From his perch atop the field, the Washington Nationals colour commentator since 2011, F.P. Santangelo, had a bird’s eye view of the development of Bryce Harper and, now, the likes of Trea Turner, Victor Robles and Juan Soto. As a member of the Montreal Expos’ minor-league system from 1989-95 and the major-league club from 95-98, he had a first-hand view of the treasure trove of prospects that passed through the organization.
He was there when Vladimir Guerrero Sr. made his debut in September, 1996, in the throes of a wild-card race. Friday night, as he was working the Nationals-San Diego Padres game, Santangelo’s laptop computer helped him keep an eye on the Hall of Famer’s son’s debut.
You had to. If you’d seen one … you were almost obligated to see the other. It just seemed right. But even before the game, Santangelo knew what to expect from the son more than he knew what to expect from the father on his debut.
“This is a polished player coming up,” Santangelo told my show on Sportsnet 590/The Fan. “Vlady (Sr.) was not a polished player when he came up. He ran the bases poorly, got thrown out a lot. He was all gangly and swung at everything. Missed cut-off men.
“It took a while for the game to slow down for him. We’re seeing it here with Victor Robles. But Junior is a major-leaguer right now. You won’t see growing pains with him. He’s a polished major-leaguer who will hit the ground running.”
It has been Vladimir Guerrero Jr.’s lot in life to be compared to his Hall of Fame father ever since he put his name on a contract that paid him a $3.9-million (U.S.) signing bonus in 2015. From that point on, even through the back-to-back post-season appearances, his progress was tracked not only by what he did but by how it compared to what his father did.
That was and is unfair to both men. Their circumstances are different. Their bodies are different. The game is different. Vlady Sr. was lean, all angles and muscle when he broke in. Eventually, he bulked up. Vlady Jr. is – as the Blue Jays like to say when addressing his matter of delicacy – a “physical outlier,” compared to many young prospects. He is listed as being 250 pounds; he might actually get there by the end of the season. Maybe.
In some ways, the Blue Jays have more invested in Vlady Jr. than the Expos had in his father. Reputations and jobs are at stake. The Blue Jays need to get this right or the franchise will be set years back. He is, as of right now – through four at bats -, the best player on the team. On Friday night he was the bringer of good tidings: A lead-off double to start the winning ninth, a game won on a teammate’s two-run home run.
“The walk-off happened to another guy who needed it,” manager Charlie Montoyo said of Brandon Drury. Vlady Jr., it seems, already has coat-tails.
Guerrero Sr. debuted differently. This was before social media, and most of the legend was word of mouth.
“He was the one minor-leaguer we heard about in the (short-season) Gulf Coast League. Then you’re hearing about him hitting .340 at Double-A,” said Santangelo. “That was rare back then.” Yet even with that, as Santangelo noted: “We just didn’t know what kind of player he was.”
[relatedlinks]
Guerrero Sr. joined the Expos on Sept. 21 1996, with the team six games out of first place and one back of the wild-card-leading San Diego Padres, having won seven of eight games going into a key three-game series at Atlanta Fulton-County Stadium against the Braves, who held down first-place in the National League East.
Manager Felipe Alou put him in the lineup immediately, benching Henry Rodriguez – like Guerrero and Alou, a native of the Dominican Republic who was on a .378 tear over 11 games, but whose strikeouts and defence annoyed his skipper.
The Expos lost seven of their last 10 games and were eliminated from the wild card on the second-last day of the season. Guerrero was five-for-27 while Moises Alou (the manager’s son) and Rondell White lost playing time to the phenom.
As Santangelo said: “We had a good chemistry going, and it ruffled some feathers. We were a winning team, going for the wild card … there were some eyeballs rolling at Felipe.”
Guerrero’s 1997 season was delayed until May 3, when he fouled a ball off his foot late in spring training; but he still hit .302 en route to finishing sixth in NL Rookie of the Year balloting behind winner Scott Rolen, Livan Hernandez, Matt Morris, Rich Loiselle and Andruw Jones.
Nobody doubted Vlady Sr.’s ability to play right field – put 20 baseball people in a room and ask them about his son and 15 will say he will need to move off third base – but he did lead the Majors in outfield errors for five consecutive seasons, starting with the 12 errors he was charged with in his rookie campaign.
Guerrero Sr. homered in his third game off Mark Wohlers, the Braves All-Star closer who would go on to record 39 saves, leading to this memorable call from Braves broadcasters Skip Caray and Don Sutton.
Vlady Jr. didn’t deliver a homer in his first game – he did send Chad Pinder to the wall in the left-field corner – but he brought something better: Hope, fun and a palpable sense of excitement that manifested itself even with the simplest act such as bending down, picking up a rolling foul ball, and flicking it into the stands.
When the ball found Vlady Jr., he was ready. When the moment found him, he was ready: An opposite-field double on an outside pitch with an umpire behind the plate who had a generous strike zone. Less raw power than polished, brain-to-hand interaction.
And as he wrapped up his post-game, on-field media availability, the strains of April Wine’s Oowatanite echoed throughout the Rogers Centre. A great Canadian band. A great Montreal band.
Born in Montreal the son of a beloved Expo, raised in major-league clubhouses and the Dominican Republic, Vlady Jr. seems ready to accept his destiny as a Blue Jay and a major-leaguer. Not yet a finished product, but more polished at the start of it all than his father, who looked down from a suite high above the field at the Rogers Centre. Just one of many, many sets of eyes drawn to him; eyes that won’t leave him from this point on.
