On Pro Baseball
Hector Longo
BOSTON — Evan Longoria's jaw drops to the clubhouse floor as he listens to Texas' Josh Hamilton talk of his drug-dominated past.
Minutes later, B.J. Upton whines about a SportsCenter home run highlight. "Heater, right down the middle. Damn."
At the last locker on the left sits Carlos Pena, ear-to-ear grin per usual.
Haverhill's Pena, at 30, stands as the epicenter of this Rays revolution. Tampa — just the Rays, no longer the Devil Rays — are atop the American League.
"Every team respects us now," said Pena before his club opened a pivotal early-season series with the second-place Red Sox here at Fenway last night. "We're a force to be dealt with, and that feels great. Everyone here, with every single cell in their body believes we can do it, and that's powerful. Believe me, it's powerful."
Just what kind of power is the 1995 Haverhill High grad talking here?
Tampa is off to a stunning 35-22 start ... a far cry from the expansion club's 10 previous years of existence. Their best season was 70-91.
Gone are the days of Double-A level pitching and a roster stocked with overpaid bonus babies who cared more about finding ways to blow their signing bonuses than learning how to play the game.
Tampa is the organization that brought us troubled young phenoms like Elijah Dukes and Delmon Young, pouring dollars and seasons down the drain with them.
Even as late as last year, it appeared manager Joe Maddon had lost his grip on talented but volatile players like Carl Crawford and B.J. Upton.
Images of each ignoring cutoff men and flaunting their throwing arms with lasers sailing over the catcher into the screen immediately come to mind.
"It's been a growing process for this whole thing," said Pena, who shares the cover of the Rays' 2008 media guide with Crawford and Scott Kazmir. "It starts in the front office. They committed to me. They've signed guys like (ace lefty) Kazmir and (rookie) Evan Longoria. Just talking about those two, they are extremely talented guys. But it's also what's in their heart and what's between their ears. You want that kind of character in forming this thing."
Character. Funny Carlos Pena should bring that up. Here's an athlete who's done nothing but exude the trait since his days at Haverhill High hooking those towering liners over the stadium wall in right.
The Rays made sure to lock up the well-traveled Pena this offseason, shelling out $24.1 million for the next three seasons.
After stops in Texas, Oakland, Detroit, New York and Boston, Pena, who lives with his wife and soon-to-be 3-year-old daughter in suburban Orlando, landed a home. Not just because of his home run potential, but because of his character.
Tampa will never be confused with the Red Sox or the Yankees. The Rays' player payroll is just $43.8 million, a fraction of New York's ($209 million) or Boston's ($133 million).
The formula, says Pena, is simple.
"This is a very special group here, and obviously the talent is expressing itself," said Pena, who shares the club lead in homers with 10 and is second in RBIs with 32, while still trying to bring up his .221 average.
"A lot has to do with the work ethic this team has. All 24 guys are right behind you. Everybody is pulling the rope the same way. It's not like we're blowing teams out, scoring 20 runs a game. No, it's just good defense, good pitching, a couple big hits and game over. It's a great feeling."
And nobody is feeling better than Pena, last year's AL Comeback Player of the Year when he went from being sent to the minors in the spring to one of baseball's top sluggers (48 homers, 121 RBIs).
"I'm enjoying myself and nothing has changed as far as my lifestyle," said Pena, as he prepped to head to the field for a round of batting practice and a reunion with all his Fenway friends. "I'll never take anything in this game for granted.
"We're winning, playing good baseball, with great teammates, and I'm embracing it, just trying to take it all in."
Hector Longo is an Eagle-Tribune sportswriter. E-mail him at hlongo@eagletribune.com.
