López Begins His Climb From Last Year's Depths
Former All-Star Battles for Nats' Starting Job

By Barry Svrluga
Washington Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, February 27, 2008; E01

VIERA, Fla., Feb. 26 -- It is, throughout Florida and Arizona this time of year, something of a rite of spring. A veteran ballplayer reports to his team's training site, considers his season from a year ago -- when, say, he hit .245 and reached base less than 31 percent of the time, well below what he and others consider his potential -- and pronounces himself a new man. Tales of renewed focus, new energy -- whatever is needed to make the past the past -- spew forth. Miraculously, all is solved.

So it was Tuesday afternoon that, after a long workout that included staying late to run the bases alone, Felipe López sat at his locker and made his pledge.

"I just want to put last year behind me, and I already did," said López, a former all-star who is now fighting for a starting job with the Washington Nationals. "The one thing that hurt last year: I wasn't focused. Obviously, if you watched me, you knew that. I wasn't into baseball like I should be, like I am now."

This could be a simple story about a talented player shoving aside a poor season and moving on. With the Nationals' first spring training game set for Wednesday night in Jupiter against the Florida Marlins, López will board a bus with his teammates in the afternoon. Along for the ride will be Cristian Guzman, listed as the starting shortstop. Back at the Nationals' home base here, Ronnie Belliard -- listed as the starting second baseman -- will work out and wait to make his debut Friday. López will have to earn his way back into the starting lineup by beating out one of the two.

But because of the depths López reached -- both last year and much earlier in his life -- this must be treated more carefully. It is, in fact, a story very few in the Nationals' clubhouse know or understand.

"When I found out the difficult upbringing he had," said Barry Larkin, once a teammate in Cincinnati and now a member of the Nationals' front office, "I could understand why he went through some of the things that he did."

The rough outline of López's upbringing goes something like this: Born in Bayamon, Puerto Rico, he came to the mainland when he was 11 or 12 because his stepmother had leukemia, the disease that would kill her soon thereafter. His real mother? He last saw her when he was 3.

"My family, that stuff, they don't really talk about," he said. "You're curious, but no one really answered me."

Thus, his father, Felipe Sr., pushed his son through Little League in suburban Orlando, seemingly indistinguishable from other eager fathers and sons. Manny Acta, then a coach in the Houston Astros organization and now the Nationals' manager, used to hit ground balls to young Felipe, used to play softball with his father. "It was all baseball," Acta said.

Except behind the scenes. Felipe López Sr. was an abusive parent, both to his oldest son and his two younger siblings, a boy and a girl. Felipe had to move in with relatives. The problems persisted through high school, even as López developed into a star at Lake Brantley High in Altamonte Springs, Fla. There, he hit .521 as a senior and was named the state's player of the year.

In June 1998, the Toronto Blue Jays made López the eighth overall pick in the amateur draft. On Aug. 11, he signed for a $2 million bonus. Three days later, Felipe López Sr. was sentenced to 20 years in prison after pleading no contest to two counts of child abuse -- coercing a child into a sexual act by an adult -- and one count of aggravated assault, according to state records.

Felipe López Sr. remains in jail and is scheduled to be released in November 2009. Felipe López said he has not talked to his father since.

"It was a difficult part of my life," López said Tuesday. "I'm not going to lie: It was tough. But I never brought that situation onto the field. That was something that I can always block [out], because he wasn't important to me."

Suddenly, though, López said he found himself as the man in the family, the one to whom everyone turned. He bought a house for an aunt and uncle who had been particularly helpful during his turbulent childhood. He didn't stop there.

"I bought houses for everybody," he said. He met his future wife in 1999, while playing Class A ball in Hagerstown, Md. By the following year, $2 million had been whittled to $20,000.

"People would say, 'She just married you because of your money,' " L¿pez said. "But they don't know. We went through some tough times. At one point, we didn't have nothing."

Now, López is nearly 10 years removed from the day he was drafted, has spent more than five years in the majors and will earn $4.9 million this season. "I'm saving a lot more, that's for sure," he said. In the fall, he will be a free agent, and how he performs for the Nationals will help determine how much he earns on the open market.

By his own admission, though, López's earning potential will drop drastically if he handles this season as he did last. He has admitted to battling off-field problems in 2007. He declined to address them specifically Tuesday, other than to say that they weren't related to his father or his immediate family, his wife, Jennifer, and his two daughters, 6-year-old Chaydin and 3-year-old Jaysha.

Whatever the issues, López said they chipped away at him in 2007. The man who said he separated his abusive father from his baseball career couldn't separate on- and off-the-field problems any longer. He slumped badly, hitting .182 in June, and never recovered. His body language was poor. Frequently, he sulked in the clubhouse, and even when his mood improved, he wasn't engaged in baseball. Members of the organization wondered if they would ever reach him.

"I always got to the field early before" last year, López said. "I was always working. Last year, I felt like I didn't take advantage of it. I didn't work. There's no excuses. If you don't work, it's going to show. If you work, you're going to be luckier more times."

So this offseason, he worked. Larkin, who tutored López in the waning days of his own career in Cincinnati, owns a baseball facility in Orlando. López worked out there regularly. During a quiet moment by the batting cage Tuesday, Larkin leaned over and reminded López of all that labor -- and what it could mean.

"He worked his tail off," Larkin said. "The days that he said he would be there, he was there. He didn't skip. He came early. He did some stuff on his own in his garage. From what I saw, he did everything he could to make himself better."

The Nationals hope that attitude holds through spring training and into the season. So far, they are pleased.

"He's ready to compete and ready to face whatever comes his way," Acta said. "And there's never been a doubt about his talent."

López knows this story, beginning Wednesday night, could go one of two ways. It could be the kind of trite tale that so often marks spring training. His words of focus could float away and end up being meaningless. Or he could return to the form that made him an all-star in 2005, a form that would earn him millions more as a free agent.

To do that, he will have to win back his old starting job. And for a moment, sitting in front of his locker -- his eyes full of intensity, sweat still on his brow -- it seemed possible.

"I've always had competition in front of me," he said. "It's all about now worrying about the competition and just going out there and doing your job. I didn't do that last year. This year, I have to leave everything on the field."

Nationals Notes: Lefty Matt Chico will start the Nationals' first game of the Grapefruit League schedule Wednesday night, quite a difference from last season, when Chico was in his first major league camp.

"It's just going and getting out there earlier than everybody else," Chico said. "It's just earlier that I get to work on things."

Chico's goals throughout the spring and into the season: cut down on walks and throw more first-pitch strikes. Last year, he threw 59 percent first-pitch strikes; pitching coach Randy St. Claire has a goal of 62 percent.

Right-hander Garrett Mock will follow Chico on Wednesday. Thursday, right-hander Jason Bergmann will face Georgetown, with newly acquired Tyler Clippard scheduled to pitch Friday against Florida in Viera and right-hander John Patterson set for Saturday against Baltimore. . . .

Acta said first baseman Nick Johnson, in his first action since breaking his right leg in September 2006, will play three innings in the field against Florida, hopefully getting two at-bats. Dmitri Young, who is currently listed ahead of Johnson on the depth chart, will not make the trip. . . .

The Nationals had their annual preseason meeting with representatives of the players' union. Patterson returns as Washington's player representative, with third baseman Ryan Zimmerman the second-in-command. Veteran reliever Ray King sits on the executive committee of the players' association.

Staff researcher Julie Tate contributed to this report.