Delgado's Smile, and Bat, Light Up the Playoffs

Carlos Delgado has hit four homers in his first appearance in the postseason. (By Charles Krupa -- Associated Press)

For many years, one of baseball's most admired gentlemen -- friendly, mature Carlos Delgado -- has deserved a postseason stage as much as any player in the game. The public has no trouble delineating the stereotype of a ball-playing jerk with a fat contract and no conscience. We have a harder time imagining the opposite, a quiet good-humored team leader who has waited his turn for a title shot. But such players exist, with Delgado as a prime example. Now, after 407 regular season home runs but not a single playoff game until this month, one of the sport's finest role models has his chance in the spotlight at last.

With an innate presence that's rarely seen by a first-time October performer, the 34-year-old slugger drove in five runs in Game 4 of the National League Championship Series on Sunday to stabilize a reeling Mets team that looked ripe for a quick knockout. Now New York can relax a bit, secure that there will be a Game 6 at Shea Stadium. Home is always a comfort. Even the thought of a rematch with the Cards' Cy Young Award ace Chris Carpenter may not faze them too much. After all, in Game 2, Delgado hit two homers and drove in four runs off Carpenter.

Yes, Delgado is on a rare tear with six extra-base hits already off the Cards. With nine RBI, he is just two short of tying the all-time LCS record. The record book is wide open for him. Almost as important, his presence at cleanup has ensured that the star who hits in front of him, Carlos Beltran, will get pitches to hit. In '04, Beltran got plenty of October celebrity when he hit eight home runs. Now, with Delgado protecting him, he's added three more.

This series has several key characters. But it is Delgado who has added an extra dimension to the Mets-Cardinals battle. In his 14th season, the native of Puerto Rico is on the verge of upstaging the only first baseman in the league who surpasses him in talent, though not in temperament: the Cardinals' grumpy Albert Pujols. In a postseason that has been short on dramatic themes, the contrast between Delgado, who has coped superbly with New York pressure, and Pujols, whose reputation has not flourished this month outside the protective cocoon of St. Louis, is now worth our full attention.

Manners won't decide the National League pennant. But the contrast between the great Cardinal from the Dominican, who may be one of the greatest hitters in history, and Delgado, who is probably "just" on his way to the Hall of Fame, won't be forgotten no matter which team wins this taut series.

Delgado has been the dignified, smiling veteran, while Pujols, who's had six seasons as a superstar to learn how to act, still seems like a young and insulated 26-year-old. Perhaps the most recurrent image of this NLCS has been Delgado's uncontained enjoyment of the event and his teammates' happiness at his pleasure.

"This is great. Watching [the playoffs] on TV, for the longest time, I tried to play as hard as I could for as long as I could to get here. It seems that every year we came up short in the AL East Division," said Delgado, who spent his first 12 years with Toronto. "Having the opportunity to be here with a chance to win is an amazing feeling.

"I did not watch [the postseason] much, just because I hated not being here," added Delgado. "The moment you start watching, you start thinking. You get competitive and say, well, he's going to throw this now and he should do this or he should do that. So I didn't watch much."

After such delayed gratification, it would be understandable if Delgado was an impatient hitter in his first postseason. Yet he's anticipated the problem of powerful emotions in the playoffs. "The adrenaline gets fired up, the energy level is higher," he said. "If you can control your emotions, chances are you are going to be better off."

To that end, Delgado has concentrated on hitting to the opposite field. So far, all four of his October homers, including two 440-footers, have landed to the left of dead center field. In seven postseason games, he's 12 for 29 with 3 doubles, 4 homers, 11 RBI and a .931 slugging percentage. What, no steals of home plate?

While Delgado has enjoyed his exposure, Pujols already seems tired of October exasperations. In nine postseason series, he's performed identically to the regular season with a .332 vs. .331 batting average and an excellent 11 homers and 32 RBI in 166 at-bats. But he had no RBI in his only World Series in '04 and has no RBI in this NLCS. And he's getting testy.

After St. Louis was shut out for seven innings by Tom Glavine in Game 1, Pujols made one of those comments that, while off the cuff and laced with post-loss anger, is still going to be hard to forget. If anybody is in Prince Albert's league, it's the 40-year-old Glavine, who has 290 career wins and has held Pujols to 4 for 27 in their meetings and gave him the collar in Game 1.

"He wasn't that good. He wasn't that good at all," Pujols said of Glavine. "Same thing that he always does. Throw a change-up, fastball and that was it." They'll have a rematch in Game 5, which was postponed by rain until tonight.

"If he truly didn't think I pitched well the other night, then I hope I do something to really impress him," Glavine said. "That would be a good thing."

A better thing would be for somebody in St. Louis to counsel Pujols so that he doesn't bring ugly publicity on himself and the sport. Once you become Barry Bonds, you never turn back into Carlos Delgado.

However, molding youth has never been Manager Tony La Russa's gig. In Oakland, he let Jose Canseco and Mark McGwire do what they pleased as long as they hit home runs. We see how that worked out. At the moment, Pujols seems to be spoiling for a pointless Bonds-like tiff. Last week he supposedly kicked a chair that hit a reporter and growled: "Get out of my locker. You people are a pain, you know that?" Of his base-running blunders, he said: "I can't make a mistake? Am I [supposed to be] perfect?" Small potatoes. But enough of them can make a stew.

Right now, Delgado leads Pujols in RBI by 9-0 in this LCS. That could continue or reverse. Whichever is the case, baseball should hope that Pujols looks at the example Delgado is providing for the Mets. Sports may not teach character. But that doesn't mean you can't peek into the other dugout and copy it.