Bordick impressive as O’s shortstop> Slick-fielding Mainer takes legend’s spot

FORT MYERS, Fla. – Spring training is all about adjustments. Maine native Mike Bordick, however, has a little more on his plate than most this spring.

After 10 years in the Oakland A’s organization, Bordick has signed on with the Baltimore Orioles. He has had to balance the usual adjustments of new teammates and getting acclimated to a new area, while also finding a place for his wife Monica and three children to live during the season. But there is one other small wrinkle.

It just so happens that Bordick is in the midst of replacing a guy that had played a few games at shortstop for the O’s. You see, when Mike Bordick signed a three-year deal with the Orioles in December, it ended Ripken’s 15-year stranglehold on the position. The Streak, Ripken’s mark of consecutive games played, will continue, it will just have to move 30 feet or so to the right.

“I feel really flattered and fortunate to be in this position,” says Bordick as he surveyed the infield from the Orioles dugout at City of Palms Park. “Sure there is a lot of pressure. I’ve probably done more interviews in the last month than I have done over my whole career in Oakland.”

While Ripken had his streak at shortstop officially snapped last July 15 when he moved to third in favor of Manny Alexander for six games, the younger Alexander quickly proved that he did not warrant disrupting No. 8’s daily routine since 1982.

Bordick, however, was a different story.

Widely considered one of the best fielding shortstops in baseball, he was one of a select few that the Orioles felt could replace Ripken. To that end, they made an all-out push in the offseason to lure Bordick away from Oakland.

“Sure it is tough to replace Ripken, but Mike is in the top five percent that is good enough to do it,” explained Orioles skipper Davey Johnson. “His work ethic is great. Nobody takes more ground balls. Just the other day, there was a ball going down the third-base line and the third baseman kind of figured that it was going foul, but it bounced fair. Thekind of figured that it was going foul, but it bounced fair. The third baseman couldn’t field it, but Mike was right there and threw the guy out. It was just typical Mike Bordick.”

Bordick has justified every penny of his multi-million-dollar deal so far. He’s batting at a .359 clip through 14 spring games. He has only committed one miscue, while breaking in the rookie third baseman to his right. The former University of Maine star figures to bat second in a very formidable lineup.

“It’s been going well with Mike,” said Ripken. “I think that every day we play together and work on things, we build on the chemistry between the two of us. As we get used to working on that side of the infield and learn about each other, other things will develop nicely.”

Ripken knows that the addition of Bordick can only make Baltimore a better team both with his glove and with his bat.

“You know what you’re getting with Mike,” exlained the modern-day Iron Man. “Obviously he is great defensively, but he is also a solid hitter. He’s making my transition easier.”

Of course, all of this turmoil could have been avoided had Oakland matched the Orioles’ free-agent offer to Bordick. It was the A’s who sigof Maine in the summer of 1986. Four years later he broke into the majors and in 1993 supplanted Walt Weiss as the everyday shortstop. The appeal of being one of the few current major leaguers to play his whole career with one team was something that was hard to leave behind.

“It was really tough to leave Oakland; that’s been my major league home for the last 10 years,” said Bordick. “But it got to the point where Baltimore really was going after me in the offseason. I am with a contender now, and that is what it’s all about.”

Bordick, who lives in Auburn during the offseason, still has fond memories of another contending team he played three years for – the UMaine Black Bears. He is saddened that his old mentor, John Winkin, has moved next door to Husson College in Bangor.

“I had a great time at Maine, and I am so grateful to have been able to play up there under coach Winkin, who is one of the greatest baseball minds I have ever met,” said Bordick. “He’s a great man, and it’s unfortunate to see him move on because he is an institution.”

The new Black Bears coach would be well served to give Bordick a call for advice on what it feels like to replace an institution.