Marcos Bretón: Fiery Byrnes motivated by can-do spirit
By Marcos Bretón -- Bee Staff Writer
Published 2:15 a.m. PDT Sunday, May 25, 2003
OAKLAND -- The college baseball star was asleep in his apartment when his eyes jerked open to spy a thief rifling through his belongings at 5 a.m.
The intruder was a great big brute, but who cared? The sleepy dude on the bed was Eric Byrnes, who didn't think or hesitate because -- let's face it -- indecision is a weakness of the self-aware and the analytical.
I mean, why study the options or acknowledge intense danger when you can punch a guy in the face and knock him senseless?
So Byrnes did -- and then called the cops.
"There was blood all over the place," he told the Los Angeles Daily News in 1996, when Byrnes was an All-Pacific 10 outfielder with UCLA.
"I said, 'Who are you?' "
And if you think that's cool, check this out: After the groggy goon was hauled to justice, Byrnes turned out the lights and went back to sleep.
"I had a big game (that) day," he said last week in total seriousness.
Oh, yeah, that explains it: Byrnes had a big game.
His Bruins were facing the hated USC Trojans, who were ranked third in the nation until getting pounded 12-7 by UCLA and Byrnes, who had a single, a double and three RBIs in the game.
True story. Does it make you laugh or shake your head and wonder if it's possible?
Good, because that's Eric Byrnes.
A lot of people in baseball are shaking their heads about this 27-year-old guy right about now. They are asking how a gawky, wiry, fiery, bleached-blond moptop could come off the A's bench -- where's he has languished for parts of three seasons -- to become one of the hottest hitters in major-league baseball.
They wonder how a guy who circles and stutters in the outfield -- and whose glove looks heavy on his thin wrists -- can be such an effective outfielder while making every routine fly ball seem like an adventure.
They snicker at Byrnes' batting stance -- elbows up, body coiled on the balls of his feet, back sloped forward like an uncertain golfer -- and yet the guy has a 15-game hitting streak, and let's call it like it is: Byrnes has been saving the offensively challenged A's lately.
So snicker all you want, because you're missing what's going on here. Byrnes' success isn't just about baseball. He is proof that our country is ruled by single-minded people with no time for introspection. Call him Eric W. Byrnes. In fact, there is no one Byrnes admires more than George W. Bush.
Byrnes once told Sacramento Magazine that 'W' is the person he'd most love to trade places with. And then the mag asked Byrnes what his favorite book was, and he replied ... "James and the Giant Peach."
Get it?
Most of us would have been terrified had a burglar broken into our apartment -- and we would have been haunted by it.
Byrnes had a game.
Most of us would have listened to the skeptics telling us we had no chance or would have been discouraged when other, cooler players were touted all around as we hacked away with great success that barely resonated beyond our close circle of family and friends.
Byrnes wins because he never knew any better, never cared what people said, was never bothered if people laughed at his expense -- or if people shook their heads instead of marveling at what he was doing.
Thad Bosley, the A's hitting coach, shakes his head when asked to compare Byrnes' hack-man hitting style to anyone.
"I've never seen anything like it," Bosley said. "It's unorthodox. But he figures out a way to hit the ball."
So well, Byrnes is hitting.353. So well, he's in the American League's top 10 in batting average, on-base percentage and slugging average for everyday players, although he's a few at-bats shy of being on the official leader lists.
The question is: Will it last?
"That's the question mark," Bosley said. "How will (Byrnes) do when pitchers adjust to him. Will he be able to adjust?"
I hope Byrnes does adjust. I hope he stays an everyday player, because he is a needed antidote to the ultra-cool players baseball is producing these days -- players who are too far removed from everyday fans and everyday life.
At 6-foot-2, 210 pounds, Byrnes looks like the skateboarding dude he is. He wears T-shirts and painter's pants and fleece warmup suits and vintage baseball caps turned backward. He barely combs his blond mane and stalks out of the A's clubhouse the same way every day -- by grabbing two bottled waters and two Kit Kats.
Why be awed by your surroundings or be arrogant? It's just baseball.
And this week, it became clear that Byrnes had landed a spot in the A's starting lineup -- even when the injured Jermaine Dye returns to take the spot Byrnes has kept hot for him.
Will Byrnes' heroics dissolve when pitchers see him for a second and third time? Will his great run become simply an abberation? He answers by saying: "At no point am I ever going to quit in this league."
Laugh if you will, but they used to laugh at a certain governor of Texas, too. Call Byrnes 'W.'
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