No More Short Shrift

TEMPE, Ariz. — Orlando Cabrera was so fed up with baseball, so frustrated with the fruitless tryouts for 12 teams, none of whom offered the little whip of a shortstop a contract, so tired of coming up short in the eyes of scouts scouring his native Colombia for another Edgar Renteria, that he gave up the sport in 1992, enrolling at the University of Magdalena to play basketball.

“I was actually a better basketball player than baseball player,” said Cabrera, a point guard who played one semester in college. “I almost got a scholarship to the University of Miami. Then the Montreal Expos called and signed me for $7,000, and only because I was in college. If I wasn’t in school, I would have signed for $1,000.”

Cabrera, who will begin his eighth major league season in April, this one as the Angels’ new shortstop, recounts this story often for young players who didn’t get big signing bonuses, who don’t have the eye-popping tools and can’t-miss label of the top prospects.

“I tell them it doesn’t matter how much they give you when you sign,” Cabrera said, “because when you get to the big leagues, you’re all the same.”

There is no better proof than Cabrera, who as a kid in Colombia didn’t measure up to Renteria’s standards for size, strength and potential, but who last winter signed a four-year, $32-million deal with the Angels that almost rivaled the four-year, $40-million contract Renteria got from the Boston Red Sox.

The careers of Cabrera and Renteria have always been entwined -- the two played youth baseball together and against each other; Cabrera’s father, Jolbert Sr., a former scout and Colombian winter league manager, recommended Renteria to the Florida Marlins, and Renteria is replacing Cabrera as the Red Sox shortstop this season after Cabrera helped key Boston’s run to the 2004 World Series championship.

And now, Cabrera, 30, finally seems to be emerging from Renteria’s long shadow, having escaped the obscurity of Montreal to help the Red Sox win their first championship in 86 years and signed the kind of deal that affirms him as one of the game’s top shortstops, a Gold Glove-caliber defender with some power.

“He’s better than solid,” Angel Manager Mike Scioscia said of Cabrera. “He’s a unique package, a guy who combines defensive steadiness with great range and a great arm. He can make more throws from different angles, and at times, he’s spectacular. Add the bat he has, and you can see why we’re excited to have him.”

Even if he isn’t Renteria, the four-time All-Star who helped St. Louis get to the World Series last season and who drove in the winning run against Cleveland in Game 7 of the 1997 World Series, giving the Marlins their first championship.

Re-signing with the Red Sox was Cabrera’s first choice this winter, “but they felt they would be better with Renteria, so what could I do?” Cabrera said. “He’s been the best shortstop in the National League for four years. He won the Silver Slugger and Gold Glove in the same year twice [2002 and 2003]. He’s one of the greatest shortstops ever. He’s a Hall of Famer.”

Cabrera and Renteria, the only two Colombians in the major leagues, grew up about 70 miles from each other on the Caribbean coast, Cabrera in Cartagena and Renteria in Barranquilla.

The 5-foot-9 Cabrera is nine months older, but as a kid, he weighed only 140 pounds and could barely make the throw to first base from the shortstop hole. The few times the two played on the same youth team, Cabrera moved to second base and the bigger, more athletic and more powerful Renteria remained at short.

“After Renteria signed, he was the No. 1 prospect in Colombia, so every time scouts went there, they were looking for that kind of player -- tall, strong, fast,” Cabrera said. “I wasn’t that type of player at all, so they couldn’t sign me.”

Cabrera’s father, who died in 2000 of a lung infection at age 50, recommended Orlando to several teams, and a dozen tryouts yielded no offers. But after the Expos signed Cabrera’s older brother, Jolbert, in 1990, they decided to give Orlando a look, signing him in June 1993.

Cabrera rose steadily through Montreal’s system and reached the big leagues for good in 1998, eventually filling out to 180 pounds and developing enough power to average 43 doubles a season from 2001-2004, hit 14 homers and drive in 96 runs in 2001, and hit 17 homers with 80 RBIs in 2003.

