Bregman taking MLB playoffs by storm
Confident Astros’ third baseman embraces the postseason spotlight
HOUSTON – Alex Bregman was a batboy, 9, maybe 10 years old. He was helping his favorite team, the University of New Mexico Lobos, in his hometown of Albuquerque.
The Lobos were playing the Arizona State Sun Devils, a traditional powerhouse, and Bregman couldn’t keep his eyes off their 5-10 shortstop Dustin Pedroia. He was small, like Bregman. He was feisty, like Bregman. He was even cocky, like Bregman.
“They were up by about 15 runs, and he hits a ground ball to the shortstop,” Bregman tells USA TODAY, his voice rising. “He was busting his butt down the line, and the throw was a little high. The first baseman jumped. He would have to tag him to complete the play.
“Pedroia dove headfirst into first base. He was safe. Right then and there, I said, ‘I want to play like that. I want to be that guy.’ ”
Bregman is 24 now, and this 5-10, Jewish kid from New Mexico has turned Ma-
jor League Baseball’s postseason into his personal showcase.
Bregman, the Astros’ All-Star third baseman, has captivated all of baseball with his performance.
He has stepped to the plate
24 times this postseason and reached base 17 times, becoming the first player in 108 years to draw three walks in consecutive playoff games.
He has turned into Brooks Robinson with his dazzling glove work, with future Hall of Fame pitcher Justin Verlander calling him a “human vacuum cleaner.”
The only thing more exciting than watching him perform on the field is listening to his game off the field.
Who else would sit in front of a packed media room before the opening of the American League Championship Series against the Red Sox — Pedroia’s team — calmly answer questions with
2017 AL MVP teammate Jose Altuve, and as he walks off the stage, tell Altuve, “I’ll be seeing them later tonight.”
Yes, guaranteeing he’ll be returning to the podium as the star once the Astros won. The Astros did win the opener, Bregman reaching base four times, and spent the postgame regaling the media in the middle of the clubhouse.
“He cracks me up, all day, every day,” Astros starter Gerrit Cole says. “That guy is a bang for your buck, man, a special cat.
“This guy is so confident, but it’s not like it’s a mean confidence. He’s not a mean cocky. He just likes to keep things loose. His way of keeping guys relaxed is by going over the top.”
Prime-time performer
Indeed, just like moments after the Astros swept the Indians in the first round, playing every game during the afternoon with the prime-time spot filled by the Yankees and Red Sox, Bregman took his shots.
“Does Tiger Woods tee off at 8 a.m. when he’s going to win a Masters?” Bregman said with a snort. “Does Floyd Mayweather fight the first fight of the night? No, he’s the main event, right?
“So the ’Stros need to be playing on prime-time television.”
He got his wish. The Astros played in prime time the first two games of the ALCS and their lone afternoon game is scheduled for Tuesday (5:09 p.m. ET, TBS) at Minute Maid Park.
“Thanks a lot, Alex,” Astros manager A.J. Hinch said. “I was loving having dinner with my wife every night. Now, we don’t get to eat until midnight.”
Bregman cracked up when hearing Hinch’s response, and teammate Carlos Correa still laughs just being reminded of Bregman’s braggadocio.
“I was in the hotel room watching TV with my fiancée when I saw it,” Correa said, “and I lost it. I just lost it. He’s always making jokes and statements like that. He’s got so much confidence, so when he says something like that, we all crack up.
“He loves this time of year. He was born for it. He loves the spotlight and embraces it.”
There’s not a soul in the world, Hinch is convinced, that worships baseball more than Bregman. It doesn’t matter if it’s the postseason, a summer afternoon game in Seattle, or a spring training game in West Palm Beach, Florida.
“He is baseball,” Hinch says. “I’ve never been around someone who loves baseball more than Alex Bregman. And at this level, when you’re around so many different people, that’s saying something.”
Oh, yes, and when you toss in that personality, you’ve got a combination of Pedroia, Jason Giambi and Manny Ramirez.
“The swagger, the fun-loving side, the showman in him,” Hinch says. “Alex is going to be himself. He’s comfortable in his own skin. He loves the camera, especially the one at the end of the dugout.
“And he loves the moment.”
‘Win at all costs’
Bregman, who should finish in the top five in the MVP voting this year, is about to take this sport by storm. He was MVP of the All-Star Game. He was the youngest player in Astros history to hit 30 home runs, the first third baseman to hit at least 30 homers (31) and
50 doubles (51), and he joined Hall of Famer Lou Gehrig as the only player to produce 50 doubles, 30 homers, 90 walks and 10 stolen bases in a season.
Bregman might be headed to Cooperstown one day too, becoming the fourth-quickest player to produce 100 doubles,
50 homers and 200 RBI, surpassed only by Ted Williams, Chuck Klein and Hank Greenberg.
You think he loves pressure? Bregman hit .368 this season with two outs and runners in scoring position and
.538 with the bases loaded. He caused the sellout crowd at Fenway Park to gasp in horror Sunday night when he nearly hit a tying two-run homer with two outs in the ninth inning, only to fall 2 feet short of the Green Monster.
“Nah, I knew I missed it,” Bregman said. “If I got it, it would have been on the street behind Fenway Park.”
Bregman’s desire for greatness is so intense that when he played at LSU, the coaches gave up and gave him his own key to the facility. He was drafted second overall in 2015 and still is livid that the Diamondbacks drafted shortstop Dansby Swanson with the No. 1 pick, whom they eventually traded to Atlanta.
The head of Arizona’s baseball operations at the time happens to be Red Sox special assistant Tony La Russa. Bregman is fully aware that he gets sweet revenge every game he plays against the Red Sox now.
Now, if the Red Sox would only pitch to him, instead of giving him the Barry Bonds treatment and walking him at every opportunity, he’d really be having a blast. He has already walked 10 times in five games this postseason, last accomplished by Jimmy Wynn in
1974. To understand the absurdity of the feat, it’s one more walk than Mariners speedster Dee Gordon drew this season in 588 plate appearances.
“It doesn’t matter,” Bregman says, shrugging his shoulders. “Just trying to win at all costs here. That’s what makes baseball the best.
“Nothing matters but winning.”
The Astros are winning, and this time in prime time, just three victories shy of a return to the World Series. They are vying to become the first team since the powerful Yankees in
1998-2000 to repeat as champions.
“Those are the teams that are remembered forever,” Bregman says. “That’s what we want. We want to go down as one of the greatest teams, too.
“Crazy, isn’t it?”
Well, not as outrageous as a batboy who grew up idolizing a collegiate player who became a future MVP, who was drafted in the 19th round out of high school by the Red Sox, was discussed in a potential trade for Chris Sale before he was traded to Boston, and now could be the guy sending all of them down memory lane.
“This is what you dream about,” Bregman said. “This is what you live for.
“That will never change. Until I’m dead.”