A Perfect Fit

Jim Edmonds came to God’s Baseball Town and hoped for a period of anonymity, some time to catch his breath. He believed his career with the Angels turned unwieldy at the end, and this seemed a nice little hamlet to resume baseball away from the headlines, rumors and character observations.

Then he hit better than .400 for three weeks, hit more home runs than everyone in his lineup, and struck up a friendship with the big red-headed guy whose presence is so large you’d have to grease it up to get it through the famous arch by the river.

If it was obscurity he desired, and apparently it was, then Edmonds failed. The new center fielder for the St. Louis Cardinals isn’t difficult to find, beginning with the gaudy batting average and a place among the National League leaders in home runs and runs batted in.

For the moment, he is smack in the middle of the baseball universe, which from the airport, loosely, is a left turn onto Mark McGwire Highway, a right at the 18-foot statue of Stan Musial, a left at the eight-foot statues of Lou Brock and Bob Gibson, and a left finally at the real Mark McGwire, Busch Stadium’s largest and sturdiest piece of hardware.

“I don’t think any of it needs to be said anymore,” said Edmonds, as bored by the subject of his former life as he is energized by the current one. “I honestly think people are tired of reading about me.”

He said it is good here. He said he figured it would be.

“I knew once I walked out of that [Angel] clubhouse,” Edmonds said, “that things were going to change for me.”

There is no avoiding baseball in this town, even with a gleaming Super Bowl trophy locked away in Georgia Frontiere’s hope chest, and even in the midst of the NHL playoffs, where the local team was alarmingly close to being run out in the first round.

Therefore, there is no avoiding Edmonds, the elegant player who swept in on the trade that sent Kent Bottenfield and Adam Kennedy to the Angels. He hit nearly .400 for a month, much of it while McGwire rested his aching back.

The chill hasn’t yet left the night air along this bend of the Mississippi River, and the talk in St. Louis is whether Willie McGee should have his No. 51 retired, and not who will hoist the team’s next championship pennant.

The ballpark, however, has the unmistakable buzz of a happy baseball public, weighing the intoxication of early wins with the wisdom that a long summer awaits.

The Cardinals have hit a league-record 47 home runs in April and they lead the burly National League Central by 4 1/2 games, largely because of Edmonds.

When McGwire returned to the lineup late last week after being out for seven games, it was Edmonds who led the team in home runs with six, and RBIs with 17. And, it is Edmonds, along with second baseman Fernando Vina, another newcomer, who has the town so smitten. Edmonds is hitting .361 despite going 0 for 3 in a 7-2 victory over Milwaukee Tuesday night.

“Right now, the darlings of our fans are Fernando Vina and Jim Edmonds,” Cardinal Manager Tony La Russa said. “I’m on the streets all the time, and people want to talk Cardinal baseball. They pull you aside. They are totally in love with those two players. And they should be.”

At the far wall in the Cardinal clubhouse, standing at a locker beside that of old Angel buddy Mike James, Edmonds does not want to risk any of it, and that is why he hesitates to retell his story.

Life is too good here, too rich to chance fouling it up with old grudges or new wars. The town likes him, the manager likes him and his teammates like him.

“He’s really a good dude,” McGwire said.

James, Edmonds’ confidant for years, said, “The fans here love his style. I think it’s perfect for him.”

It is blissfully quiet for Edmonds for all but three or four hours a day here, and then he plays baseball, when he likes it loud anyway. He lives temporarily in an apartment 10 miles from the ballpark, west on Interstate 64, past St. Louis University and the St. Louis Zoo.

San Diego Padre third baseman Phil Nevin spent three days with Edmonds when the teams played a series at Busch Stadium last week, and he found his friend and former Angel teammate content.

“He’s extremely happy with where he’s at,” Nevin said.

Edmonds’ Southern California tan is shot, of course, gone in a succession of cool spring days. A few streaks of reddish-brown remain in his thick dark hair, so he hasn’t yet gone totally Midwest.

He rides the same easy, athletic gait in red as he did in periwinkle. He wields the same fluid swing. In batting practice, he rocks into his left leg slightly and then come the weight shift and the flash of hands and bat head violently through the ball. In between turns, he laughs with McGwire and Ray Lankford and Vina, and talks quietly with General Manager Walt Jocketty.

They heard the stories about Edmonds, that he wasn’t a team player, that he preferred style over heart. La Russa shook his head.

