Thursday, March 16, 2006
The Tribe's slugger still doesn't get the star treatment from fans.
WINTER HAVEN, Fla. (AP) -- Clutching a fresh-out-of-the-box baseball, the young Indians fan spotted his first target for an autograph. He knew the muscular player was with Cleveland -- the blue uniform being a dead giveaway.
But for some reason, the kid couldn't quite place the face.
"Who is that?" he asked.
"That's Travis Hafner."
"Oh," the kid said.
That's fairly typical treatment for Hafner, who despite being one of baseball's premier power hitters can walk the streets of Cleveland or the beaches in Hawaii without being recognized.
For some reason, Hafner isn't seen as a star. Not yet, anyway. Maybe it's because he plays for the mid-market Indians, who don't enjoy the same publicity given to say the New York Yankees, Boston Red Sox or Chicago White Sox.
But Hafner's days in the shadows could soon be over.
If he has another season like last year, the 28-year-old Hafner, better known to Cleveland fans as the hulking but lovable "Pronk," will be known from coast to coast.
Big year in 2005
In 2005, Hafner brought the Indians to the doorstep of the AL playoffs. The hard-swinging left-hander batted .305 with 33 homers and 108 RBIs -- high numbers that are even more impressive when you consider he got them in just 137 games.
Hafner, who finished fifth in the AL MVP voting, missed a chunk of games in July and early August after he was struck in the face with a breaking pitch by Chicago's Mark Buehrle. That beaning not only hurt Hafner, who suffered from dizziness for weeks, but it damaged the Indians, who were in the playoff hunt until a collapse in the final week.
Injury set him back
"When I got hit, I was going so good at the plate," said Hafner. "Then, you take two weeks off from seeing live pitching and it's almost like going through spring training again. When I came back, I got some hits here and there but I didn't have the consistency where I put up good at-bat after good at-bat.
"If you made good pitches, you got me out."
That wasn't often last season as Hafner finished in the AL's top 10 in average, doubles, walks, RBI ratio, home run ratio and extra-base hits. He homered in a career-high six straight games from Sept. 18-24 when the Indians were pushing Chicago for the AL Central lead. At one point during the homer streak, Hafner had 10 straight extra-base hits.
But while some baseball fans haven't fully appreciated Hafner's clout, his name strikes fear in others.
"Man, Travis is good," said Toronto's Josh Towers. "He's got power to all fields. He might not get as much hype as David Ortiz or guys like that. He's kind of been hiding in the AL Central. But he's well known to us pitchers."
Hafner's career has been on a steady climb since the Indians acquired him in a 2002 trade from Texas. He hit 14 homers in 2003, and followed up with 28 homers and 109 RBIs in '04.
Hard worker
He attributes his success to hard work and an ability to block out everything but him and the pitcher.
"I'm real competitive," said Hafner, who had four 20-plus-homer seasons in the minors. "I know what the pitcher is going to throw and how he's going to try and get me out. It's kind of 'I know what you got, you know what I've got, let's see who wins.' "
Other than a December vacation in Hawaii with his fiancee, Hafner spent much of the winter working out in Cleveland.
"He has routines," training partner John McDonald said. "If he says be at the gym at 8 o'clock in the morning, you'd better be there because he'll be waiting."
Copyright 2006 Associated Press. All rights reserved. This material may not be published, broadcast, rewritten, or redistributed.