Santiago Finds Safe Home With Giants

At first, Benito Santiago didn’t remember the crash and didn’t want to. All he knew was that his knee and pelvis were fractured, and his big league career as a catcher might be over.

Now, it’s a reminder of how lucky he is.

It was three years ago, on an afternoon in Fort Lauderdale. Santiago, a former rookie of the year and four-time All-Star, said he swerved suddenly to avoid a red-light runner.

His speeding yellow Ferrari spun out of control and smashed into a tree. A friend, who also was seriously injured, was thrown from the sports car. Santiago was crumpled inside the wreckage.

“Of course I thought it was over. I knew it was a bad accident. And when there are over three or four doctors working on top of you, you tend to wonder,” he said.

It would be nearly a year before he could play again, and two years before he felt back to normal.

The accident slowed him down, but today, after 14 big-league seasons, Santiago has found a new home and renewed success with the San Francisco Giants.

Santiago, platooning with catcher Bobby Estalella, was batting .319 at week’s end, second only on the Giants to Rich Aurilia.

In his last 18 games going into the Giants’ weekend series in Colorado, Santiago was batting an impressive .338 with a home run and eight RBI. He had hit safely in 21 of his last 29 starts.

“He’s been awesome,” manager Dusty Baker said simply.

When Santiago joined the Giants as a non-roster invitee late in spring training, it was his eighth team in 10 years.

Some questioned whether a guy who had bounced around so much was a team player. And, as a 36-year-old in a position that is notoriously hard on the body, there were concerns about his ability.

But Santiago showed up physically fit and mentally sharp, and quickly won over his new team.

“A guy like that can shut down the other team’s running game, and he’s become a force in the lineup behind (Jeff) Kent and Barry (Bonds). He makes the middle of the order that much more formidable,” said former Chicago Cubs teammate Mark Grace, now with the Arizona Diamondbacks.

When Santiago burst on to the scene in 1987 with the San Diego Padres, he was known as much for his bravado as for his flair for throwing out base stealers from his knees.

That first year he batted .300 with 18 home runs and 79 RBI and rang up a dazzling 34-game hitting streak to earn the NL Rookie of the Year honors.

He was one of the first free-agent signings for the expansion Florida Marlins in 1993. He hit the Marlins’ first franchise home run off San Francisco’s Trevor Wilson at Candlestick Park.

Along the way, Santiago also played for Cincinnati, Philadelphia, Toronto and the Cubs.

“Everywhere he goes, he does well. He’s good with pitches and young catchers and he works hard,” Grace said. “It’s not an accident he’s been around so long. He’s a heck of a player.”

Santiago sports large diamond studs in each ear, and his toned arms are decorated with tattoos. One honors his father, Jose, who died in 1965, the year Santiago was born.

He still has much of the swagger he had as a 22-year-old rookie, but he’s far from aloof.

After a recent game, when Giants pitching prospect Ryan Jensen learned he was returning to the minors, Santiago patted the kid on the back and offered some encouraging words.

Santiago, often trusted by Baker to work with the younger players, admits a sense of responsibility.

“I’ve tried to treat the younger guys the same way I treat the veteran players,” Santiago said. “I just try to be open to them, and anything I can do for them to help them out, anything I can do to help them improve their games, that’s what I’m here for.”