Tony Batista: Faith Rewarded

Discarded by Toronto, Tony Batista makes himself at home in Baltimore

One day in February of 1998, Tony Batista was playing winter ball in Venezuela, when he wanted to do something different to give his hitting a boost. He concocted a new stance, which basically had him facing the pitcher almost horizontally, with his left and right legs on an even plane. It looks as though it is almost impossible to be ready for the pitch in such an open stance. He almost has to unwind like a clock spring as the pitcher begins to deliver the ball. But Batista really wanted to come up with a unique approach. While the Orioles third baseman seems to be a quiet and relatively conservative type of guy, he in fact likes to do things his own way.

“I tried to do something different,” he relates of the day he adopted his new batting stance, “and right away I got a hit with that kind of stance. It's been working for me since that day.”

It sure has. On June 30, Batista was named as the Orioles representative on the AL All-Star team. And his unorthodox stance might be the primary reason why he has become one of the premier AL home run hitters over the past few years. He also is one of the most actively religious players in the game, and he attributes his success in baseball, and his good fortune in life, entirely to his religion. In fact, his belief in Jesus Christ, Batista says, means much more to him that his baseball career.

Beginning in 1999, the year after Batista's new stance became his trademark as a batter, he has hit at least 25 home runs annually, and reached 41 long shots in 2000 when he was with Toronto (which happened to be the only other season he was selected to participate in the All-Star game).

This year the 28-year-old Batista ended June with 18 home runs, easily leading the Orioles and ranking seventh in the league for homers. He had a respectable .276 batting average, 50 RBIs and a team-best .536 slugging percentage. Batista also was among the league-leaders in extra base hits, with 39.

The Orioles' acquisition of Batista was nothing short of an act of larceny. Because Toronto had young prospects at third, the Blue Jays thought they could sneak Batista by on waivers and then send him down to Triple-A. But the sharp-eyed Orioles had a better birds' eye view of the situation, claiming the past and future All-Star on waivers and picking up an heir to Cal Ripken at third base with nothing lost in return.

“It was tough, the first two weeks after I was traded from Toronto to Baltimore,” he says. “But then I got used to it. I've been in the kind of position before, from Oakland to Arizona [in the first round of the expansion draft of 1997], and then from Arizona to Toronto [where he was packaged in a trade for relief pitcher Dan Plesac]”.

Batista became interested in baseball as a youth growing up in Puerta Plata, Dominican Republican, watching his two older brothers, Ramirez and Vicente, play the game. “I saw them going to the stadium to play, so I decided to go with them and try to learn. And they taught me. My first manager was [the youngest of my two older brothers], when I was nine years old. He had a team and he put me into the games. And I learned from them. They both were professional players in the states, but they got only to Double-A.”

It wasn't long before the younger Tony Batista surpassed his brothers with his baseball skills.

Vicente and Ramriez have retired from the game now, and they live with their families in the Dominican Republic, but they came north to watch their little brother playing for Toronto in 2000.

When Batista signed with Oakland as a non-drafted free agent in 1991 at the tender age of 17 (after he was spotted by Hall of Fame pitcher Juan Marichal), he was not intimidated about coming to the United States from his home in the Dominican. Not only had his two brothers left the family nest to play in this country, but his sister also departed the homeland to live in Paris, where she still resides. “So before me, they all left the house, to come here to the United States or to France, and I was living at home with my mother and father. But when my turn came to fly away to the United States, I was able to get used to it, and I got used to being almost alone.”

While it wasn't difficult for Batista to leave home, it was for his parents. His mother cried a good bit, he says, and his father was very sad about his son's leaving.

But the Batista family remains very close and supportive of one another, despite the distances that keep them apart. And the Orioles third baseman recently purchased his first computer, in part to learn how to use the Internet so he can communicate more easily with his brothers and sister and parents.

Batista's reputation as a ballplayer has been notched by the power of his bat, and he acknowledges that he'd rather be at the plate than wearing a fielder's glove.

