SEATTLE - Lance Berkman doesn't look like an All-Star.
Oh, he hits like one and the prodigious numbers next to his name certainly tell us he deserves to be one.
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The Future Is Now
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Berkman is one of 22 first-time All-Stars, which may seem like a lot but is less than each of the past three years and well short of the record 30 first-timers in 1988. But this group seems especially impressive in the numbers of potential stars it will produce.
Ichiro Suzuki is already an MVP candidate and Berkman and Albert Pujols are emormously talented young hitters who will be among the game's elite for the next decade. Ben Sheets and Freddy Garcia are under-25 starters who will be aces for years to come if they stay healthy.
Pujols, just 21, has been perhaps the surprise of the year, jumping from Class A to All-Star. "I was fortunate enough to get a chance in spring training to make the team," says Pujols, who moved to Kansas City from the Dominican Republic when he was 16. "But I believed I could make the team."
Pujols grinned when asked if making the All-Star team was one of his goals. "I did have that goal," he said. "Just maybe not this year."
Reds All-Star Sean Casey says the league now knows Pujols is no fluke. "After he did it in April, you thought, 'Let's see if he can do it in May.' Well, he did it in May, he did in June. He's shown consistency and that's what makes a great hitter."
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He just doesn't look like one. He doesn't have the monster forearms of a big-time slugger. He doesn't possess the menacing glare of a hitting machine. He doesn't have an ego, a swagger or an attitude. No, he resembles the freshly scrubbed summer intern in the cubicle next to you who just graduated with an engineering degree and can't crack the starting lineup on the company softball team.
Of course, he just looks like your average Lance. Put him in a baseball uniform with a bat in his hands and any good engineering student understands the numbers say he looks like superstar Lance:
First in the National League with a .365 average.
Sixth in the league with 25 homers.
Fifth with 79 RBI.
Second with a .466 on-base percentage.
Third in slugging percentage at .714.
Second in doubles (27) and total bases (225).
Third in hits (115) and fourth in runs (72).
Owner of a 21-game hitting streak as the second half begins.
Not bad for a 25-year-old outfielder who wasn't even assured regular duty at the start of spring training. Not bad for a kid who went undrafted out of high school and was offered only one Division I scholarship. Not bad for a college first baseman who fell to the middle of the first round despite enormous numbers, because ... well, because some scouts believed he just didn't look like a ballplayer.
"Part of that is just word of mouth," Berkman said during Monday's All-Star activities. "You can get labeled a certain way. But your body changes a lot between high school and college and you learn to control it better."
Scouts questioned his athleticism. Some believed he had only one tool -- power. And some believed the 41 homers he hit his junior season at Rice came in large part to a bandbox home stadium. The Astros saw a hitter. They selected the switch-hitter with the 16th pick in the first round, and with Jeff Bagwell entrenched at first base, moved Berkman to the outfield. He made the transition smoothly enough that he even started 29 games in center field this year.
"You know, I played first base at Rice because we had a lot of good, young outfielders," Berkman said. "But I played left field as a freshman. First basemen can get stereotyped and I think that's what happened to me."
What's also happened is that Berkman has blossomed while playing every day. He didn't have that opportunity in 2000, as he spent some time in Triple-A and shared time in Houston's crowded outfield. Still, he hit .297 and slugged .561 in 114 games.
"I'll tell you what, those guys that can come off the bench and play well are the best," Berkman says. "It's easy to handle failure when you're starting because you know you get to perform again the next day."
Regular playing helps as does a sound approach to hitting. Berkman learned at an early age from the greatest teacher of all-time Ted Williams.
"I think I was eight or nine years old when I first read his book, 'The Science of Hitting.' I would read it before the start of every baseball season," he said. The lessons held. "The No. 1 key was getting a pitch to hit, so I try to be patient at the plate. He even had a chart that listed his batting average for different areas in the strike zone."
Williams' advice has helped make Berkman a master at the plate. He's hitting .375 left-handed and .323 right-handed. He's hitting .381 with 17 home runs away from the cozy confines of Enron Field. When the game's on the line in "close and late" situations, he's hitting .333 with six homers in 48 at-bats.
Berkman has certainly made his impression around the league. "With his approach at the plate, he's going to be terrific for a long time," said fellow All-Star Sean Casey, a student of hitting himself. "He's selective at the plate and knows how to work a pitcher."
Rookie All-Star Ben Sheets is one of those pitchers. "He's definitely a talented hitter. He got me for two bombs this year. He's a lefty with a good eye, and those are the toughest guys to get out for me."
Hey, he's tough for a lot of guys to get out.
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