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Star-Bulletin Sports


Tuesday, January 22, 2002


[ MAJOR LEAGUE BASEBALL ]



art
ASSOCIATED PRESS
St. Louis and Hawaii Pacific alum Benny Agbayani, whose first major league homer came at Colorado, was traded to the Rockies.




Heading
for the hills

The New York Mets deal Agbayani
as part of a 3-team trade

His agent says he has a better
chance to play in Colorado

Benny and the Mets


By Jerry Campany
jcampany@starbulletin.com

For the three years that Benny Agbayani has been a New York Met, he has learned to laugh off daily rumors that he was about to be traded to such places as Tokyo, San Francisco and Colorado.

Then the rumors came true, and he is still laughing.

The former St. Louis School and Hawaii Pacific standout was sent to the Colorado Rockies with Todd Zeile in a three-way deal with the Brewers yesterday.

"We talked about it last night, Benny loves the (Mets) organization, loves the fans and loves the city," Danny Horwitz, Agbayani's agent, said. "But he wasn't sure about getting a chance to play in the Mets' outfield. He has a good chance to play in Colorado. He is happy."

Getting Agbayani out of New York was no easy task for the Rockies, as it took a deal involving 11 players, the most in one trade since December 1994.

The Mets sent Agbayani, Zeile and cash to Colorado for Alex Ochoa and two minor leaguers. The Mets sent Ochoa, the left-hander Glendon Rusch and infielder Lenny Harris to Milwaukee for four players. The Brewers traded Jeremy Burnitz, Jeff D'Amico, infielder Lou Collier and outfielder Mark Sweeney to the Mets. The minor leaguers from Colorado are first baseman-outfielder Ross Gload and the right-hander Craig House. Both appeared briefly in the majors in 2000.

New York sent $750,000 to Colorado to cover Agbayani's salary.

Horwitz said he prepared Agbayani for the day when he would be leaving the franchise he came up with, and that Agbayani grew excited when it looked like Colorado might be the place he would land.

"It is excellent for Benny," Horwitz said. "He wants to be an everyday outfielder and play every day. In Colorado he has that opportunity."

It will also give him the opportunity to play at Coors Field, where he hit his first major league home run -- off Jerry Dipoto in 1999 -- and has hit .375 in 32 at-bats over his career.

Preliminary reports out of Colorado have Agbayani platooning with Todd Hollandsworth in left field. But Hollandsworth only played 33 games last year because of injury and hasn't played more than 140 since 1996.

"We plan to play Zeile at third base, and Benny will play the same role as Alex Ochoa," Rockies GM Dan O'Dowd told the Rockies' Web site. "We've got some very good left-handed hitting outfielders, and I think Benny will complement that from the right side."

"Benny in his career has hit left-handed pitching well. He's used to that role (as a platoon player) because he's been playing that role his entire career. He plays the game hard. Obviously, he's more of an offensive player than a defensive player."

Agbayani was part of a housecleaning by Mets General Manager Steve Phillips, who has gotten rid of 11 players from last year's 82-80 team. He called this the final major move in his effort to take the Mets back to the World Series.

"If we got started today, I think we'd have a playoff-caliber team, 1 through 25," Phillips said.


The Associated Press contributed to this report.


Benny and the Mets

Aiea's Benny Agbayani went from a career minor-leaguer to World Series hero with the New York Mets:

Career highlights

Oct. 24, 2000: Hits an RBI double in the eighth inning of Game 3 of the World Series off the Yankees' Orlando Hernandez, breaking a 2-2 tie and leading to a 4-2 win.

Oct. 7, 2000: Hits a pinch-hit grand slam in the 13th inning of the third game of the National League Divisional Series against the Giants off Aaron Fultz.

March 29, 2000: Hits an 11th-inning pinch-hit grand slam off the Chicago Cubs' Danny Young in the Tokyo Dome in Japan. It was the first pinch-hit home run of his career and it cemented a spot on the team.

Career Stats

Regular season

Year, team AB R H HR RBI Avg

1998, NYM 15 1 2 0 0 .133

1999, NYM 276 42 79 14 42 .286

2000, NYM 350 59 101 15 60 .289

2001, NYM 296 28 82 6 27 .277

Totals 937 130 264 35 129 .282

Playoffs

Year, Opp. AB R H HR RBI Avg

1996, Atl 7 2 1 0 0 .143

1999, Ari 10 1 3 0 1 .300

2000, SF 15 1 5 1 1 .333

2000, StL 17 0 6 0 3 .353

2000, NYY* 18 2 5 0 2 .278

Totals 67 6 20 1 7 .299

* World Series



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