Sullivan: Young will see pitches

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SARASOTA, Fla. — Opportunity has knocked for Dmitri Young. It is pounding on his door with the belligerence of a battering ram. It is liable to wake the neighbors and rouse the dead.

The Cincinnati Reds' switch-hitting left fielder has arrived, and he may soon ascend. He sees this season through the prism of infinite possibilities.

He can sum up what's at stake in a single word: “Stardom.”

Dmitri Young takes BP.
(Jeff Swinger photo)
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Dmitri Young has hit .300 three years in a row, so it's a little strange to think of him in need of a breakthrough season. Yet in an age when batting statistics are more inflated than Britney Spears, the requirements of fame grow ever more rigorous.

Young knows he must make more noise if he is to gain more notice. He must work the count more carefully and stop some of his heedless hacking. He knows, too, that his planets have never been more propitiously aligned.

Reds manager Bob Boone's provisional lineup cards show Young hitting either second or fourth in the Reds' batting order — directly in front of Ken Griffey Jr. or in the cleanup hitter's catbird seat between Griffey and Sean Casey.

More secure

The ripple effect figures to be better rips — more fastballs, more strikes, more chances to inflict pain. Dmitri Young's circumstances suggest the guy who steps up to a slot machine already primed for a payoff.

“If they're not going to pitch to Junior,” he said, “they're going to have to pitch to somebody.”

As he says this, Young's grin is the approximate width of a windshield. He turns the thought over in his mind for a moment, and his eyes dance a fandango. Dmitri Young derives so much pleasure from big-league baseball he sometimes cuts a comical figure. Last year, on his first day of spring training, he loudly rhapsodized about the pungent aroma of sweaty men.

What's different now is Young's mirth is genuine, and not a mask for his gnawing insecurities. Last spring, Young was the staple of trade rumors and the player who felt most threatened by Jim Bowden's lingering infatuation with Deion Sanders.

“I'm fed up with the head games,” Young said at the time. “I can't take any more of that crap.”

Breakout year?
If the right pitcher were available, Young would still be expendable. What's changed is Young feels more like a fixture now, and less dependent on the manager's mood.

“I know the league more,” he said. “I know my strengths. If I go 0-for-4, I'm not going to have that question in the back of my mind about whether I'll be in the lineup the next day.”

The question before Young now is not whether he'll hit, but where. Historically, he has done his best work outside of the No.4 hole. He carries a .295 lifetime average, but is a career .261 cleanup hitter.

“Jim Leyland used to tell me the facts are the facts,” Bowden said. “But I think if you played in 162 games and you've got Griffey hitting in front of you and Casey behind you, you could put up some big numbers ... I believe Dmitri is at that age where players do break out and have their biggest years.”

He is 27, and opportunity's knock resounds like a good cut at a bad curve ball. Dmitri Young can smell stardom. His goal is to taste it.

“Challenge,” he said, “is fine with me.

E-mail tsullivan@enquirer.com. Past columns at Enquirer.com/columns/sullivan.

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