“You never know what’s involved in a situation,” he said. “You don’t know, so you take guys for what they are. I’ve seen a lot of misconceptions.” He paused and let the irritation pass.

“I know Jim’s a hard player and can do a lot of things to win a game,” he said.

Edmonds, 29, has fallen into a solid friendship with McGwire. They spend hours away from the ballpark together, McGwire said, “hanging out,” two Southern Californians caught in the middle of the country.

When Edmonds arrived, they chuckled at the circumstance of their sharing a lineup. In 1997, the summer McGwire was traded from Oakland, it had been rumored that he and Edmonds would be traded for each other.

They suit up seven stalls apart in a stress-free Cardinal clubhouse. Edmonds bats third and McGwire fourth in a dynamic batting order.

“I never knew him personally until he came here,” McGwire said. “He and I really hit it off.”

It is possible that the relationship will affect Edmonds’ future as a Cardinal. McGwire said he would like Edmonds to stay, primarily because it would make the team better, and McGwire’s wishes generally are not ignored in St. Louis.

For all of his home runs, McGwire hasn’t played in a postseason game since 1992. Edmonds would help, assuming he avoids injury. He can be a free agent after the season, and that is where Edmonds’ existence in baseball’s Shangri La becomes muddled.

It appears there is a concerted sales effort under way to keep Edmonds in St. Louis.

“The Cardinals aren’t going to make a trade for him and not do everything in their power to try to keep him here,” McGwire said with authority. “They’ll do the same thing they did with me, just let the city, the fans, the coaching staff and the front office sell it to Jimmy. So far, so good. I told him, ‘Jimmy, you’ve got to give yourself a month or two and you’re going to love it.’ ”

One wouldn’t blame Edmonds for hesitating. Anaheim was supposed to be perfect too. Then came last season, when he played 55 games and took heat for 92 losses.

When it was decided the organization needed more pitching, new management used Edmonds as bait, then used about half of the money it would have cost for Edmonds on Garret Anderson.

Nevin called it was the best possible outcome for Edmonds.

“I just don’t think he was appreciated like he should have been there,” he said.

“He--well, I want to say this the right way--he can be probably the most talented center fielder in the game. That’s including [Ken Griffey] Junior. He has that capability. And being in a place like this . . . he’s just going to flourish.”

For the first time since he played in the minor leagues, baseball has taken Edmonds away from his family, including two small daughters, in Orange County. It is his only regret, Nevin said.

“I’m sure he’d like to be close to where his kids are growing up,” he said. “To me, this might be just what he needs, have baseball be the No. 1 thing. He wants to win. He wants to be one of those guys who takes his team to the next level. He’s got a chance to do that here. He didn’t in Anaheim.”

Edmonds’ instinct is to create and maintain harmony. He is by nature a nice guy, maturing, and not at all moody.

He is protective of his new environment and he no longer trusts unconditionally.

Professional baseball began for Edmonds in 1988. In October, if he wishes, he can pick his team and his contract. It is his right. Think five years. Think $55 million or more.

“I was dying for free agency when I was in Anaheim,” Edmonds said. “After I put up with what I had to put up with for the last six years, who wouldn’t want to get to free agency and a chance to get out of there? But, on the other side of me, I’m not one for change. Change is the hardest part of life to deal with. There was a part of me that didn’t want to have to change. I was thinking I would be able to work something out in Anaheim.”

He said that if Angel General Manager Bill Stoneman had come to him with a contract extension in March instead of a trade, he might have signed.

“I have mixed emotions on that, obviously,” Edmonds said. “I was forced into the situation and that’s why the change was for the best.”

Many in St. Louis are betting Edmonds won’t get to free agency, an outcome that would seem to please him.

God’s Baseball Town is growing on him, just as McGwire predicted. He might just stay.

“It’s a great situation,” Edmonds said. “I always admired the teams that came into Anaheim, and the fans rooted for that team. I always thought it would be fun to be in a situation like that. Now I’m in that situation.”

(BEGIN TEXT OF INFOBOX / INFOGRAPHIC)

Tracking the Trade

A look at this season’s statistics for the players involved in the March 23 trade of Kent Bottenfield and Adam Kennedy to the Angels for Jim Edmonds:

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Avg. AB R H HR RBI Jim Edmonds .379 58 18 22 6 17 Adam Kennedy .318 85 13 27 1 15

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Rec. ERA Inns. BB K Kent Bottenfield 1-2 5.64 22 1/2 12 12

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Note: Through Monday’s games