They're banking on money man

By Dan Shaughnessy, Globe Staff, 10/1/2003

OAKLAND, Calif. -- They expect him to go the way of other great Oakland A's who grew up to be too good to afford. When the World Series is over, Miguel Tejada will almost certainly take his glove and bat and go play brilliant shortstop for a more affluent big league franchise.

Oakland general manager Billy Beane, a man who takes pride in winning after the stars leave, says, "Miguel's been in this organization for close to 10 years now and the thought of him not being here is actually quite difficult. My wife just said, `I can't even imagine Miguel in another uniform.' "

Folks in Oakland are used to it. The exodus goes all the way back to Catfish Hunter leaving Charlie Finley. Reggie Jackson was next; the A's had to trade him to Baltimore. Mark McGwire had to be traded because the A's couldn't afford him. More recently, Oakland won an American League West title after losing MVP Jason Giambi, plus Johnny Damon and Jason Isringhausen, to free agency. This year it won after letting Ray Durham walk across the Bay Bridge.

Players like to say it's not about the money. In Oakland, it's always about the money, and that'll be the story when Tejada walks. Before the start of this season, when Tejada was still polishing his 2002 AL MVP trophy, the A's came out and said they would not be able to keep him. Now they're saying they will make some kind of offer, but everybody knows it'll be far below market value.

Tejada loves Oakland. His 3-year-old daughter is already in an Oakland school, learning English to go with her Spanish. He's the undisputed leader of the A's and he thinks they can win the World Series this year. The thought of leaving makes him sad, so he has put it on hold until the postseason is over.

"I'm not in control of the situation and now I just want to keep playing baseball," he says. "We want to pass the first one [Boston series] and see how far we can go, so I'm not thinking about where I'm going to go next year. After I play my last game, then I'm going to think about what I'm going to do. I want to be here and I'm going to keep playing and I don't know if they're going to make a decision. If they will, I'm going to be happy to listen to them. But right now I just play."

Beane says, "We're a little battle-tough when it comes to these situations. With our market it's kind of obvious. Very few owners could afford a player with that kind of talent. But it's not a foregone conclusion that he's gone."

The Red Sox will see plenty of Tejada between now and Monday. The A's leader is fully recovered from a monstrous early-season slump when he hit nothing in April and couldn't reach .250 by the All-Star break. He hit .326 after the break, finishing at .278 with 27 homers and 106 RBIs. Last year he hit .308 with 34 homers and 131 RBIs, and he'll tell you that he's been the same hitter since the spring slump.

"April was a test for him," says manager Ken Macha. "I think going through April and being able to do what he's done since then is more of a measure of how good a player he really is. Some guys go into a slump and they never come out of it and they are in it the whole year [remember George Scott's .171 in 1968?]. This guy battled his rear end off and got back to have some numbers. Almost 30 homers."

"I just worked every day, taking a lot of extra batting practice," says Tejada. "I knew I was struggling the first month, but I never lose my confidence. I come to the ballpark every day thinking I would have a good day. I always started slow every year, but never like that. But I kept working hard. I didn't want one month to bother me for the next five months. Now I feel everything is like last year."

Not quite. The A's' offense is down. When they came through Boston in August, they didn't have anyone in the lineup hitting .275. They finished 13th in the AL in batting (.254) and scored 193 fewer runs than the Red Sox. They weren't even in the top half in Beane's coveted on-base percentage category. Tejada hits either third or fourth in the lineup, in front of former Red Sox catcher Scott Hatteberg.

Nicknamed "Miggy," Tejada is Oakland's point guard on the field, and on the bench when the hitters need a rally. He brings chirpiness and love of the game to the workplace -- just as Tony Pena did when he caught for the Red Sox. Raised in the Dominican Republic (he was signed by Juan Marichal when he was 17), Tejada speaks only fair English, and teammates sometimes have difficulty when he talks fast.

"You can't understand him most of the time, but he's very animated," says Hatteberg.

Beane says, "The great thing about Miguel is that he is a premium player who you absolutely have to drag off the field, and that's hard to find these days. This guy is just a guy that guys rally around."

Adds Macha, "He's been a real force on the bench. He's into it and his teammates love him. Everybody loves him. They understand most of the words. We've been around Miggyisms for a while."

"I joke with everybody and keep everybody laughing," says the affable Tejada. "Even when we are losing the game, I want to make everybody happy and that way we get loose. "

Only 27, the 5-foot-9-inch Tejada has knocked in more than 106 runs in four straight seasons while playing Vizquel-quality shortstop. Last year's performance put him on the AL shortstop Mount Rushmore alongside Messrs. Rodriguez, Garciaparra, and Jeter.

"If I can get into that group, I'm so happy to be in there," he says. "They are all good, all three. I enjoy playing against them. Every time I get to play against Nomar I watch him. I watch every move that they do." He'll be ready for countryman Pedro Martinez tonight.

"This year is our good year," Tejada said. "Last year is in the past already. I know one year we are going to be first. We've got to play the game the way we play. Our pitching is young and never gets tired. We don't have many superstars. Everybody in here likes each other and we never have trouble. Nobody comes here thinking about his own numbers."

Not until the year is over. That's when Miguel Tejada and his agent will start crunching numbers and he'll be the latest in a long line of great Oakland A's who left for more green.