Kendrick’s career almost didn’t happen

36-year-old NLCS MVP nearly became Navy SEAL

WASHINGTON— What if Tom Kotchman wasn’t standing there in the spring of 2002, the only major league scout for miles, pointing a black-and-white camcorder at the smallest kid on the field? And what if Howie Kendrick wasn’t there, either, if his grandmother never sent him to play ball some years ago, if he never saw Callahan, Fla., of all places, as the starting point for a big and distant dream?

What if?

When Dave Martinez begins to wonder, and considers Kendrick’s growing spot in Washington baseball history, the manager often goes back to the same question:

Then Martinez doesn’t give it much thought. He’ll never have to.

Take the vivid moments of this playoff run, put them on loop in your head, then count how many Kendrick’s created. There’s the grand slam at Dodger Stadium on Oct. 9, in the top of the 10th inning of Game 5 of the National League Division Series, pushing the Nationals to their first playoff series win. There are all those doubles — cracked into right-center, left-center, wherever there’s open grass — to rev an offense for a few extra weeks. And there was the celebration after Washington advanced to the World Series late last Tuesday night, with the 36-yearold Kendrick clutching the National League Championship Series MVP trophy.

“I feel like being around this long, I wouldn’t change anything about the past,” Kendrick said after the Nationals earned

World Series Game 1 their title shot. “Because this is just … I mean, it’s unbelievable.”

He helped by doing what he’s always done. He’s hit and kept hitting, driving in four runs across the first two rounds, until the Nationals got to where they’ve never been. He’s in the process of capping a career, 14 years in the game, a life that could have gone in so many other directions. Kendrick wasn’t recruited out of West Nassau High School. He tried out for almost a dozen junior colleges, was cut by two and, when hope was slipping, considered joining the Navy SEALs.

But Kendrick waited a bit longer, testing fate, until he landed at St. John’s River Community College between Jacksonville and Orlando. He was soon drafted by the Los Angeles Angels of Anaheim in the 10th round of the 2002 draft.

He would earn a reputation as a “professional hitter,” joined the Nationals via trade two summers ago, and would have retired after tearing his right Achilles’ tendon last season. Yet there was one year left on his contract and he wanted to finish it. Now he’ll play in Game 1 of the World Series against the Astros in Houston on Tuesday night. Now, somehow, Kendrick is a reason the Nationals won a pennant and have a chance at more.

“It’s hard not to think about how different things could have gone if he’s never seen,” said Torii Hunter, Kendrick’s longtime friend and former Angels teammate. “But you have to understand that Howie is who he is, he’s still going, because of everything along the way.”

Where would these Washington Nationals be without Howie Kendrick?