ABSTRACT:
ATLANTA – Many, many springs ago, out on a back field, a man worked alone. He was on one knee, holding a baseball bat in one hand, a tiny object in the other. He tossed the unpopped kernel of popcorn into the air, gripped the bat with both hands, and took a swing. He repeated this act over and over.
“If I can hit this,” said Tony Fernandez, then in his first of three stays with the Blue Jays,” just imagine how big the baseball looks to me.”
How big the baseball must look to Fernandez now is the talk of baseball. He turns 37 on Wednesday, is a threat to make it to the All-Star break batting .400 and his name is not Tony Gwynn. This is a feat that makes hitting an unpopped kernel of popcorn seem pedestrian by comparison.
Indians second baseman Roberto Alomar, once again one of the best all-around players in baseball, recognized his friend’s remarkable season by dropping to his knees and bowing in Fernandez’s direction at the first sight of him during pregame batting practice last week in Toronto. By this time, Fernandez already has run the SkyDome steps…