Javy Takes Off

New Catcher Javy Lopez Flies High On And Off The Field

Javy Lopez has a hobby.

He likes to fly remote control airplanes.

Not the little ones that you sometimes see kids playing with in parks, but planes that have wing spans as wide as 10 feet. The kind that you need a license to operate from the ground.

Lopez picked up the hobby almost 10 years ago from friends when he was with the Atlanta Braves. Sometimes he would pilot them at the ballpark in Atlanta. Now he goes to large fields in San Diego, where he lives in the offseason, to engage in his hobby. The new Oriole catcher has more than a dozen remote control planes. And one day, Lopez says, he’d like to bring an electrical plane, which is less dangerous than a remote control model, and fly it above the field at Camden Yards.

In fact, though, he’s already tested with enormous success the aerodynamics of Camden Yards.

In Lopez’ very first time at bat as an Oriole, he piloted a small projectile — sometimes known as a baseball — thrown by Boston’s Pedro Martinez, high into the air, from the home plate region of Camden Yards almost 400 feet away, over the left field wall.

And ever since, Lopez has been ricocheting balls all over the yard. His remote control device is a simple baseball bat. But in Lopez’ hands, it’s been as powerful as a missile launcher in his first three weeks in Baltimore.

For a man who had spent his entire previous career with one organization — 10 years in Atlanta and six years before with Braves’ farm clubs — it didn’t take Lopez long to adjust to his new team. In that Opening Day performance, he went 3-for-4 with three RBIs. He was hitting a lofty .375 after three weeks as an Oriole.

“Being on a new team, being part of a new family, the expectations people have for you really put a lot of pressure on me,” he says of his first experience in a Baltimore uniform. “At the same time, I tried to keep my mind as relaxed as I could, and thinking the only thing I can do is what I did last year, and not change a bit. When I went out there to hit the first time, I was just thinking about last year, and thinking that for me, 2003 hasn’t ended. So I kind of brought last year’s season into this year. That’s how I handled the pressure of Opening Day.”

Ah, last year. For Javy Lopez, 2003 was a glorious year, a season that any baseball player (save, perhaps, Barry Bonds) would want to prolong for the rest of his playing days.

At the age of 32, he batted .328 with 43 home runs and 109 RBIs. All three stats were career bests since he became the regular catcher for the Braves. Only two other catchers in baseball history — Roy Campanella (in 1953) and Mike Piazza (in 1997) — previously had batted over .300 and had hit more at least 40 homers and driven in at least 100 runs. The amazing thing is that he hit all those home runs in just 457 at-bats. Only Bonds had a better home run-to-at-bat ratio than Lopez in 2003.

The Puerto Rican native always had been a dangerous big league hitter. For his career, coming into 2004, he had a .287 average with 214 home runs and 694 at-bats.

But never before had he put together as impressive a season as he did in 2003. What sparked Lopez to such heights?

The cynics will point at that it was a free-agent year for Lopez, and ballplayers often put up sparkling numbers in their free-agent years.

But the catcher himself has more palpable explanations for his career year: He was embarrassed by his 2002 season, and worked hard to make everyone forget it. And he found a stance that seemed to suit him perfectly, after switching stances regularly in previous years.

In 2002 — the year he wanted to blot out — Lopez batted .233 with 11 home runs and 52 RBIs. That comprised his worst offensive season of his career. “The disappointment over the 2002 season really pushed me to be a better player,” Lopez explains. “It helped make me the player I knew I could be, but that I hadn’t demonstrated out on the field. It took that season for me to become the player that I always wanted to be, that I always knew I could be. As a person, I’m very proud of what I do, and I like to do it the best way I can. And it took me that one bad year to become a better player.”

So during the winter after the 2002 baseball seasons, Lopez set about to prepare himself in a way he never had before. The first step he took was to rebuild his confidence, to tell himself that 2002 was a fluke, and that 2003 could be great year. “I worked hard mentally,” he says. “Thinking about myself, I knew I could be a better player.”

And to be that better player, Lopez also knew that he would have to work hard physically. He spent the winter adding a speed training regimen to his regular weight-lifting workouts. He emphasized cardiovascular exercises to improve his speed and his flexibility, as well as his overall strength.

