Pena could have folks smiling again

Column

The Rays are getting the band back together. It'll be Longo on drums, B.J. on lead guitar and 'Los on first base. Just you wait. Next month, Carl Crawford is going to come crawling under the fence at Rays spring training.

First things first: Carlos Pena is back, and to some that means more than home runs – or strikeouts. When the news broke Friday, I'm sure there were Rays fans rummaging through closets or hampers for their No. 23 jerseys.

There aren't many second acts for athletes in towns that they loved and towns that often loved them. This is one.

And there's this: Last September, I was in Chicago, at Wrigley Field. The Cubs were playing and a fierce wind was blowing in. It didn't matter. Chicago's first baseman hit a booming home run 430 feet into the fangs of that wind. It was Carlos Pena.

He hit 144 homers for the Rays in four seasons and led them when they won the pennant in 2008, including a huge homer in a tense September game in Boston. That was Carlos, along with his fun-for-all dugout dance. He's not Prince Fielder, but he was a prince here, just the same.

Yes, we remember the other deal, too. Like those 619 Pena strikeouts. We remember that in Pena's last season in Tampa Bay, 2010, he hit .196, worst in the majors, with only two homers and five RBIs in September. He hit .133 against left-handed pitching last season.

You get what you get with Carlos. But even at this point, he still fits and fills what the Rays need. It's a smart move _ if Pena has something left.

Will he help put the Rays over the top and win a World Series? If Cliff Lee didn't put the Phillies over the top, and we can't be sure if Albert Pjulos will make the Angels champs, then there's no way to put Pena's return in those terms.

Really, it's about getting in the tournament – that's the Rays' thinking. Take last season. The world champion St. Louis Cardinals weren't the first-, second- or third-best team heading into the postseason, or the fourth, fifth or sixth, either. It's about the getting in.

In that sense, Pena won't subtract. He reaffirms the Rays' dedication to defense. He should hit 25 or 30 homers, drive in 80 or 90 runs and work a lot of walks.

And I think there was a sense in Rays Land that the club had gotten the best out of Casey Kotchman, that his 2012 wouldn't match his 2011.

It's about staying ahead of the game. The Rays weren't paying Pena the $10 million he made last season in Chicago. But they still need what he brings. Pena needs a job.

As an added bonus, Rays and Rays fans remember Pena as a good guy. Not that it matters if he doesn't hit, but the idea of Pena generally brings smiles to faces.

So it is with Shirley Barber of Sarasota. Shirley is a Rays fan and Pena devotee. Her family and friends always talked Pena with her. Shirley has saved a 2009 phone message from her son Bruce talking about this and that – including how sorry he was for her about Carlos Pena's hand injury.

A week later, Bruce, his wife and their son died in the crash of a small plane Bruce piloted. There has been so much pain. But Shirley found time to write the Rays during the 2010 season, about how much Pena meant to the family. Word was passed and a meeting was arranged at Tropicana Field.

"I remember Carlos coming up to me and putting his arms around me," Shirley Barber said Saturday. "I'd always loved him as a player and always thought he was so genuine."

She followed Pena's season with the Cubs on the Internet. Just last week, she came across her Rays Pena jersey.

"I decided I wasn't going to throw it out," Shirley said. "Maybe I'd wear it again."

And she will.

Carlos Pena will wear his Rays jersey, too.