Carlos' Corner: White elephants
Peña discusses the art of blocking out boos
By Carlos Peña / Special to MLB.com

Carlos Peña, 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 Thursday's game against the Yankees, Peña talked about what it
really feels like to be booed and marveled at the way Giambi has
performed -- he was 4-for-8 with two doubles and three RBI in the
first two games -- in his first trip back to Oakland.

OAKLAND, Calif. -- Yesterday I talked about how nice it's been being
warmly received by the Oakland fans, and so far the fans on the road
have been very good to me, too. But trust me, I know what it's like
to be booed.

I'm originally from the Dominican, and last winter when I played in
the Dominican League, I had a terrible season. Terrible, terrible,
terrible, and the fans let me know about it at every opportunity. The
fans there are very passionate, and that passion is expressed loud
and clear, positive or negative.

Being booed is a very uncomfortable, negative feeling. Obviously it's
different than being cheered, and the biggest difference is that when
you're being cheered, it's kind of a general thing. You don't so much
feel that the cheers are directed right at you. But when you're
booed, there's no doubt about who the center of attention is. All
eyes are on you, and you almost feel picked on.

It really reminds you that in some ways, you are just an object of
entertainment to some fans. And if you're not entertaining -- in
other words, if you're slumping -- you're a bum. It reminds you that
your character, your being, your goodness as a person ... some of
that doesn't mean anything to some fans. You just have to accept
that.

Getting booed is the epitome of isolation. You're being singled out
and having a finger pointed at you in the most negative way possible,
and that's what makes what Jason has done here in his first two
nights back so impressive to me.

We've seen it over and over and over again. Great athletes -- the
truly great ones -- have the capability to play with their brains and
not their emotions. Because getting booed is a very personal thing,
and anything personal contains emotion. But if you let that emotion
cloud your performance vision, you've let it become personal on your
end, and that's the worst thing you can do as an athlete.

What you have to be able to do is blank yourself. Just put everything
but the moment, the pitch, out of your mind. Because if you think
about not letting something affect you, that's when it does.

It's like this: If you tell yourself not to think about white
elephants, you're going to think about white elephants. So what do
you do? Take the white elephants out of it completely. Tell yourself
to think about giraffes.

Jason is one of the great players in this game, and he's showing us
another example of his greatness by killing the ball through the
boos. Whether you love him or hate him, you at least have to
appreciate the greatness of his performance.

Carlos Peña's diary appears as told to Mychael Urban, who covers the
Oakland A's for MLB.com.