THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 24, 1995 TAG: 9506240470
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY TOM ROBINSON, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: Long : 110 lines
The thing about being misunderstood is, if you want to correct the record, it takes double the effort. So Carl Everett doesn't bother.
He's aware of his reputation, being cultivated even as he plays outfield for the Norfolk Tides. How baseball people and media whisper about how he's hard to get along with. About why a so-called ``pure tools'' guy like Everett, a 24-year-old switch-hitter who can run, throw, hit and hit with power, is on his third organization.
Why would the New York Yankees, who signed him for $250,000 as the 10th overall pick in 1990, expose him to the expansion draft and the Florida Marlins two years ago? Then, why would the Marlins not give him longer before swapping him for second baseman Quilvio Veras last winter?
People wonder. Everett shrugs. He has more to worry about than changing minds of people who've never met him.
``When you don't say much to people, they tend to assume, and assuming is judging,'' Everett said. ``That's the human way. I'll be myself, regardless of what people think.''
Fact is, he says he prayed to leave those organizations when he felt his future was bottlenecked. He does love to play baseball and wants to be the impact player the Mets think he can be.
No, he doesn't smile much on the field. Can't say he talks a lot anytime, unless he's got something to discuss. He moves deliberately, sometimes looks as if he doesn't care.
That's what got him and Mets manager Dallas Green off on the wrong foot in spring training.
``He's so quiet,'' Green told a reporter in April, admitting he wrongly read Everett and his attitude. ``I had to look at (him) differently. His approach to work is a little different, and I told him perception is important. If people read and hear you're a dog, then that's what they believe.''
Everett shakes his head when he hears things like that, gathers his thoughts.
``Someone with the Mets told me, `You need to smile a little more,' and I'm like, why should I smile when I'm doing my job?'' Everett said. ``I'm having fun, regardless of what my facial expression is. Some people think I'm mad when I'm not. Learn someone before you speak.''
But that's more difficult than assuming great things should automatically come from his solid 6-foot, 190-pound physique. Harder than just running a finger down rows of his statistics and seeing unfulfilled potential.
It's like what Yankees general manager Gene Michael said last winter: ``He hasn't made our (expansion) decision look bad yet.''
Everett is from the Tampa, Fla., high school that produced Dwight Gooden and Gary Sheffield, the only Tampa players ever drafted higher than Everett.
He is married with two children, wears his wedding ring on a gold necklace, has ``Jesus'' written across the wrist of his batting glove, laments the fact that God cannot be mentioned in public schools, comes from divorced parents but stresses the importance of parental, not athletic, role models.
He's a proud homebody, and once had a conflict with the Yankees, he said, in spring training when he chose to spend time with his family rather than hang at the players' hotel.
``Anybody in this game who puts baseball first before their family is a sicko anyway,'' Everett said. ``That's what they said about Pete Rose, Pete Rose put his game before his family, and you see where he is now.
``Somebody said this year I don't know what I want. That's a person who doesn't know me, so I just ignore that.''
The Mets, though, did not ignore the Everett scuttlebutt. Joe McIlvaine, the Mets' executive vice president of baseball operations, admitted the trade was investigated and discussed more than any deal he's made in the last two years.
In the end, the Mets judged Everett's possible upside too great to dismiss.
We'd all like to see kids out there going 100 percent all the time, upbeat and looking like they're full of energy, but we're all different,'' said Gerry Hunsicker, McIlvaine's assistant. ``I think a lot of times the quiet, passive kid gets labeled as not caring and not playing hard, and I think that might be what happened to him.
``He's been a great kid since we've had him. He seems to be having fun and is coming out of his shell a little bit. He's a much different kid than the one who showed up in spring training. That all comes back to being comfortable with his environment and people expecting him to be a part of the future of this organization.''
Everett, considered an outstanding defensive player, was the Mets' opening day rightfielder, despite only 27 games of big league experience with Florida. But he fast lapsed into a free-fall that the Mets thought Everett was helpless to correct in the majors.
So he was sent to Norfolk after hitting three home runs but batting .193 and striking out 18 times in 57 at-bats, having particular trouble with breaking balls.
That problem also has been evident with the Tides, for whom he was hitting since May 23.
Everett will ``definitely'' return to the Mets sometime this season, Hunsicker said. ``We'd like to see his ability to take the bad pitches better, especially the breaking ball. He just needs to understand how pitchers are getting him out and become more disciplined at the plate.
``I certainly think he has the instincts to become a fine major league player. We're counting on it.''
Just look for him to play a good game, not talk one.
``Guys who are always babbling have to prove themselves all the time,'' Everett said. ``Me, I just play my game and go home.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photo by Lawrence Jackson, Staff
Promising Tides outfielder Carl Everett started for the Mets on
opening day but has struggled to live up to his potential.
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