Cedeno Is Happy for Piece of Series Action : ‘This Bat Dies a Hero,’ He Says After Double Drives in Go-Ahead Run

KANSAS CITY, Mo. —  To the casual observer, it was just another broken bat, a shattered Louisville Slugger hewed in two, never to be swung again.

To Cardinal outfielder Cesar Cedeno, however, the pieces of that bat were splendid splinters, souvenirs of a World Series appearance he once feared he’d never make.

“This bat dies a hero,” said Cedeno, who snapped his bat like a matchstick at the very moment he snapped a 1-1 tie in the fourth inning Saturday night, doubling home Tito Landrum with the go-ahead run in the Cardinals’ 3-1 win over Kansas City in Game 1.

The barrel of the bat, shorn just above the handle, landed halfway between the plate and pitcher’s mound. Danny Jackson’s pitch, however, wound up rolling into the left-field corner.

That it carried as far as it did might have had something to do with the size of the bat--34 1/2 ounces, 36 inches.

“That bat looked huge,” Jackson said. Cedeno figures only Pedro Guerrero of the Dodgers uses a bigger one.

“Yeah, I’ve swung it once before,” said Andy Van Slyke, who replaced Cedeno in right field for the Cardinals and caught George Brett’s bid for extra bases in the eighth.

“I had to get a whirlpool the next day,” Van Slyke added, “because my wrist hurt so much.

“After he broke the bat, I could have used the other half and still had enough.”

Cedeno, who struck out in his first at-bat, fought off an inside fastball from Jackson in the fourth. “I didn’t hit it as good as I wanted to,” Cedeno said, “but when I quit this game, I can say I finally got a game-winning RBI in the World Series.”

It took him 16 years to get here. Years of playing in Houston and Cincinnati, where he never quite matched the promise of his youth. Hard years, including one in which he was convicted of manslaughter in the death of a 19-year-old girl in his native Dominican Republic.

For that crime, he was fined $100. Since then, he reportedly has not returned to the country of his birth. In his adopted country, he endured taunts of “killer.”

And now, at age 34, he is in the World Series, with a chance to play hero.

“I didn’t think it would ever happen,” he said. “I look around at people like Billy Williams and Ernie Banks, people who played the game for quite a long time, who never got a chance.”

Cedeno probably got the chance to cash in on his dream because Pete Rose was so intent on pursuing one of his own. With Rose putting himself in the Reds lineup almost every day in quest of Ty Cobb’s hit record and playing a young slugger, Nick Esasky, in the outfield, Cedeno found himself expendable in Cincinnati.

And when Cardinal slugger Jack Clark strained muscles in his rib cage with six weeks left in the regular season, St. Louis found itself in search of a proven bat. Cardinal Manager Whitey Herzog had breakfast one morning with Red pitching coach Jim Kaat, Cedeno’s name came up, and a trade was born.

“I think a lot of guys on this team, when Jack got hurt, started looking around the league for a guy who could fill in, especially a right-handed hitter,” Van Slyke said.

“When Cesar was acquired, we had the feeling he’d make the club that much better. A guy with that much talent--200 home runs, 2,000 hits--we thought he could help us in a pennant drive.”

It didn’t take long for Cedeno to prove Van Slyke right.

“His first swing,” Van Slyke said.

In Cedeno’s first at-bat as a Cardinal, he hit a home run off Mike Scott of the Astros. In the same week, he hit a pinch grand-slam off Atlanta’s Gene Garber. Five days later, he beat the Mets in New York with an 11th-inning home run off Jesse Orosco, putting the Cardinals back into a first-place tie after they’d dropped a game behind.

Four days later, he had five hits in a game against the Cubs and drove in another game-winning run. In his first 14 games with the Cardinals, Cedeno batted .500 (18 for 36) after batting just .240 for the Reds.

And when the Cardinals had beaten the Dodgers for the National League pennant last Wednesday, he said: “Thank you, Pete Rose, thank you, Cincinnati.”

Said Van Slyke: “He’s been a blessing to us.”

Saturday night, Cedeno sat at a table in the visitors’ clubhouse, the pieces of his bat lying in front of him.

“I think I’ll use them for firewood,” he said.

A moment later: “I think I’ll use them as drumsticks, use them to cheer for my teammates. Or a slingshot.”

Finally, he decided he’d keep the pieces after all. “I think I’ll hold onto them,” he said, “until something more exciting happens.”

For now, this excitement will suffice.