But by 2004, Cabrera had grown weary of the instability surrounding the Expos, a franchise that for three years was owned by the 29 other clubs and was wilting in Montreal, where attendance was so paltry the team played a quarter of its “home” games in Puerto Rico.

Cabrera turned down a four-year, $30-million extension last spring and asked then-General Manager Omar Minaya to be traded to a contender. Minaya offered Cabrera to the Angels in May but was rebuffed by General Manager Bill Stoneman, who was happy with shortstop David Eckstein.

Cabrera eventually went to Boston on July 31 in a four-team deadline deal that sent Red Sox icon Nomar Garciaparra to the Chicago Cubs. Cabrera batted .294 with six homers and 31 RBIs in 58 games for Boston, was the glue to an improved defense that many credited with turning the Red Sox’s season around, and so eased the loss of Garciaparra that T-shirts bearing the name “Cabrerah” -- Garciaparra was affectionately known as “Nomah” in Boston -- began appearing in Fenway Park.

Boston had baseball’s best record (42-18) from Aug. 1 on, swept the Angels in the division series, came back from a three-games-to-none deficit to defeat the New York Yankees in a dramatic AL championship series and swept the Cardinals in the World Series. Cabrera batted .288 with four doubles and 11 RBIs in 14 postseason games.

“If you get too caught up in the media and the fans in Boston it can get into your head, but they play the same baseball there as they play in the National League -- it’s no different,” Cabrera said of the transition from baseball-indifferent Montreal to baseball-crazed Boston. “People are into baseball in Boston. It’s like a job to them.

“But I played the same way I did in Montreal. I didn’t try to emulate anyone or be better than anyone. I wasn’t trying to replace Nomar. I was just trying to cover for him.”

Cabrera is taking a similar approach in Anaheim, where he is replacing a fan favorite in Eckstein, the gritty, overachieving shortstop who was an Angel sparkplug during the 2002 World Series run.

Though Eckstein was as popular in the clubhouse as he was with fans, Angel players and coaches acknowledge that Cabrera will be a defensive upgrade -- he has more range, a better arm and incredibly quick hands, as he already has displayed while turning several double plays in spring training games.

There aren’t many similarities offensively -- Eckstein was a slap-hitting leadoff type, and Cabrera, who will bat sixth behind the heart of the order -- Vladimir Guerrero, Garret Anderson and Steve Finley -- is more of a free-swinging run-producer, an aggressive hitter who doesn’t walk or strike out much.

“I can play defense, I can run, but I’m not the same type of player as David,” Cabrera said. “All I have to do is play my game.”

The Angels are confident Cabrera’s game will elevate their defense to an elite level and supplement an offense that lost a considerable amount of power with the departures of Troy Glaus and Jose Guillen. And Cabrera has just as good a feeling about the Angels.

“I believe this team has the potential to go to the playoffs every year and to dominate this division for many years,” Cabrera said. “We want to be the top team, the team everyone wants to beat. This team is going to be around for a long time. That’s why they were my first choice after Boston.”

Cabrera’s first taste of playoff baseball last October hardly satiated him -- if anything, it whet his appetite for more.

“I wasn’t nervous -- it was like I was prepared for it, waiting and waiting for it, and when I finally got there, I enjoyed it,” he said. “That was big, playing for the best Red Sox team ever. It was a great experience that no one can take away. But you have to move on.”

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Split the Difference

New Angel shortstop Orlando Cabrera spent the first four months of last season in the National League with Montreal before his July 31 trade to Boston. Cabrera’s 2004 statistics:

*--* G AB R H 2B 3B HR RBI BA

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*--* WITH BOSTON 58 228 33 67 19 1 6 31 294 WITH MONTREAL 103 390 41 96 19 2 4 31 246 2004 TOTALS 161 618 74 163 38 3 10 62 264

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