ShareThisSCOTTSDALE, Ariz. - Omar Vizquel might become the first player to give a Hall of Fame acceptance speech on the day he collects his first Social Security check. He will begin his 23rd big-league season a few weeks short of his 44th birthday, and he refuses to say he'll retire before he turns 45.
Vizquel has 2,850 games on his resume but no World Series championships, so he had to live vicariously through his former Giants teammates in 2010. Vizquel played in San Francisco from 2005-08 and with Texas the following season.
"Those were my two teams and I was sitting on the couch and watching them," Vizquel said. "I was mad."
He was kidding and said he rooted for the Giants because he played for them more years. Vizquel's eyes grew wide thinking about the World Series parade and rally in San Francisco.
"Every time there was a Barry Bonds thing there were 50,000 people," said Vizquel, who played in 57 postseason games with Cleveland from 1995-2001 including a pair of World Series losses to Atlanta and Florida. "I can't imagine winning the World Series. People were going crazy there. I imagine those guys are having the best party ever."
An 11-time Gold Glove winner with 2,799 career hits, Vizquel is beginning his second season with the Chicago White Sox. He suspects he will play less than he did last year, when he appeared in 108 games and made 391 plate appearances. He started 62 games at third base for the injured Mark Teahen and wound up hitting .276 with two homers, 30 RBI and 11 steals overall. He made just three errors in the field.
(E-mail Henry Schulman at hschulman(at)sfchronicle.com.)
(Distributed by Scripps Howard News Service, www.scrippsnews.com.)
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