FORT MYERS, Fla. - He's dressing in Manny's locker, he's got Nomar's number, and he's enshrined in the Rhode Island Italian-American Hall of Fame, right there alongside Ernie DeGregorio.
Oh, and his name is Rocco.
How can he be anything but a fan favorite at Fenway Park?
Rocco Baldelli is scheduled to make his Red Sox debut against big league competition today when the club takes its show up Route 75 to play the American League champion Rays in Port Charlotte.
Nice symmetry there. Rocco played the first five years of his career with the Rays and he homered in his last game with Tampa, the final game of the 2008 World Series. He signed with the Red Sox in January, and the Sox plan to use him as a fourth outfielder - no small job on any team that employs J.D. Drew.
Most Sox fans need no introduction to Rocco. He was All-State in baseball, basketball, and volleyball at Bishop Hendricken High in Warwick, R.I. He burst onto the big league stage in 2003, hitting .289 with 11 homers, 184 hits, 78 RBIs, and 27 stolen bases. He got down the first base line faster than just about any other righthanded batter. He played center field. He was likened to a young Joe DiMaggio, which seemed a little lofty, even then. But there was a ton of potential.
Baldelli played 156 games in his rookie season. His injuries started a year later and he played 136 games. In 2005, he did not play at all because of a torn ACL in his left knee and a torn ulnar collateral ligament in his right elbow. He came back for 92 games in 2006, then disappeared again. He played 35 games in 2007. Then 28 games last season.
What's wrong with Rocco? He's not sure himself. It's tough for a young athlete to explain chronic low energy.
Baldelli is only 27 years old. He's 6 feet 4 inches, weighs 200 pounds, and looks healthy enough for an 80-hour week on the loading dock. But he's got something that won't allow him to play baseball full time anymore. And the Rays let him go because they couldn't live with the uncertainty and didn't want to match money incentives offered by the Red Sox.
"The way things played out, I think this was the best situation for me," Baldelli said yesterday after taking extra batting practice.
According to Baldelli's bio in the Red Sox press guide, he suffers from "a mitochondrial disorder, a condition that slows muscle recovery and causes fatigue."
Tests conducted in Cleveland last December indicate Baldelli suffers from channelopathy, a protein irregularity that is considered less serious than mitochondrial disorder.