Gary Matthews: O's Outfielder Enters The Most Important Season Of His Career

Gary Matthews is a true Californian.

He was born in the Golden State and still has a home there, despite playing for baseball teams in faraway cities like Pittsburgh and Chicago.

He loves the southern California lifestyle—the good restaurants, thee Los Angeles sports teams, the weather, the social life—the works.

Yet he chose to spend this past winter in Baltimore.

The reason?

“I didn't want any distractions,” he says, explaining that he wanted to devote his winter to getting ready for the 2003 baseball season.

The fleet outfielder may have been the team's best overall position player in 2002, despite losing the final six weeks of his season to a wrist injury.

And he wants his performance this season to be even better.

Living in Baltimore gave him a chance to focus entirely on baseball. Baltimore, after all, is a little quieter than Los Angeles. (And although he did make an occasional foray back to the West Coast, he admits that he has gotten to enjoy Baltimore as a city.)

Matthews was able to attend regular baseball workouts at Camden Yards during the winter months, as well as put in time in the weight and conditioning room adjacent to the Orioles' locker room.

And, by chance, he picked up a personal trainer—at least for a littlle while. Matthews, who attended most Ravens game and also watched the Wizards play in Washington, was in Ravens' star Ray Lewis' box one game, where he met Kurt Schultz. A former University of Maryland basketball player, Schultz was serving as the Terps basketball team trainer. He also was Lewis' personal trainer and wound up in the same role for Matthews. The outfielder, already as fine a sculpted ballplayer (at 6-foot-3 and 210 pounds) as you're likely ever to see, credits Schultz with helping him become even stronger, more agile, and in better shape over the winter—until Schultz accepted a job in February as team trainer for the Cincinnati Bengals.

Matthews, at the age of 28, had the best season of his career in 2002, hitting seven home runs and 38 RBIs in 344 at-bats. He had career highs in slugging percentage (.427), RBIs, doubles (25), average, walks (43), stolen bases (15), and runs (54).

He credits much of his success to Orioles hitting coach Terry Crowley.

Matthews says there wasn't really much that Crowley did with his swing or his hitting mechanics. It was more that the coach imparted a new approach to Matthews. He encouraged him to try not to do so much, to go with the pitch. And it made a real difference, says Matthews, and helped ease his transition to the American League after his three previous major league seasons in the National League.

Matthews got off to a slow start with the Orioles, after he was obtained two days after Opening Day in a trade with the Mets for pitcher John Bale. The switch-hitter went hitless in his first 11 at bats and was batting only .194 through April in a part-time role.

But his bat came alive in May, when he batted .333, and he continued to hit so well into the summer that manager Mike Hargrove gradually not only worked Matthews into the starting lineup, but also wound up putting him into the important No. 3 slot.

“Gary can be a very special player if Gary lets himself be one,” Hargrove said last season. “A lot of times when you see people that have that sort of talent, they get in their own way. And we've tried real hard to make Gary feel comfortable here—not to the point where we've scratchedd his back and tickled his tummy, but just letting him know that we do like him and do like his abilities and do like what he brings to the ballclub. And in our efforts to win, he's figured into a lot of it.”

In fact, it's hard to escape the irony of the fact that the last day that Matthews was in the starting lineup before he was sidelined by his wrist injury on August 23 was the precise day that the Orioles season began its collapse.

The team went 4-32 from the day Matthews was incapacitated until the end of the year—the worst close to a major league team's season in history.

Does he think his absence led to the team's downfall?

“I like to think I contributed to the team when I was in the lineup,” he says. When Matthews played, the Orioles were 45-43. When he didn't, they were 22-52.

Statistics do not tell the full story of Matthews' contribution to the team.

He was the kind of player in 2002 who made things happen. He'd take an extra base, racing from first to third, on a single. He'd steal a base that would lead to a winning run. He put some National League fire into a lineup that was largely moribund. And he also helped save runs, playing all three outfield positions, with his arm, his glove and his legs.

If there was one part to Matthews' offensive performance that might be considered a disappointment it was lack of home run power.

He had far fewer home runs per at-bat than he had in his previous two seasons in the big leagues.

But Matthews isn't worried about the diminished power burst, nor are the Orioles.

The objective of Crowley's work with Matthews was for him to learn to control his bat, not to try to bang everything over the wall. The feeling was that once Matthews becomes the master of his swing, the power will come.

And the power is definitely there. On July 29, in a game against the White Sox, Matthews launched just the 29th ball in Camden Yards history to land on Eutaw Street. Only two other hitters accomplished that feat in 2002.

Matthews grew up in a major league environment. Like Cal Ripken and Ken Griffey, Matthews wears a junior behind his name. His father was a star for the Phillies and Cubs, and Matthews spent a lot of his youth in a major league clubhouse accompanying his dad at the ballpark.

He obviously learned his lessons well. Matthews, who is a bachelor, lives the life of a big league player easily. He seems to belong in a clubhouse and on a baseball diamond. It is, after all, his birth right.

Yet in a certain way, he diverges from the path of most men who play in the major leagues today. He is completely humble and down to earth, and he lacks the swagger and mindset of so many professional athletes that seem to say, ‘I am better than you are.'

He is one of the few men to play for the Orioles in recent years who seems to have a genuine interest in other people who make their living at the ballpark beyond those who wear a uniform. He's never churlish or aloof. He seems to realize how fortunate he is to make a living in major league baseball. He has not let it go to his head.

This could be a pivotal year for Matthews.

He showed last season, for the first time in his career, that he can be an impact player in the big leagues, much as his father was two decades earlier. In his previous three seasons in the National League, with the Padres, the Cubs, the Pirates, and for two at-bats with the Mets, he was known for his potential, not for his performance.

Matthews batted .217 in 600 National League at-bats primarily with the Cubs. He was a marginal player at best, at evidenced by the fact that all four teams gave up on him.

He had been selected by San Diego in the first round of the 1993 amateur draft and spent seven years in the Padres' minor league system before finally getting a call-up in 1999. The Padres didn't see enough of what they wanted in Matthews, and they traded him just before the 2000 season to the Cubs for pitcher Rodney Myers. The Cubs let him go the next summer, however, after he didn't impress as a part-time outfielder who was unable to hit much more than .200, although he did knock nine home runs in 258 at-bats in 2001 prior to his release.

It was then the Pirates who took a chance on Matthews. He was given the opportunity to show his stuff, playing in 46 games at the end of the 2001 season. He hit .245—his best stretch up until he joined the Orioless—but it wasn't enough to convince the Pirates he was worth holding.

Three days before New Years eve, 2001, the Pirates traded Matthews to the Mets for cash.

The switch-hitter had a poor spring training with the Mets, however, in part because he was stunned by the death of San Diego outfielder Mike Darr in a traffic accident just before training had begun. Matthews had been a close friend of his, as well as a teammate.

The Mets decided Matthews did not fit into their picture, and just as the season began, after Matthews went hitless in two at-bats for New York, he was traded to Baltimore for Bale.

Now he's shown the Orioles that he can be an important part of their club. He's not a youngster, but he still is young enough to be a mainstay in the Orioles lineup for the next eight years—if he can parlay his 2002 seeason into a better one in 2003.

Matthews believes this is his chance to establish himself. He likes playing in Baltimore, he says, and he wants to be a part of the Orioles future.

That's why he spent the winter in Baltimore.

And it's why 2003 could be the most important year of his career.