Carlos' Corner: 'Everything a closer should be'
Peņa: Oakland's Koch has all the ingredients
By Carlos Peņa / Special to MLB.com
Carlos Peņa, a 23-year-old rookie heralded as one of the top
prospects in the game, was acquired by Oakland during the offseason
in a six-player trade with Texas. He's replacing Jason Giambi as the
A's first baseman and is providing for MLB.com an exclusive daily
diary for the 2002 season.
Before Wednesday's game against the Rangers, Peņa took a look back at
Tuesday's tense 5-4 win and offered his thoughts on the man at the
center of it all.
ARLINGTON, Tex. -- Let's talk about Billy Koch, our closer. The
reason I like Billy Koch so much is that he has everything a closer
needs. For every position, you kind of have a vision of what the
person playing that position should be like. And in my opinion, Billy
is everything a closer should be.
First of all, he throws gas, you have to have that. Second -- and
just as important -- is that he has that demeanor. He looks mean. He
looks scary. He's intimidating. When he's on the mound, I'm
like, "OK, this guy means business."
I just love the energy and the intensity that he exudes. I love the
way he carries himself.
And he's confident. That's very important as well, because if he
wasn't so confident, he wouldn't have helped us win Tuesday night. He
came in and gave up the tying run and then had the bases loaded with
nobody out, but he got out of it. It takes an extraordinary amount of
faith in yourself to stare down a situation like that.
What he did there was amazing to me, because he was able to do what
we're taught from Little League, through high school, through
college, everywhere. We're taught that when things don't go your way,
you just have to battle through it. And that's what he did. He
battled and battled and battled, and eventually things worked out.
When you see a guy do something like that, what you're seeing is
heart and determination. That's when you know you have a winner as a
teammate.
Carlos Peņa's diary appears as told to Mychael Urban, who covers the
Oakland A's for MLB.com.
