, after the Milwaukee Brewers had traded him. He batted .216 last season with 18 homers and 57 RBIs in 120 games. Before Tuesday’s game with the Dodgers, Vaughn was batting .276 with 116 RBIs.

“He’s tension-free,” said Padre batting coach Merv Rettenmund.

“When he’s tense, the next thing you know, his stride lengthens, he’s locked up, his head flies and he does all sorts of things wrong. But it’s tough to be confident when you’re hitting .200.”

But then, it’s tough being platooned, as Vaughn was last season with Rickey Henderson in left field until Henderson was traded in August. And it’s even tougher coming back to a team after that team tried to trade you.

That was rock-bottom for Vaughn. Not only wasn’t he wanted by the Padres, but when they tried to peddle him to the New York Yankees, they didn’t want him either, calling off the deal after taking a closer look at Vaughn and his sore shoulder.

Some guys would be bitter about returning to a club that way. Vaughn took the positive approach.

“I wanted to show people I could play this game,” he said. “I wasn’t going to let this game beat me. And the guys in the clubhouse made it easier to come back. These are the best guys I’ve ever worked with. These are the guys I play with. I don’t have to see those other guys [the ones who engineered the trade] every day.”

Once Henderson was traded and Vaughn knew he had a full-time job, that the Padres were depending on him, it seemed as if the weight of the world was lifted off his shoulders. And replaced by a hot bat.

Oh, and with his 49 homers, Vaughn has obliterated the team’s single-season record of 40, which had been held by one Ken Caminiti.

So, as it turns out, it did matter after all.