SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — CocheVaya.
CarGo. Lucila Gonzalez wanted her son to grow up to be an astronaut. Euro Gonzalez preferred that his kid become a baseball player.
“We lived near the water, and my mother got me into swimming,” Carlos Gonzalez said Tuesday afternoon.
When he was 5 and growing up in Maracaibo, Venezuela, Carlos’ chances of piloting the space shuttle or playing in a major-league baseball game were infinitesimal. He probably had a better opportunity to compete in the backstroke at the Olympics.
“I knew I didn’t want to be a swimmer,” he said.
When he was 8, his older brother, Euro Jr., took Carlos to see the Venzuelan Winter League team play.
“We’re sitting way out there (he gestures toward left field) and Bobby Abreu is playing. I went home that night, got a stick, looked in the mirror and copied his batting stance. I knew then I wanted to be a baseball player.”
In the fourth inning of Tuesday’s exhibition game here, the Diamondbacks had a runner at third, and the hitter slammed a shot deep to left field. Gonzalez casually made the catch and launched an ICBM to home plate. The runner froze. CarGo turned out to be Rocket Man.
In 2010 the Rockies’ left, center, right fielder won the National League batting title with a .336 average, threatened to achieve the rare triple crown with 34 home runs and 117 runs batted in, finished third in the most valuable player voting, was selected the NL’s players choice award winner by his peers and received a Silver Slugger and Gold Glove award.
Then, Gonzalez amazed the baseball world by signing a contract extension with the Rockies that resulted in a seven-year, $80 million deal. He is baseball’s biggest bargain ($1 million in salary and a $3 million bonus this season).
“I wanted to stay with the Rockies. I run every day in the outfield with Tulo (Troy Tulowitzki, who has a new $134.5 million extension), and we talk about how great it is that we will be together and win for a long, long time.”
They are also very, very rich together. Tulo got a Ferrari. CarGo is buying one too. Carlos got a national Gillette commercial. Perhaps Troy will be a Schick spot.
Oh, to be the young and the wealthy, the bold and the beautiful.
In the fifth inning, the 25-year- old Gonzalez hit a, yes, rocket that smoked the first baseman.
Two years ago this week at spring training, I first spoke to Carlos, who had jumped around in the minors, then been jerked around by the Diamondbacks and the A’s before landing with the Rockies in the controversial trade of Matt Holliday. He was given Holliday’s number (5). Now his numbers and his future are stronger than Holliday’s.
“I want to show the Rockies that I help the team many ways: defense, stealing bases, hitting,” Carlos said then, in halting English. He acted more confident than cocky. He was likable and naive. The Rockies sent him to Colorado Springs for 48 games. After they brought him up, Kid Rock was hitting under .200 for a long stretch.
“Carlos’ strike zone was from the top of his cap to his spikes. People questioned why I left him in the lineup,” manager Jim Tracy told me Tuesday. “I kept telling him to be patient and let the game come to him.”
He ended up with a .284 average in 89 games, and was on his way.
“He’s a great player and will get only better. But he still has to be more patient at the plate,” Tracy said.
A few feet away, I relayed Tracy’s assessment to CarGo.
“I will never stop being aggressive at the plate,” Gonzalez said. “I led the team in hitting, home runs, RBIs. But I also led in strikeouts (135). I’ve got to be more aggressive . . . and more patient,” he said in perfect English.
“CarGo,” his nickname now, has grown into his position of prominence and his strengthened body. He reported 20 pounds heavier (222) than he was at season’s end a year ago.
And he is moving from Venezuela to Colorado permanently — and bringing his family, an extended family, along.
“I want them to be here with me, and it’s not so safe in Maracaibo any more. On opening day they will be at the game. My mother and my father (a mechanic who has never seen Carlos play in person), my brother and his wife and child, and my sister and her husband and their children, and my three nieces and . . .”
And we get the idea.
After Gonzalez hit for the cycle at Coors Field last year, Lucila, who was visiting, cried and embraced her son outside the clubhouse.
“I think she is OK that I’m not an astronaut or a swimmer.”
He is CarGo — CocheVaya.
Woody Paige: 303-954-1095 or wpaige@denverpost.com
