At 32, Boone Is Back Where He Started

Bret Boone has come full circle. The question is, will he start a new circle next year?

Now providing some Alex Rodriguez-type production for the sizzling Seattle Mariners, Boone, 32, is back with the team that drafted him out of USC in 1990, the team with which he made his major league debut in 1992.

The Mariners are also Boone’s fourth team in four years. That’s a strange bit of impermanence, considering he is a solid-fielding second baseman and a potential power source as a middle infielder.

“It’s the nature of the game now,” Boone said. “Players tend to move around a lot. I was in a situation last year where the [San Diego] Padres had to cut $20 million from payroll and I wasn’t a fit anymore.

“Of course, if they were going to cut $20 million, when were they going to win? I knew they weren’t going to win, so it wasn’t very exciting for me to stay.

“Sure, I’d like to settle down, stay somewhere. I’ll be a free agent at the end of the year and I’d like to be in a situation--whether it’s here or not--I can find peace of mind for my family. That’s the toughest part, moving the family every year, but that’s just the way the game is. It’s nothing I take personal.”

To help with his family’s peace of mind, Boone is making $3.25 million this year. He signed with the Mariners as a free agent after a midseason knee injury with the Padres interrupted what might have become his best season--he finished with 19 homers and 74 runs batted in--and left the winter market wary of his physical status.

The Mariners needed to pick up some of A-Rod’s slack when he moved on to the Texas Rangers and were willing to take a chance on Boone, whose knee and bat have proved to be 100%.

Batting fifth behind Edgar Martinez and John Olerud and their high on-base percentage, Boone has a .319 average and club-leading eight home runs and 40 RBIs, only two behind Rodriguez.

“It’s great,” Boone said. “I’m hitting in the position I’m most comfortable in and I’m hitting behind two guys who are going to give me a lot of RBI opportunities. I like to hit with runners on base and Edgar and John are probably the most disciplined hitters I’ve been around.”

In each of the last three years, from Cincinnati to Atlanta to San Diego, Boone had hit at least 19 homers and driven in 63 runs, but his average never topped .263. Sick, he said, of being a guy who hit 20 homers and batted .260 while feeling capable of slugging 25 homers and batting .290 to .300, he worked last winter with his father, Bob, the Cincinnati Reds’ manager, on using more of his lower body and less of his hands in his swing.

“I’m still pretty much a free swinger, but I’ve been focused from the start this year on having good at-bats, particularly in RBI situations,” Boone said. “I had 63 at the All-Star break last year, then hurt my knee. I think I can continue this pace, though that would mean 160 RBIs. Maybe I should say that I think I can continue close to this pace.”

That free-swinging tendency for a guy who is 5 feet 10 and 180 pounds has sometimes caused confrontations with managers.

Some of Boone’s forced migrations, in fact, might have stemmed from his perceived unwillingness to alter his big swing, along with a sometimes brash temperament.

He also came out of his one year with Atlanta--he was traded by the Braves to San Diego after the 1999 season--with the alleged clubhouse image of a player interested only in himself.

Selfish? Boone bristled.

“That’s the farthest thing from the truth and you can ask anybody who knows me or any of the teams I’ve played for,” he said. “The situation with Atlanta was weird. I don’t know what it came down to, but I never demanded to be traded, as the press reported.”

Nevertheless, Boone said, he wasn’t happy batting second that year and wasn’t disappointed to leave, but “I have no hard feelings. We had a great year as a team. The Braves gave me the opportunity to play in my first World Series and that was special. The past is the past. At this stage of my career I’m very happy.”

Ironically, Boone is a teammate now of catcher Dan Wilson, whom the Mariners acquired in a 1993 trade that sent Boone to Cincinnati, and he has been reunited with Lou Piniella, his first manager with the Mariners.

Talk about butting heads. Sweet Lou wasn’t quite as sweet then, and Boone, at 24, was that much more brash and cocky.

“There’s nothing wrong with being cocky, as long as you’re not arrogant,” Piniella said. “Bret has tempered his cockiness and matured as a player. He’s more selective than when we had him before. He’s always enjoyed hitting for power, but the one thing we stressed this spring was that with our lineup, we needed him to be consistent, to use the gaps. He’s doing a good job.”

Time heals most wounds. It was Piniella who recommended the Mariners pursue Boone and says, “I’m hopeful he’s found a home. Sometimes you have to go full circle.”

As much as Boone enjoys being part of this Mariner whirlwind, the power hitter in him, the stubborn voice that won’t die, keeps telling him that the dimensions and lack of carry makes Safeco Field a tough park for home runs. He has had no conversations regarding a contract extension and doesn’t think they would be appropriate to the Mariner focus.

“My thing was to get back to 100%, go to a contender, sign a one-year contract and play like hell,” he said. “It’s a big year for me, with free agency at the end, and I’m in a great situation on a team having a great year. So far, it’s been a very good choice.”

A reunion of sorts that has been good for Boone and the Mariners--but the end of the circle? At this point, 2002 can wait.