MONTREAL A lifetime's worth of traveling helps Zeile stay in big leagues

The journeyman third baseman has hit a homer for 11 different teams.
ASSOCIATED PRESS
MONTREAL -- Todd Zeile was scanning all the major league rosters when it struck him: He sure had played in a lot of places.
"I went around and thought about that at spring training," he said recently. "I think that at that time maybe Oakland was the only team that I had never had at least one ex-teammate."
Back then, he was set to begin his first season with the New York Yankees. Little did he know he'd finish the year with the Montreal Expos -- and become the first player to hit a home run for 11 teams.
"When I get invited back I can do an Old-timers' circuit," Zeile said.
To trace Zeile's travels over the past nine years, stick a pin in the map at St. Louis. From there, a brief stay in Chicago with the Cubs, east to Philadelphia, a quick trip down to Baltimore, home to Los Angeles, back across the country to Florida, west to Texas, up to New York, out to Colorado, and once again to the Big Apple, this time the Bronx instead of Queens.
Released by the Yankees last month, the third baseman signed with Expos on Aug. 20.
Fine family
A father of three -- with another child on the way -- the 38-year-old Zeile credits his wife and family with handling the nomadic existence.
"They've been patient along the way," Zeile said. "Fortunately, my wife is from an athletic background so she knows what it takes."
Julianne McNamara won the gold medal as a gymnast at the 1984 Summer Olympics. She'd already reached the top of her sport when she married Zeile -- who was still a promising minor leaguer for the Cardinals -- in January 1989.
"I think we thought we were going to be in St. Louis for the rest of his career," she said. "I didn't think we'd move around as much as we did.
"There's definitely times when I think the lifestyle is a little nutty," she said. "Sometimes, I kind of laugh thinking of all the places Todd has played. It's definitely not been boring."
The adventure begins
A real adventure, actually, starting when the Cardinals traded him to the Cubs in the middle of the 1995 season.
"It would've been strange if we'd stayed in one place the whole time," she said. "Maybe that's because of the way it evolved."
They've taken all the moves in stride, even the surprising one that sent him from the Dodgers to Florida in May 1998 in a deal that included Mike Piazza and Gary Sheffield.
Having met at UCLA, the Zeiles had bought a home in Thousand Oaks, Calif., about a month before he was traded from Los Angeles to the Marlins.
They decided to keep that house -- "I think it helped a lot to have a home base," she said -- while continuing to spend time wherever Todd wound up.
For their 9-year-old son, Garrett, that's meant a half-year of school in California and a half-year somewhere else. The Zeiles also have 5-year-old Hannah and 16-month-old Ian.
"Family is the most important thing to us and we don't want to be apart," she said.
In fact, Julianne and the kids were supposed to fly into New York on Thursday to join Todd, but they postponed their travel plans because of Hurricane Isabel.
On Thursday night, Zeile homered to give the Expos a 1-0 win over the Mets.
Joining the hunt
Zeile joined the Expos when the young team was in the thick of the playoff hunt, and Montreal manager Frank Robinson was glad to get him.
"We needed a presence here," Robinson said. "You can't describe what the pressure is and how players respond to a race for a wild card or a division title. It's tremendous, the anxiety, the ups and downs, and Todd has been through this."
Zeile hit .210 with six homers and 23 RBIs in limited playing time for the Yankees. Going into this weekend, he was batting .264 with four home runs and 16 RBIs since joining the fading Expos.
He has reached the postseason four times, starting in 1996 with the Orioles.
"It was my first playoff run and it was a phenomenal team, playing with Cal [Ripken Jr.]," Zeile said. "I had a very good playoff series against the Yankees and kind of elevated my stock a little bit."
He made it twice more with Texas, then reached his only World Series in 2000 with the Mets.
Zeile had eight RBIs in the NL championship series against St. Louis, and hit .400 in the five-game loss to the Yankees.
"I'm glad I've had a chance to play in one and have a successful series and play well," he said.
Zeile has over 1,000 career RBIs, more than 1,900 hits and nearly 250 home runs.
With Julianne and their kids, he's also piled up plenty of places to call home.
"I don't know that it's something that I would recommend to everybody, but all things considered, I don't think I'd change things," Zeile said. "The experiences have been something that'll last me a lifetime."