Roger Bernadina was born to play baseball.



Yeah, sure, there’s always somebody who was “born to play.” Like Aaron and
Bret Boone following dad Bob and grandpa Ray. Like Ken Griffey, Jr. following
the path the elder set. Like Barry following Bobby.

So grandpa played, dad played, the son followed. Maybe there’s even a great
grandpa in there somewhere. And? The line “was born to play” is used so
often in reference to following good ‘ol dad, it has become cliché.

But Bernadina isn’t following Dad into the game. Nope.

He’s following Mom.

Roger was born in Curacao, Netherlands Antilles, part of the Kingdom of the
Netherlands, but rather than being located in Western Europe, it is in the
Caribbean, off the coast of Venezuela. His mom, Grada, played softball for
the Netherlands national team. She was a third baseman. Her team played all
over the place in Europe, and in Panama.

“When I was young, I used to ask my mom what she was doing,” Bernadina
said. “She would say she was playing softball. I wanted to do the same
thing. So that’s how I started to play baseball.”

At the time he started, he was 5. He hasn’t stopped since.

Baseball in the Netherlands Antilles is a pretty big deal. It’s no soccer.
But it does send the occasional stand-out player to the Big Leagues. The most
well-known player today that hails from the country is the Atlanta Braves’
 Andruw Jones.

Of all the European countries that play baseball, the Netherlands has had the
most success in European play. Of the 29 European Championships that have
been held, the Netherlands has won the Gold medal 19 times and silver medal 7
times. A team from Willemstad, Curacao in the Antilles, won the 2004 Little
League World Series and was runner-up in 2005.

Bernadina continued to play baseball non-stop after his family moved to
Holland when he was 12 years old. It was initially a frustrating time for
him, since in Holland, practices and games were more of a once-a-week thing.

“I wasn’t very happy about that, because, before, in Curacao, we were
working out almost everyday,” he said.

So Bernadina compensated by oftentimes playing and working out by himself.
Anything to help keep his abilities sharp where baseball wasn’t a big-ticket
item.

They were sharp enough that when he was 16 years old, he was the youngest
player on Holland’s National team. There, players had to pay their own way
for travels and such. But by playing all over Europe, scouts were able to see
him. At the time he was playing left field because a pecking order gave older
players reign over center field. He still shined.

“The scouts liked my speed and they liked my arm,” Bernadina said.

His baseball highlight came in 2001 when he was signed by the Montreal Expos.
It wasn’t the only team going after him, but he liked the way the
organization was playing at the time. Plus it had other guys from his native
country, like former P-Nat Vince Rooi.

After Bernadina was drafted, he didn’t exactly tear it up.

Just the opposite, in fact. Through his first four professional seasons, he
had just a .242 average. He showed some pop in his bat, especially in 2005
when he hit 12 homers, but it came with the Savannah Sand Gnats (Low-A). It
marked the third straight full season Bernadina spent there. For someone who
was once deemed a fairly good prospect, three years in low-A ball is an
eternity. At that point, it’s usually considered more than just a stalled
career.

Bernadina was set to start his fourth season at Savannah. But just before
Spring Training, it was decided that he would go to Potomac. That is when
hitting coach Troy Gingrich had the chance to really see his new pupil. He
immediately saw one of the problems that had plagued Bernadina during his
time with the Sand Gnats.

“He was really timid at the plate,” said Gingrich, in his second year as
the P-Nats hitting coach. “He’d wait for a pitch in one spot and if it was
there he would swing, other than that, he wouldn’t. So he would take pitches
and then he’d have to hit, down 0-2, 1-2, stuff like that.”

Baseball America’s 2006 Prospect Handbook listed Bernadina as the No. 30
prospect in the organization, more for his athleticism than anything else. In
it, the scouting analysis was that Bernadina was taking too many called
strikes.

“Formerly a free swinger, Bernadina has gone too far in the opposite
direction and now needs to be more aggressive at the plate,” the handbook
says.

That’s exactly what Gingrich had noticed. He saw small mechanical problems
or bad habits that Bernadina had formed at the plate, too. For example, he
held his hands high, and then as a timing mechanism, he would lower them and
then come back up when he swung, causing a looping stroke. He now holds his
hands lower.

All that was a secondary problem to the centerfielder’s mentality at the
dish, though. After Gingrich and Bernadina had a talk one night about what
the fifth-year pro wanted out of his career, a heart-to-heart if you will,
the two made the decision to have Bernadina make some changes.

“I told him we have to change your plan, be aggressive early in the count,
look middle-away and then we’ll react inside,” Gingrich said.

One of the ways this would be realized included Bernadina having a more open
stance at the plate, like he once had years ago when he used to be aggressive
at the dish.

The first day after player and coach had their little chit-chat, Bernadina
went 3-for-5 which Gingrich thinks only helped his confidence.

Bernadina hasn’t looked back.

“Last year I’d sit and wait for the ball, now I go and get the ball.”

Bernadina is currently hitting .285 (as of August 1). In the middle of July,
Bernadina had raised his average to .289.

Like a soft pillow and good mattress, batting is all about comfort. Bernadina
says he feels that added comfort at the plate.

“I had been having trouble finding my rhythm, but I’ve worked with Troy on
it,” he said. “Now I feel good. I’ve been making the adjustments and it’s
helped.”

The one area where Bernadina hasn’t had to make too many changes is with the
part of game that scouts first liked -- speed and defense.

While the one knock against his defense has been the routes he takes to get
to the ball, his exceptional speed has helped him track down balls a lot of
other players might not get to.

On June 30, in a win against Kinston, he made a sensational running catch up
against the fence in right-center field that ended the game.

Without the benefit of instant replay, the debate remains as to whether or
not he would have robbed a home run.

“I don’t know,” Bernadina says, in total honesty. “I think it might have
gone off the top of the wall. But it was really close.”

It was a tough play to make because of the distance he had to run. Then came
the fact that right fielder Cristian Guerrero was also converging on the
ball. Bernadina still went at it full bore, leaped in the middle of the
warning track and came up with the baseball at the top of the wall.

He says he never worries about outfield collisions, even after having seen
the gruesome collision in 2005 between New York Mets’ outfielders Carlos
Beltran and Mike Cameron.

“I don’t worry about that,” Bernadina says. “I just play the game hard. I
’m not going to worry about (collisions).”

His speed has also enabled him to lead the P-Nats in stolen bases with 25 (as
of August 1).

Bernadina hopes this is the year. The Prospect Handbook says: ‘the ‘limited
baseball experience’ excuse is starting to wear thin… time is starting to
tick away, so the Nationals will get Bernadina as many at-bats as possible
and hope something clicks for him in high Class A this year.”

It sure seems as though it has as Bernadina is trying his best to hit way
more than his weight this season, and make it closer to the Bigs.

“Since I was young, I have always wanted to be a Major League ballplayer,”
 he says.

Then he could be like his all-time favorite baseball player, past or present,
Andruw Jones. But even more important, in continuing to play, he could
continue to be like his mom, who he says is his all-time hero.

“She’s always supported me wherever I go.”