You don't mess with Nixon's helmet
ST. LOUIS -- Trot Nixon insists that it's all about comfort and being prepared, that he isn't making a fashion statement.
But given the national spotlight thrust on the World Series, it is likely that someone tuning in will look at Nixon's appearance and wonder what it's all about. So Doug Mientkiewicz took the opportunity to explain the look you get from the Red Sox' right fielder, who has long favored a batting helmet smudged with pine tar and lately has been caking resin onto his cap.
"I like his hat. It's purple, almost," said Mientkiewicz. "I'm a firm believer in that. His hat shows it's game-worn and I like that. It shows he's a gamer, an old-school baseball player."
Putting pine tar on his helmet and resin on his cap are such important routines to Nixon that earlier this season he was incensed when Major League Baseball officials -- so conscious of the almighty marketing dollars -- threatened to fine players who covered up team logos.
"It's joke, that's what it is," Nixon told the Globe's Gordon Edes. "An absolute joke. I don't care what they say. I'm not paying any fine."
Putting the sticky solution on the helmet has a practical benefit.
"If you put it on your bat," said Nixon, "say it's 32 ounces, and you're using the same bat for, say, three weeks. It will keep getting heavier and all of a sudden you'll say to yourself, `What in the world is going on with this bat? Why is it so heavy?' " Nixon merely has to tap his hands, covered with batting gloves, to the top of his helmet for a quick application. That gives him an improved grip, and he doesn't have to walk to the on-deck circle to rub down the bat.
"I got it from Manny [Ramirez]," said Nixon. "He told me to do it. I never realized to do it until he said that and I was like, `Hey, this guy's got a point.' "
Mientkiewicz is another who favors pine tar on the helmet. In fact, the Red Sox may lead the league in disciples, because Ramirez and Orlando Cabrera are devoted to the practice, too.
"I don't wear batting gloves, so I always go to my helmet," said Mientkiewicz. "I do it because I always need it. I've thrown plenty of bats in the stands and I don't want to see anyone get killed."
It hardly matters to Mientkiewicz that his pine tar-laden helmet looks scruffy, and that the "B" isn't properly visible. Cosmetics don't concern him. Comfort does; he needs the pine tar to be where he can get at it quickly. More than that, Mientkiewicz said, he needs his helmet to fit correctly.
Don't laugh, because Mientkiewicz still steams about one of the low moments in his Minnesota Twins career.
"They sold my helmet in Minnesota one year and I was irate," said Mientkiewicz. "It took me three years to get that thing to where I wanted it. I don't like changing helmets."
The Twins, figuring it was no big deal, sold the helmet to raise fund for team causes.
"The woman who bought it gave it back to me," said Mientkiewicz. "I was really pumped. I gave her a bunch of stuff -- a jersey, a couple of bats. I actually gave her a glove because I wanted that helmet back."
Mientkiewicz could have used a new helmet, but that wasn't the point.
"I don't like all the new stuff," he said. "I like the old stuff."
Which is why he likes seeing Nixon in that helmet smeared with pine tar and the cap that looks like a bowl of flour has been dumped on it. The hat is unmistakably the hat of a guy who loves to dive into the dirt and isn't afraid to get his uniform dirty.
But Nixon insists there's a reason behind it, that this isn't about projecting the image of a hard-nosed player.
"If you spit on your hand and rub resin on it, sometimes your fingers get sticky," said Nixon. "That's why I do it this way because sometimes my hands get slick in the outfield." 