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Aurilia's Enduring Patience Pays Off
After long wait, Giants' shortstop is finally a starter
By Henry Schulman, San Francisco Chronicle, 2/25/00, D2
Scottsdale, Ariz. -- Rich Aurilia needed to pick up some extra dough one offseason when he played in the minors, so he accepted a friend's offer to be a stagehand at the Metropolitan Opera in New York. He enjoyed the work, even if he had no clue what was going on.
`` `Pagliacci' was playing and I saw a guy in a clown's face, so I figured it must have been about guys in the circus,'' Aurilia said.
Actually, it's the woeful tale of an entertainer who struggles to keep the audience smiling while he is tormented by his gal stepping out on him. There is a lot of singing, a couple of stabbings, and no happy ending.
Aurilia's career with the Giants has been a bit like opera, minus the bloodshed and cuckoldry. He has been the Giants' Shortstop Of The Future for three years, forced to wait in the wings.
After two seasons of being an understudy (to Shawon Dunston in '96 and Jose Vizcaino in '97) and another year of sharing the billing (with Rey Sanchez in '98), Aurilia can finally stop looking over his shoulder. The shortstop job is his.
``It's kind of a weird feeling to turn around on the field, and you're waiting for somebody else to take groundballs with you, and nobody else is there,'' the 27-year- old Brooklyn native said yesterday. ``But it's a nice feeling. It kind of helps in the mental aspect of spring training.
``In the past, I kind of felt I had to come in on Day 1 and win that job,'' Aurilia said. ``That's not to say I'm not coming in and playing hard this spring, but it takes a little off your mind that you have a spot.''
If Aurilia played almost any other position he might have been given the everyday job sooner. But shortstop is so crucial, management felt it was important to ease him into the role. When veterans like Dunston, Vizcaino and Sanchez became available, the organization felt it was prudent to hire them.
Manager Dusty Baker said he thought Aurilia was ready two seasons ago.
``I thought the time he was ready was during the Vizcaino era, possibly, but sometimes you've got to wait your turn,'' Baker said. ``Sometimes you've got to let other guys play their way out. Richie has been patient. Now it's a matter of how he's going to do over the course of a year. He did it in the minor leagues. It's just uncharted territory in the big leagues.''
Aurilia passed a big test last season when he hit .266 with nine homers and 49 RBIs as he played in a career-high 122 games. Although he platooned with Sanchez, Aurilia actually started at short 106 times, compared to Sanchez's 52, partly because Sanchez played second during the month that Jeff Kent was disabled.
After a great first half, Aurilia slumped badly in July (.184) as he had to deal with a groin injury, rebounded in August (.260), then fell back in September (.222).
Despite his shaky second half of offense, the Giants believed Aurilia's time had come and rewarded him with a two-year, $2 million contract in November.
It is impossible to predict how Aurilia might perform over an entire season when he does not have to look over his shoulder. Giants infield coach Robby Thompson, a teammate of Aurilia's in 1996, believes the shortstop will be better for it in '99.
``He's always been solid defensively. Richie's a solid major- league player,'' Thompson said. ``Now he'll be a little more comfortable. Before, he was not sure how much playing time he would get. When you're not playing every day, you put pressure on yourself when your time comes. You feel you have to go 3-for-4 or you won't get another shot.
``Now he looks much more at ease,'' Thompson said.
Aurilia admitted that 1998 was difficult. He thought he had done everything he needed to do to be the everyday man, yet he had to check the lineup card each afternoon to make sure he, and not Sanchez, was penciled in.
``I think every player in the back of his mind wants to be an everyday guy,'' he said. ``When (they bring somebody in) three years in a row it gets frustrating. But last year, going into the season, I felt I had a chance to win that job every day. The way it worked out I did play the majority of time, and it seemed to work out for both of us in the long run.''
Indeed, Sanchez is in Kansas City after signing a million-dollar deal of his own, and Aurilia is sitting pretty in San Francisco, knowing he does not have to worry about some clown coming in to take his job.