To know half of what makes new White Sox center fielder Nick Swisher who he is, flash back to a day last season in mid-May. There he was, sitting in a chair on the field at Oakland’s McAfee Coliseum with an 11-inch long mane, looking like baseball’s answer to “10,000 B.C.”
It took nearly a year to grow that much hair, but only a few minutes for his father, former major leaguer Steve Swisher, to chop much of it off.
As the first locks were shorn — the younger Swisher’s contribution to making wigs for women with cancer through the Pantene Beautiful Lengths charity and a tribute to his late grandmother — Swisher grabbed a chunk of hair, smiled, raised his hand and showed it off to the crowd of Athletics fans.
“I don’t want to be 50 years old, sitting in a rocking chair wishing I’d done something,” Swisher told RedEye in the waning days before the Sox’s season opener on Monday. “I want to take advantage of every possible opportunity presented to me in the right way and have fun with it. Because this is the life.”
But don’t label Swisher a choir boy just yet. You haven’t met the other half.
By reputation, he’s a brash, energetic, dive-head-first-and-ask-questions-later kind of guy — the kind of style that makes him a fan favorite and welcome teammate, but has ruffled some feathers with opponents and baseball observers.
“Nick came in with a personality of being upbeat, he was not afraid to talk,” said Bob Todd, his coach at Ohio State University. “As he got older and stayed at our program longer he developed a great deal of confidence in his abilities. If you talk to some opponents, they may say [it’s] borderline cockiness.”
Not long ago White Sox manager Ozzie Guillen would have agreed. Guillen recently has gone on record as saying he used to hate Swisher’s guts.
But that was before Jan. 3, when Sox General Manager Kenny Williams traded pitching prospects Gio Gonzalez and Fautino De Los Santos, along with outfielder Ryan Sweeney, to Oakland for Swisher in hopes the fifth-year veteran can help revive an aging franchise three years removed from its World Series win.
And Guillen formed a different opinion of the former A’s slugger’s bravado.
“Now he loves me, see how that changes like that?” Swisher said, laughing.
From Swisher’s perspective, he doesn’t see why you wouldn’t love him.
“I’m one of those guys that I don’t have the most talent, but I take a lot of pride in my work ethic and the fact that I have so much fun,” said Swisher, a guitar-playing country music fan whose facial hair changes more often than Chicago’s weather. “Eighty percent of the time I’m out there laughing.”
There may not be much to laugh about, however, if Swisher isn’t the answer for a team that had 90 losses in 2007.
His lifetime batting average of .251 wouldn’t bowl anyone over, but he’s a high on-base percentage player (.381 last season) who is known for his plate discipline and power. He drew 100 walks last season and hit 35 homers in 2006 — a statistic that should benefit from hitter-friendly U.S. Cellular Field.
At 6 feet and 215 pounds, Swisher gives up three inches and 40 pounds to teammate and designated hitter Jim Thome, but power is not a problem.
The 27-year-old Parkersburg, W. Va., native, who was once recruited to play football at Notre Dame, has pumped iron with the likes of NFL players and former Buckeyes A.J. Hawk and Nick Mangold.
Then last season he came up with “the country boy workout.”
“It was sledgehammers, chopping trees, pushing tires, wheelbarrow drills, stuff like that,” he said.
Swisher’s unconventional persona and discipline at the plate fit in with A’s General Manager Billy Beane’s philosophy in Oakland, which drafted Swisher in the first round in 2002.
Beane gave his dream player a call the day he traded him.
“As soon as I heard, my jaw just dropped,” said Swisher, who had been eating breakfast with his mother at a Bob Evans in Columbus, Ohio, when Beane called. “All these thoughts were running through my mind like: Did I do something wrong? Did I upset the wrong person? Did I not live up to the expectations?”
Regardless, the maverick was headed to Chicago, and Swisher said the Sox welcomed him with open arms.
“Being a nobody coming over here from Oakland, I just want to be a piece of the puzzle,” Swisher said. “I could not be more happy with my situation.”
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WHITE SOX
JOSH FIELDS,3B
In perhaps the toughest decision Kenny Williams has had to make this spring, the Sox decided to start Joe Crede at third and send Fields down to AAA. There’s a chance the Sox could trade Crede, clearing the way for Fields to become an everyday third baseman.
DANNY RICHAR, 2B
Juan Uribe takes the reins at second base to make way for new shortstop Orlando Cabrera, relegating Richar to a reserve role-and even that would be in May, when he’s expected to return from a broken rib. However, manager Ozzie Guillen has indicated that if Uribe doesn’t get the job done, there are others behind him- including Richar-he won’t hesitate to use.
CARLOS QUENTIN,OF
With Jerry Owens on the shelf with a groin injury, Quentin and Brian Anderson become the go-to players in the outfield until Owens gets back to full strength.
ALEXEI RAMIREZ, SS, 2B
The wirey Cuban will start the season as a reserve middle infielder. He showed promise this spring batting .355.
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Ryan Corazza is a RedEye special contributor