“I didn’t work out that differently,” he says. “But I worked double what I had in the past. I just put more time into it. And the speed training made me more flexible and quicker.”

The results were dramatic. Lopez lost 35 pounds over the winter. And he got himself in shape to be a superior ballplayer than he’d ever been in the past. He also lucked upon a new batting stance at the beginning of 2003, one that he still uses today.

“Last year I tried a different stance,” he says, “and it turned out to be one that allowed me to feel very comfortable at the plate. It doesn’t matter whom I’m facing, I always keep the same stance. In the past I had always looked for a position where I could feel comfortable all the time. I found a few, but eventually there always came a time when I would begin to feel uncomfortable. So I always kept changing. I had a hard time being consistent at the plate. But last year, once I found this stance, I kept it all year, and it made a big difference.”

Leaving the Braves after being with the team for so many seasons — each of which saw Atlanta win the National League East title — might seem like a traumatic experience for a player like Lopez, who was signed by the organization just after he completed high school.

But he says the Braves already had been altering their championship roster, which blunted the emotional pain of being let go by his only previous baseball family. “Most of my friends there had already been traded,” says Lopez. So it’s not as though I had a lot friends still there. There are a few guys I spent a lot of time playing with. But still, coming to this team, and seeing everybody new, it was different. When I first came to spring training in Ft. Lauderdale this year, it just felt different. Going to a different dugout and clubhouse, a different stadium. Seeing different players, different coaches. But it really only took me a couple of days to familiarize myself in the clubhouse.”

The fans in Baltimore also have help ease Lopez’ transition from Brave to Oriole. “Everywhere you go, they’re cheering for you,” he says. That’s something that really motivates you, pumps you up. I’ve been really surprised with the support the fans already have given me in Baltimore. They really make me feel very welcome here.”

It’s obvious, both in Ft. Lauderdale and Baltimore, that Lopez attracts a large contingent of fans from the distaff side. His rugged good looks, perhaps, have something to do with that.

“I don’t know why,” Lopez responds modestly, when asked why he attracts so many female fans. “All I know is that it’s a really good feeling having not just female fans, but all fans.”

Growing up in Puerto Rica, Lopez was a three-sport athlete: baseball, basketball and volleyball. “My favorite sport growing up was volleyball,” he says. I had a volleyball scholarship to high school, and I was playing it every day. But I always knew that volleyball wasn’t a career.”

So he took a more intense interest in baseball.

He had begun playing as a shortstop, but when Lopez was 13, his team’s catcher was hurt in a game. The coach knew Lopez had a gun for an arm, so he asked him to fill in at catcher. “Since the first day he saw me catch, he was in love with me behind the plate,” Lopez relates. “And I loved the fact that I was wearing the equipment, that I was throwing and catching the ball, that I was always in the action. So ever since, I’ve been a catcher.”

Lopez already has had knee surgery, and since he lost 35 pounds two winters ago, he says his knees feel perfectly strong. Yet many catchers eventually wear down from a position that takes its toll on an athlete’s body. So Lopez has informed manager Lee Mazzilli that’s he ready to fill in at first base if the club ever has a need there — perhaps several years down the road, or even sooner if need be.

“I definitely think I would like to play first base some day,” he says. “I told Lee Mazzilli that over the winter, that if anyone got hurt or something, I would be able to play first base. Playing in Atlanta, every batting practice I always took a lot of ground balls at first base. That way I could get used to it, just in case some day I become a first baseman.”

For now, though, the Orioles are very pleased with Lopez behind the plate. Catching has been a weak spot on the club for a number of years. And while Lopez acknowledges that he’s “an average catcher defensively,” some scouts have noted improvement in his work behind the plate this season. He also has shown a strong and quick arm during his first month in Baltimore and has thrown out four of 10 attempted base stealers, one of the top percentages in the league.

Overall, it’s been a better than expected beginning for Lopez in Baltimore. He has fit seamlessly in the clubhouse, worked well with the team’s young starting pitchers, and has hit at a pace that could match or supersede his 2003 season in Atlanta. What’s more, he’s happy in Baltimore and has sparked a lot of enthusiasm among fans.

Now all Lopez needs to be truly happy in Baltimore would be to have two items flying over Camden Yards — an Orioles’ 2004 pennant and one of his model airplanes.