SPRING HAS OFFICIALLY SPRUNG WITH ARRIVAL OF ASTROS’ MR. COOL
CORREA CONFIDENT HE’LL KEEP LIVING UP TO HYPE ON, OFF FIELD
KISSIMMEE, Fla. — The danger of understatement seems far greater than the peril of overstatement when it comes to Astros shortstop Carlos Correa, and there’s nothing more common when it comes to athletes than absurd, hyperbolic praise.
Correa’s first day at camp Friday was consumed by a long photo shoot with Adidas, which included Carlos Gomez. Correa, 21, was on two hours of sleep and had just gotten off a plane when he got to the Astros’ complex, where Adidas came to him. He had posed for the camera before, but never with such arduous effort — so, yes, there are elements of his world he has yet to conquer.
His cool, though, is surreal. Correa belongs in a stratosphere of not just athletic ability, but persona, that above all else, needs to be sought out by his fans and city in the season to come.
“I’m very confident in my ability in myself all the time,” Correa said. “I never doubt myself because my preparation, every offseason, is to have a lot of confidence when I step on the field. … My mind is bulletproof, man. Nobody can tell me that I’m not going to get better. Nobody can tell me I’m not going to do this or do that. I’m going to go out there and try to perform and do what’s best for the team.”
The Astros have made no better decision in a long time than to draft Correa. He wasn’t this outspoken in 2014, his first big league camp. Far from it. He’s the kid from the summer sci-fi flick who has moved beyond the discovery of his powers — now he’s harnessed them.
Manager A.J. Hinch on Friday said Correa won’t sneak up on anyone because he’s arrived. In the baseball world, yes, absolutely. But Correa is also close to extending his presence far beyond sport, bringing Latin culture into the fold.
Correa’s reached feverish fame in his native Puerto Rico, the homeland of Roberto Clemente — whose upcoming biopic Correa is to play a role in.
“That’s the way I want them to look at me,” Correa said when
asked about being grouped in by MLB with Bryce Harper and Mike Trout. “The thing I bring to the table is I’m bilingual. … Hopefully I can do a lot of great things for the sport of baseball and I can not only help here in the States, but the Latin community as well.”
The kid seems indef atigable, except no one is. He’s not truly bulletproof — nor is his mind. Too much praise can be impairing.
‘I always visualized this’
Can Correa continue to balance the ballpark and The Life with a capital L?
One answer: we’ll see. Another: Correa moved to head off questions of where his focus is without being asked Friday.
He’s prepared for much of this, presumably as much as anyone can. Few walk his path, so his readiness can’t be judged on much more than results.
“I always visualized this stuff coming,” Correa said of the movie and the photo shoot. “And I think it came earlier than what I expected. But I was ready for it, and I’m not going to let it get to my head. I’m going to focus on what I do on my job, and that’s playing baseball.
“There’s always time to do stuff, and I always try to find time to do all this kind of stuff. It’s good to be able to do a movie about Clemente, to be able to interact with the fans. And go to a mall every once in a while. But from now on, I’m not going to go record movies or anything like that — I’m going to focus on playing baseball.”
Age is just a number, Correa said, repeating a line he’s said before. But no one in the game stands as better proof.
‘How I was raised’
“It comes from my dad. It comes from how I was raised,” Correa said of his mindset. “My dad, how he raised me. It was tough growing up, and he wanted me to be perfect every single time I was on the field. When you have your dad being that tough with you … and then you come here, you go 1-for-4 with a home run and then the media’s all over you and you go home, and your dad’s like, ‘You had a terrible game, what happened with the other three at-bats?’ What the media says, it doesn’t affect you as much as what your dad is telling you.”