The Tampa Bay Rays needed a right-handed hitter with some pop. Everyone knew that, even Rocco Baldelli, who was once a right-handed hitter with some pop.
The season was moving toward the trade deadline. The rumors were out there.
"I understood why they were looking," Baldelli said.
Xavier Nady and Jason Bay, a pair of Pittsburgh Pirates. They were on the move. One was moving to Tampa Bay.
Baldelli was in the later stages of his comeback from the mitochondrial disorder that almost wrecked his career. The rehab was going fine.
Still.
As a member of the organization since 2000, Baldelli wanted the Rays to do what was best for the Rays.
"I considered my teammates," Baldelli said.
Nady or Bay?
The right-handed bat with power.
"I wanted to be that person," Baldelli said.
Turns out, he was.
For whatever reason, the Rays couldn't close the deal for Bay.
Maybe the Pirates asked too much. Maybe the Rays became a little too smug in the trade talks. Maybe the Boston Red Sox called the Pirates at the last minute and blew the Rays' offer away with a three-team trade with the Los Angeles Dodgers.
Maybe the Rays were counting in Baldelli all along.
Whatever.
Bay is with the Red Sox. Baldelli is with the Rays.
The Red Sox are happy with Bay, who hit .412 with a pair of home runs and five RBIs against the Los Angeles Angels.
The Rays are happy with Baldelli, who had one hit and one RBI in eight at-bats against the Chicago White Sox.
Baldelli looked like his old self in Game 2 against the White Sox when he singled home a run in the eighth inning and scored all the way from first on Dioner Navarro's double.
The Rays could use more of that old Baldelli magic during the American League Championship Series against the Red Sox that begins Friday at Tropicana Field.
Baldelli would love to provide it, too.
What a story that would be. The kid from Woonsocket, R.I., raised in the heart of Red Sox Nation, a Rich Gedman fan no less, helping these upstart Rays take down the defending World Series champs for the American League pennant.
Stranger things have happened. Like? Well, like Baldelli returning this season.
"I didn't think I had much of a chance of coming back," Baldelli said. "But I never lost the desire to come back."
Rays manager Joe Maddon sees a lot of the Rays in Baldelli's story.
"It kind of typifies our entire seasons," Maddon said. "Kind of like Rocco, we've worked very hard and overcome a lot of adversity, and now we're here. It's really important to me that he takes part in this."
Baldelli will, because the Rays never closed the deal for Bay and because Baldelli never gave up on himself.
"It says a lot about his inner resolve to get well," Maddon said. "In the back of my mind I always thought he would come back."
Desire can be a wonderful tool. Like a right-handed bat with some pop.
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