MLB: Neon Deion Is Baaaaaack!

He’s 33 years old. He hasn’t played a major league game in more than three years. His dedication to baseball was suspect even when he was on top, and being “on top” for him was more pulse pounding (in the best and worst senses of the term) than substantive.

Yet despite all of that, Deion Sanders is baaaaaaack…

In an amazing fit of self-flagellation, the Cincinnati Reds signed baseball's most reluctant warrior to a non-guaranteed minor league contract the other day. Assuming that the commissioner’s office approves of the deal (Sanders can’t even sign a contract the way normal people do) Deion will be headed to Louisville, the team he went AWOL from last season. You see, Sanders came out of the gate about as hot as an Eskimo Pie – at which point he realized that his Prime Time act was doomed to spend a prolonged period playing under the International League’s not-so-bright lights. Apparently he quit mad: when Alex Ochoa went down with an emergency appendectomy a few weeks later the Reds asked Sanders to replace him on their major league roster… and were rebuffed.

Given Deion’s history, should anyone have been surprised at that behavior? And, given the preceding scenario, what possible reason could Reds GM Jim Bowden have for bringing Sanders back for yet another go-round?

OK… let’s leave aside Sanders’ ambivalence towards the game as well as the mouth that frequently managed to be bigger than any talent he ever displayed on a baseball field. Let’s look at Deion Sanders the ballplayer and consider what he brings to the table – or at least did bring to it three years ago.

At that time, Sanders was:

- Fast

- A good, rangy outfielder (though his arm was a bit short for center) AND

- Uh… uh… well, that’s about it.

A typical 500 at bat season for Sanders would include ten of the most exciting triples you’d ever see on a baseball field plus 44 thrilling steals – and nine homers, 17 doubles, 38 walks and a .266 batting average. Of course, Sanders’ various personal commitments have kept him from ever having a “typical 500 at bat season” (heck, he’s only been up as many as 400 times in a season once), so what you’re left with is:

- A left fielder (one of the two easiest positions to fill with an out-of-work power hitter)

- Who doesn’t get on base enough to bat leadoff, AND

- Doesn’t have enough pop to bat in the middle of the order, AND

- Is going to cut out on your team come September as sure as God made little green apples, AND

- Is an odds on favorite to say or do something disruptive somewhere along the line

Even if Sanders hasn’t surrendered anything to age or any one of 1,000 hard knocks on the football field, who does he play in front of? Ken Griffey Jr.? Ochoa, who made everybody in Cincinnati forget Dante Bichette in about five minutes with a superb final month? Dmitri Young, who’s slow and fat but does hit .300 with decent power? Michael Tucker, who has power and plate discipline against righties along with enough speed to play all three outfield positions?

If you agree that all of the aforementioned players are better than Deion Sanders was on the best day of his life, then his absolute top end is competing with ex-Red Sox farmhand Michael Coleman for the #5 spot. That should be a riot to watch: Coleman (who turned down a scholarship to play tailback for Alabama’s Crimson Tide) was finally given up on by the Red Sox after five seasons of suspensions, threats to quit baseball, and mandatory counseling.

Gee, doesn’t that remind you of someone?

I’d like to wish Deion Sanders well. I’d like to believe that he’ll give it his best shot and find a way to thrive within whatever less-than-prime-time role the Reds assign him to. I’d like to think he will be stroking line drives into the right-center field gap at Cinergy Field come early September, sliding into third as the outfielder’s throw comes in a split second late.

My heart just isn’t in it. Fortunately for Sanders, though, Jim Bowden’s apparently is...

Joseph Preston is the author of The Baseball Scribe's Reflections On The 2000 Season, available in e-mail, diskette, or printed versions from $6.95 at www.baseballscribe.com