Sidelines
Agbayani still
trying to surviveMY mother is happy.
When following baseball, my mom keeps track of two things: her beloved Boston Red Sox and Benny Agbayani.
Now it is down to one-stop shopping. It couldn't be more perfect.
It seemed like a golden ending to a grinding year. Benny found his swing. At last, he'd found a home again.
In Boston, he was where he belonged.
"It's my second time playing on the East Coast," he says. "So I'm used to that, you know, that boos and those cheers. It's just a good experience -- you know you're back on the East Coast again. Because I was like 2-for-3 going into my fourth at-bat and I popped up. And then all you hear is 'Boooooo!,' you know, ah?
"And I'm like, 'Whoa! I'm back!' "
Back in the lineup. Back in the Bigs. Back. But of course it's not that simple. It never was, really, not even in New York, in those heady glory days with the Mets. He still has to prove himself every day. And so today he's off to Los Mochis, Mexico, for winter ball, to get back some of that lost season. That lost magic.
"I just want to go down there and get some at-bats, have fun, play," he says.
Play.
He'll see if the Red Sox ask him to return. If he has to finally look to Japan. He knows when you go from team to team it means you're always fighting for a job. It means your opportunities are running out. It means every impression had better be a good one.
This is what happens in the fairy tale, the day after.
Surviving never stops.
HE KNEW THIS. He knew. He was the poster boy for it. He titled his book after it. But then he was the toast of New York.
"I thought I was going to be one of their boys that's always going to be there," he says.
And then the day after the fairy tale, the Mets traded him.
And then not too long into the fresh start, he lost the manager that wanted him.
"When you change managers," he says, "you change everything."
Benny was hurt. Benny was on the bench. Benny got sent down.
The toast of New York was going to the minor leagues.
After all that, he was being sent down. His wife, Niela, counseled him.
"She was always telling me, 'Go down there with a good attitude, you know, don't Big League these kids because you was once them,' " he says.
He was again. He was mad. Frustrated. Fine. He'd hit. He'd play every day, put up numbers, get his rhythm back. Get his spot back.
That was attitude adjustment No. 1.
The second came when the Rockies told him he was out of their plans. They actually told his agent that Agbayani probably wouldn't get called back up. That was it. He was out. That was reality.
Fine. He'd hit. He'd play every day. He'd show every other team what he could do then.
Scouts were at these games. Teams from Japan came to scout him. His skipper would tell him, "Eh, there's some guys watching you today." Every day was an audition. Every day he was playing for another chance.
"So I was just having a good time, just playing with those guys in the minor leagues," he says. "Just ... back to reality."
The trade deadline was approaching. His big chance. The Rockies told him to step it up. "And in two weeks I hit like 11 home runs," he says. "So I was like, all right, I'm out!"
But he wasn't. The trading deadline passed. It wasn't going to happen.
Then the phone rang. He got the call. Remember the call from "Major League"? That was Benny's call. He didn't believe it. It had to be someone playing a joke. There was no way someone had just picked him up off waivers.
"And someone did," he says. "And I was really grateful that someone did.
"Because that means, you know, someone's watching over me."
He was watching the race, and he was excited. Boston was in the hunt for the wild card. He had to put his mind together for this, he had to recapture his old attitude. He was going back to the Big Leagues. Back to the Show. And it was happening so fast.
"My agent told me, 'When it comes Tuesday, your (blank) better be ready, 'cause you're playing,' " he says.
It was. He was. He started out hot, and they cheered him and they booed him, and all of it felt so good. He was back on the East Coast. Back in the Bigs. He was back.
He was the survivor again.
My mom was happy. Her favorite player on her favorite team. What a great ending. But the story wasn't over, not yet.
There's winter in Mexico, and waiting to see what Boston says, and maybe even a career in Japan.
Surviving never stops.
"I've just got to keep on playing, keep on battling," he says. "Hopefully sometime I'll get a team that I'll stay with."
Kalani Simpson can be reached at ksimpson@starbulletin.com