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If at First He Doesn't Succeed . . .
Nationals Manager Manny Acta talks with infielders during the first morning of full-squad workouts. First baseman Larry Broadway, second from left, is vying to start the season at first base in place of the injured Nick Johnson.
(By Jonathan Newton -- The Washington Post)
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"It doesn't really mean anything," Broadway said.
What means something, though, was what he went through last summer. The Nationals were going to call up minor leaguers when rosters expanded on Sept. 1. But a month earlier, Foli told Broadway, flat out, he wouldn't be going.
"I just told him, 'I think you need that time to get your body back to wherever it needs to be,' " Foli said.
The prospect was still a project.
"I'm not going to lie to you and say I was, like: 'Oh, great, that's fine. I'll just go home,' " Broadway said. "I wouldn't say 'upset' about it, but I felt like I was doing all that I could do."
Yet he stayed in New Orleans, ended up separating his shoulder in the final weeks of the season, made a brief and unsuccessful appearance in the Venezuelan winter league, and then came here, with his best chance to break through staring him in the face. Lee, a nine-year veteran with an exceptional glove, will provide the stiffest competition.
"Hopefully, he does well," Lee said. "Hopefully, I do. We'll see who wins the job."
If Broadway doesn't win it, he will be back in the minors, another chance gone by. And a familiar process will start again, waiting for the manager to call him into the office, to pick up the phone, to get that call. He has been there before. Will he be there again?
"I'm over here," he said, mimicking looking around the corner, waiting for the call. "I hear the phone ringing."
