http://www.wa****ngtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/03/13/AR2007031301667.html
Willis Is Marlins' Face, Comfortable in His Skin
Wa****ngton Post Staff Writer
Wednesday, March 14, 2007; E01
JUPITER, Fla., March 13 -- It was the dead of winter, three days
before Christmas, and the Florida Marlins had a public relations
crisis on their hands. Their star player and community ambassador,
pitcher Dontrelle Willis, had been arrested in South Beach for drunken
driving, and suddenly Team Dontrelle was in crisis mode. There were
statements to issue, strategy sessions to conduct, an image to
rehabilitate. Say this, Willis was told. Do that. Act this way.
Willis appreciated all the advice and concern, but he knows only one
way to act, whether in crisis or in calm, and that is to be himself.
So that's what he did. He issued the obligatory statement of apology,
but otherwise exerted his typical Dontrelleness. He didn't avoid
people; he sought them out. He remained outgoing, and he kept going
out. And when the Marlins held their annual winter caravan and FanFest
in early February, Willis was there, smiling, laughing, clowning.
"It's funny," Willis said Tuesday morning. "It seems like more people
are bigger fans of me now, because I went through something that
normal people go through. Don't get me wrong. What I did wasn't right.
I believe in the law. Right is right, and wrong is wrong. But the
people there, I'm talking to them, and they're telling me, 'We
appreciate what you said, and how you went about it, and the fact
you're out here at FanFest.'
"But I just did it because I felt like I wanted to be there. I wasn't
thinking of doing it as a PR move. I just did it because I said, 'Hey,
I want to go to FanFest.' "
As Willis tells the story, he leans back into his locker in a corner
of the Marlins' clubhouse. Though only 25, his presence is that of one
of the game's elder statesmen and most visible spokesmen. He is
already his franchise's all-time winningest pitcher, and when the
Marlins open the season April 2 at RFK Stadium in Wa****ngton, Willis
will be on the mound.
"He's even better to be around than I thought he would be," said Fredi
Gonzalez, the Marlins' rookie manager, who was hired just two months
before Willis's arrest. "From across the field, you knew he respected
the game [and] he respected the people around him. And now being
around him, he's all that, and also a hell of a leader and a hell of a
worker."
It has been four years since Willis burst into the greater baseball
consciousness with his high leg kick, off-kilter cap and explosive
pitches, all of it wrapped in packaging -- an African American in a
s****t starved for them, with an infectious smile that never seemed to
leave his face -- right out of a marketer's dream. And he was good,
winning the 2003 National League rookie of the year award, then going
3-0 in the postseason as the Marlins won the World Series.
But almost nobody is left from that champion****p team -- just Willis
and third baseman Miguel Cabrera -- and this year Willis is the oldest
member of the Marlins' starting rotation, instead of the youngest. And
how much longer will he be a Marlin at all? He and Cabrera account for
nearly half of the team's projected $28 million payroll, and there is
every likelihood that one or both will be traded if the team is out of
contention by midsummer.
"This is my fifth season, and [the Marlins are] all I know," he said.
"It's not like I've been on any other big league clubs. I've had four
different managers in five years. I've seen a lot of changes. But the
one thing that's been consistent here is me. I want to be here for a
long time. I appreciate the op****tunity they gave me. We'll see."
A year ago, the Marlins shocked all of baseball by remaining in
playoff contention until deep into the summer despite a league-low
payroll of around $15 million. This year, despite the sizable bump in
payroll -- most of it to accommodate the arbitration-year raises for
Willis and Cabrera -- they may find it difficult to maintain that
competitiveness, and by extension, to justify retaining their two high-
priced stars.
Already, one of the team's top starting pitchers, right-hander Josh
Johnson, has been lost until at least late April with an irritated
nerve in his elbow, while a leading candidate for the team's closer
job, lefty Taylor Tankersley, has yet to pitch this spring while
recovering from shoulder inflammation. Injuries happen to every team,
but the Marlins don't have the resources to replace their injured
players.
The fact the Marlins have held onto Willis and Cabrera this long could
be tied to the franchise's eternal quest for a new stadium -- in other
words, a PR move. Nothing would turn public sentiment -- and thus, the
politicians who control the purse strings -- against the franchise
faster than ditching one of its remaining visible stars.
Asked about the stadium-payroll dynamic, Willis said, "I was never
good in economics, man."
Actually, Willis often understands more than he lets on. Take his PR
sense. Willis says it's nonexistent. If people want to call him a
spokesman or an ambassador, that's fine, but it's not an active
effort. "I'm being me," he said. "I like talking to people because I
like talking to people. I'm not talking to people because you want me
to. I want to help people because I get more enjoyment out of helping
people than I do from helping myself. If people see me as a role model
or whatever, that's great. But it's not the reason I do anything."
But Matt Roebuck, the Marlins' director of media relations, said of
his star attraction: "He gets it. He definitely understands the big
picture beyond the clubhouse and the field. He understands how
im****tant it is. But when he takes on that role, it's all genuine.
That's who he is. That's Dontrelle."
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