Nationals' Star Has Endured Many Changes
By Barry Svrluga  Tuesday, July 11, 2006


Maybe it was getting off a plane in Hiroshima, Japan, more than a decade ago,
his first trip outside his native Dominican Republic, wondering where to go
and what to do. "I was like, 'Oh my God,' " Alfonso Soriano said.
"Something's not right here."

Or maybe it was settling into the Japanese League, thinking about a future in
this far-off land, and then being told that no, his future was in the United
States, in the major leagues. "I was starting over -- again," Soriano said.

Or maybe it was moving from third base to shortstop as a teenager, then from
shortstop to second as a 25-year-old. Maybe it was moving from New York to
Texas, from Texas to Washington, from second base to the outfield, his head
spinning all the while. At some point, change became the defining ingredient
in Soriano's life, and whether the Washington Nationals' left fielder likes
it or not, it could continue to define his next several months. It is not a
thought he relishes, not a theme he wants to continue.

"It's difficult, because when you get comfortable, you don't want to leave,"
said Soriano, seated quite comfortably on a folding chair in front of his
locker at RFK Stadium. "When you're comfortable, it's good. That's what I
want: To be comfortable."

In this case, "comfort" translates roughly to "stability," and it is the one
quality Soriano -- who will play in his fifth straight All-Star Game tonight
-- craves above all others, the one that has eluded him over the course of
his career. Derek Jeter is and always will be a New York Yankee. At some
point, long ago now, Soriano expected the same for himself.

All that movement, from country to country and position to position and city
to city, can make a 30-year-old man jumpy, unsettled, needy. During his first
three months in Washington, Soriano has shown nearly every skill coveted in a
baseball player, power that drops the jaws of his much larger peers, speed
that comes in a blur of high knees and churning elbows. And those traits come
up only after coaches and teammates mention his intensity, his effervescence,
his demeanor.

"He's the same," Manager Frank Robinson said. "That's one of the refreshing
things about having him here. He goes 0 for 4 or has the game-winning hit,
whatever, he's in here smiling the next day: 'Hey, let's go. Let's go get
'em.' "

If Soriano is the same, he figures his surroundings should be, too. Soriano's
comments in an interview last week -- saying that, even though he is a free
agent at season's end, even though he could be traded before the July 31
deadline, he would like to remain in Washington -- are the result not only of
his enjoyment of his time with the last-place Nationals, but of his
experience as a professional baseball player. He is talented and he is proud,
and it is clear that he wants the opportunity to represent one franchise, to
live in one place and play one position, for the foreseeable future.

"I feel comfortable when I play for the Yankees," Soriano said. "When I
leave, because they trade me to Texas, I had to get comfortable. I got
comfortable with Texas, and then they trade me here.

"And now, I feel comfortable here, with new friends. That's the tough part,
making new friends. You never know who likes you, who no likes you. I'm glad
everywhere I go, I don't have no problem with nobody, and nobody have no
problem with me."