“I think all baseball players like to hit more than playing defense,” he says. “But I like to play defense, too. I think it's exciting. That's why I choose to hit and not pitch.”

Playing in the field is important an important part of his game, Batista says, and he is proud of his defense, even though he has been transplanted from his original role as a middle infielder—he has played both second and short—before Toronto switched him into a full-time third baseman in 2000, which happened when the Blue Jays wanted Alex Gonzalez to play short. At the same time, they were trading third baseman Tony Fernandez, so Batista was given the Blue Jays' third base job. He believes he is more of a natural shortstop, but now that he has been stationed at third for three years, he feels comfortable there.

“I don't think about playing shortstop or second base any more,” Batista says. “I'm happy at third. And I think I do a pretty good job there. And I'm going to continue working hard there to do my best.”

Batista learned that playing third requires tremendous quickness. “Sometimes, especially with the first and second batters, you have to come in on the grass to cover the bunt. But they don't always bunt, sometimes they swing hard at the ball, so you have to be prepared, and you have to move quickly and be ready.”

Batista, in his quiet way, has become something of a leader in the Orioles infield. He pays visits to the pitcher's mound during games, often to settle down a rattled hurler or to make sure everyone on the team is on the same page about what pitches are going to be thrown and about how the infield will set up its defense in certain situations. He has been especially conscientious about going to the mound to settle down some of the young Latin American pitchers, but he also doesn't hesitate to lend his advice and his ear to more established pitchers like Scott Erickson and Sidney Ponson. When manager Mike Hargrove talks about reasons the Orioles are a better club this season than they were a year ago, one of the things he mentions is Batista's efforts to be supportive of pitchers during games. “The little trips he takes to the mound help us,” Hargrove says. It's not just that they give solace to the pitchers, but they save a trip to the mound by either Hargrove or pitching coach Mark Wiley, meaning the pitcher has a chance of remaining in the game longer.

Baseball was not all that Batista learned from his brothers. He also was taught about the importance of making donations to the church. He started in 1998, when he was playing for Arizona, to make unannounced visits to churches in cities across the United States and giving them financial donations from his earnings as a big leaguer. And Batista firmly believes that such donations help bring blessing to himself and to his family, as well as to the way he plays baseball.

“I go to different churches in different cities,” he explains. “God is the one who tells me which churches to visit for making donations. The one who blesses me is Jesus Christ.”

Batista's hobbies are fairly typical for a major league player. He likes to shop for clothes and spend time at the mall, he loves music (that's another reason he bought a computer—to listen to his favorite tunes). He enjoys buying things for his parents, who never could have imagined that one of their sons would become a millionaire, and he likes spending time with his young family.

He also enjoys reading, especially the Bible. “Reading can help you give blessings to god,” he says, “and also can help you become more intellectual.”

Batista feels lucky to be a major league baseball player, he says. “But the best thing I feel lucky about and happy about is my life with Jesus Christ. He continues to bless me, and I continue to live as a simple guy. Sometimes when you get blessings you become rich and famous. And sometimes you forget about where the blessing comes from. But that's the best thing I carry in my mind. I don't forget where the blessing comes from and where I come from. I think the best things in life are to live simply and to give from your heart.”

Batista says he was not troubled by fans' booing when he was at third base in the starting lineup, in the place of Cal Ripken a year ago. “As soon as I got to the Orioles, they explained to me what was going on with Cal [as Ripken prepared for retirement],” says Batista. “He's a guy that everyone respects, and everyone wants to play with him. I'm happy that I could play with Cal last year. I've got that memory in my mind. I understood the situation when I was booed in Anaheim last year. It was the situation, not me. They wanted to see Cal, but instead they saw me standing there. They booed the situation; I don't think they booed me.”

Batista is confident enough of his own abilities not to be bothered by fans' reaction to him replacing the legendary Ripken.

But these days he can be satisfied that others are confident in his abilities as well.

Batista is an All-Star, both for the American League and the Baltimore Orioles.