SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — Occasionally, I’ll watch Nolan Arenado make another incredible play or I’ll talk to him in the clubhouse and I’ll flash back to the bright-eyed kid he used to be.
I’ll wonder how much kid is left inside the 28-year-old man, and I’ll recall one of my favorite Rockies stories.
In 2013, loveable but irascible first basemen Todd Helton was sitting in the visiting team’s clubhouse at Nationals Park when he figured he’d pass on some wisdom to the rookie third baseman. The Rockies had flown into Washington from Toronto the night before and Helton told the wide-eyed Arenado to make sure and check his cellphone bill.
“The charges can get kind of high in Canada,” Helton said.
“Really?” Arenado said. “Then I have to call my dad.”
Helton, confused, asked, “Your dad? Why call your dad?”
Arenado innocently answered, “Yeah, I’m on their family plan, so I have to give them a heads up.”
Helton, both amused and dismayed, said, “Are you kidding me? You are in the big leagues now, kid. Get off the family plan!”
That Arenado is long gone. He’s won seven Gold Gloves, is a perennial all-star, has a chance to become the best all-around third baseman in baseball history and will likely make a speech in Cooperstown. He also has a $260 million contract.
But with success and fame comes a lot of baggage and pressure. Arenado, a baseball grinder by nature, is more wary with fans and the media than he used to be. His highly publicized rift with Rockies general manager Jeff Bridich this offseason revealed the harsh side of the baseball business.
However, on the field and in the batter’s box, Arenado remains the same.
“Like I’ve always said, Nolan’s greatest joy is when he’s at the ballpark, when he’s at the cage, when he’s taking grounders on a back field,” manager Bud Black said Thursday after Arenado launched a mammoth, three-run, Cactus League homer.
Still, I wanted to check in with Arenado and find out if his pure passion for baseball, the thing that’s made him so much fun to watch, still burns hot.
So Friday morning in the Rockies clubhouse I bluntly asked him, “Do you still love the game as much as you used to?”
He was surprised by the question — looked at me if I was crazy, to tell the truth — and said: “That hasn’t changed at all. I love this game and I have always loved this game. But I’m always working to get better. I want to focus on that and more than anything, I want to win. You know that.”
Arenado admitted that spring training can be tedious, and he added that his serious approach to the game can sometimes be misconstrued.
“I wouldn’t say the business side has taken away any of my joy,” he said. “I think as you get older you just have a different role in this game. You are not this young guy anymore and there are examples you have to set.
“All of the best players I know take this game very seriously. But I have fun with all of these guys in here. Sometimes I might not show it, but I have fun, absolutely.”
Then Arenado said something very grownup.
“I know how fortunate and how blessed I am to play this game,” he said. “There is a lot on my shoulders and a lot of people I don’t want to let down. Maybe that’s why sometimes it looks like it’s all business for me. That’s what runs through my head.
“But once I’m on the field, that all kind of goes away. When I hit a three-run homer like I did yesterday, it feels great. It’s still a rush. That will never change.”
