KaBoone

ret Boone walks into the Seattle Mariners club house, and almost instantly, all fiest club in baseball with an array of shrewd moves, perhaps never has made a finer free - agent pick up. Its hard to belive this is a career .255 hitter who was played for his fourth team in four years, When the San Diego Padres declined his $4 million dollar option after he missed the final month with a badly bruised knee, Boone firgured he'd be swamped with offers. But in despite hitting 16 homers and 65 RBI's by the All - Star break last year, he drew little intrets. The Cleveland Indians perhaps were most attracted, telling Boone to hold off, waiting to see if the cuold treade All - Star second basemen Roberto Alomar in a package deal to the Toronto Blue Jays for outielder Raul Mondesi. It never materialized. "If the Toronto deal had gone through, I'd be in Cleveland right now" Boone says. "But it never happened. To be honest, thre was a lot less intrest than I thought there would be. People were question my knee and stuff. I realized pretty soon that I wasnt going to get what I wanted. I knew that I'd hav to sign below market value." Boone returned to the Mariners, his first organization, where he stayed in 1993, when he was traded with picther Erik Hanson tot he Reds for catcher Dan Wilson and rliever Bobby Ayala.eyes are on him. His teammates stare, start to whisper, and soone, everyone is laughing! Yup, just as they predicted, there is Boone wearing the same black suit with the same white shirt on the road.
"Go ahead and ask him why he wears the same thing each trip," Mariners pitcher Paul Abbott says. "Ashk him why he never wears anything different on every get - away day."
OK we ask the question an inquiring public wants to know.
"When I wasnt making any money," Boone says. "I was really conscious of not wearing the same thing. Now that I am in the big leagues and making money, I dont give a damn."
It was in early July when he showed up in Anaheim wearing this gaudy brown pinstripe suit with gold piping. The Mariners hooted, telling him that instead of a suit, it looked like an old school San Diego Padre uniform.
They even went as far as stealing it from Boone when he wasnt looking and putting white masking tape on the back and writing "GWYNN NO. 19"
So what does Boone do?
He not only wears the suit on every flight of the trip, but refuses to take off the Gwynn label.
"He's great to have around because as much crap as he gives out," says catcher Tom Lampkin, "he takes it all too. He's great for this ream, on the field and in the clubhouse."
That's Boone. Always outrageous. Always talking. And never giving a damn what you think of him.
Every day he'll say something to get a reaction," Mariners outfielder Al Martin comments. "It's always exaggerated or overrated, but he'll say something. He's always talking trash. He does it better than anyone in the game. He talks like Ali. Minus the Ali and minus the Muhammad."
What made Ali such a legend of course, is that he could back up every last syllable of his trash - talking once he stepped into the ring.
Boone does the same on the playing field, putting together one of the greatest power - hitting seasons by a second basemen in baseball history!
Boone, 32 (though he doesnt look it) who couldnt understand why many clubs, foolishly over looked him last winter is punishing the rest of the American League for their stupidity. He's making a strong bad to be the first American League second basemen to win the MVP in 42 years -- dating back to Nellie Fox in 1959.
Through August, Boone was hitting .327 with 27 homers, a league leading 105 ribbies and 88 runs scored. He was on pave to hit 37 homers with 150 ribbies. Boone not only was threatening Joe Gordon's AL record of 32 homers by a second basemen (Boone has now passed that with 37) but was alson in range of becoming the first second basemen since Rogers Hornsby in 1925 to win the RBI batting title (He has 141 leading)
"He was in the NL all those years," Abbott said, "But I had no idea that he was this good. I also had no idea how much range he has with this hands. He is the total package"
"I mean we were worried about replacing Arod, and this guy, what a guy, he steps in." Mariner's GM Pat Gillik, who has helped turn the mariners into the fiest club in baseball with an array of shrewd moves, perhaps never has made a finer free - agent pick up. Its hard to belive this is a career .255 hitter who was played for his fourth team in four years, When the San Diego Padres declined his $4 million dollar option after he missed the final month with a badly bruised knee, Boone firgured he'd be swamped with offers. But in despite hitting 16 homers and 65 RBI's by the All - Star break last year, he drew little intrests. The Cleveland Indians perhaps were most attracted, telling Boone to hold off, waiting to see if the cuold treade All - Star second basemen Roberto Alomar in a package deal to the Toronto Blue Jays for outielder Raul Mondesi. It never materialized. "If the Toronto deal had gone through, I'd be in Cleveland right now" Boone says. "But it never happened. To be honest, thre was a lot less intrest than I thought there would be. People were question my knee and stuff. I realized pretty soon that I wasnt going to get what I wanted. I knew that I'd hav to sign below market value." Boone returned to the Mariners, his first organization, where he stayed in 1993, when he was traded with picther Erik Hanson tot he Reds for catcher Dan Wilson and rliever Bobby Ayala.The Mariners were willing to lock him up longer, but Boone took a one year deal guarantee and voewed to reuturn to the free agent market in a year. It might have been the best business decision that Booney has made since Bill Gates and his buddies decided to start microsoft. He hired a personal trainer for $100 a day to supervise his one hour work outs five days a week. He visited his daddy, Bob Boone to fine tune his swing, keeping his arms and hands in perfect unison and studying old hitting tapes of himself, making sure he didnt deciate mechanically. Boone showed up at spring training looking like an "after" picture of a Charles Atlas ad. He added 15 pounds of muscle, eliminated the flub around his midsection and weighed in at around 192 pounds. He promptly went out and hit .344 in April with 22 RBI's and never stopped hitting, earinig the starting spot in the All - Star game played in Seattle. Yep, as the clean up hitter. "When I was told that I was batting cleanup, I thought it was funny," says Booney, who stole the line up card from the All - Star for a keep sake. "I guess that showes how good we are. " Boone who says he has learned a valuable lesson in hitting simply by watching teammates Edgar and Olerud from the on deck circle, has never been in a longer groove, he has never felt stronger and he feels he can play at this level for at least another 5 years with his newly definded body. "I worked hard because I realized how imprtant this season would be for me," Boone says "and it's paying off. The motivation for me is that you always hear players in their early 30s lose a step. I wanted to skip losing that step. I wanted to feel like I'm 24 or 25 again"
"Besides, I just thought it was the right time to take care of myself." Boone put on that SAME black suit and combed his sexy blonde streaked hair making sure it was just right.. And lemme tell ya Boone has never looked so good!