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Rays Trainer, Baldelli Have Ties That Bind

By MARTIN FENNELLY

mfennelly@tampatrib.com

Published: February 28, 2009

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PORT CHARLOTTE - Rocco Baldelli led the major leagues in love Friday. The Rays were reunited at last with those pesky Red Sox, and Baldelli made the trip up from Fort Myers to be DH - designated hugger. He saw old friends everywhere, faces from the Rays' from-nowhere run to the World Series, which carried past Boston in the American League Championship Series. More incredible, Baldelli was part of it.

He joined Boston as a free agent this offseason, leaving the organization that was home for nearly a decade. He still wears No. 5, as well as his familiar grin and calm air. At Boston's spring training park, his locker is the one Manny Ramirez used.

Rays head athletic trainer Ron Porterfield smiled.

"It kills me to see him in another uniform, but I wish him the best," Porterfield said. When the Rays don't play the Red Sox, he wants Rocco to hit a hundred home runs.

As much as anyone, Porterfield, 44, knows what Baldelli, 27, did to get back to the Rays. His career seemed so lost, the condition that robbed his strength was so mysterious. The two men worked together, fought together, won together.

"He probably didn't go to bed on a lot of different occasions thinking about me," Baldelli said. "It was almost a full-time job for him on top of his regular training duties. He really cared. He made it his mission. I don't know if I'd be out here playing if he didn't do everything he did."

There's always a bond between players and trainers. With Baldelli and Porterfield, it's more than that. When they talk about it, they can get emotional.

Rock bottom was August 2007. Baldelli was on a rehab assignment in Vero Beach. At about 4:30 in the afternoon, a few hours before a Rays game at Tropicana Field, Porterfield got a call from Baldelli. He was crying. He said he couldn't play, that something was wrong. He didn't know what, or what to do. Neither did Porterfield. They talked for more than two hours. "When I finally had to hang up with him, it was game time," Porterfield said. So it began.

We all know about Baldelli's fight to get back from what was first diagnosed as a mitochondrial disorder (it was re-diagnosed as something similar last December). We never did see the work that he did, and a lot of others did, to become healthy enough to play again, hundreds of hours, thousands.

We never saw Ron Porterfield scrambling for answers. We didn't see him Googling at all hours, researching to unravel the mystery, calling doctors all over the country, pushing Rocco, coaxing him, listening to him.

"I always knew Rocco just didn't recover like normal," Porterfield said. "My big thing was, 'What did Lou Gehrig go through?' That was my first thought. How can an athlete get something like that. It broke my heart. I was scared. At that point I thought, forget baseball. Is this guy healthy? Is this guy going to live?"

He says Baldelli's medical files run 3,000 pages.

"I know as much about him as I do my kids, what he's been through since the time he was born until now."

Porterfield's wife kidded him.

"Are you married to me or are you married to him?"

It was his mission.

The mission was accomplished in August in Seattle, when Baldelli returned to the Rays. The day the Rays clinched their first playoff spot, Rocco Baldelli was in right field. It was a touching moment for Porterfield.

"I went home that night, and if I didn't tell you I shed tears, I'd be lying. ... We'd shed many tears together."

Baldelli is forever thanking people. So is Porterfield - his staff, team doctors, all the doctors, Rays management, everyone. They all played a part in what happened. And, boy, did it ever happen. Last October in the ALCS, Rocco Baldelli hit a three-run homer against the Red Sox in Game 3 at Fenway Park, with family and friends up from next-door Rhode Island, Rocco country. He drove in the decisive run in Game 7. He homered in Game 5 of the Series loss to the Phillies - his final Rays at-bat.

His one-year deal with Boston is worth millions in incentives based on at-bats. The Rays couldn't handle that, as well as any more uncertainty, too.

"I think this was the best situation for me on a lot of levels," Baldelli said. "I don't think you could be in a much better spot."

"We're trying real hard to get a read on him," Red Sox manager Terry Francona said. "The idea is to get the most out of him on the field and not wear him out before he gets to the field. ... The more we understand, hopefully the better decisions we'll make."

"I can't tell you how many times, but I feel many, many times better than I did last spring," Baldelli said. "I'm in a completely different physical state."

The night the Rays clinched the playoff spot, Ron Porterfield left the raucous Rays clubhouse to get something from the dugout. Rocco Baldelli was there. They embraced. Four months later, on a sunny day in Charlotte County, Ron Porterfield's eyes nearly filled.

"He said, 'Thanks.'"

They hugged.

They hugged again Friday.

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