SECTION: SPORTS; Pg. B04

LENGTH: 631 words

HEADLINE: Bleacher Creatures now embrace Mondesi

BYLINE: Richard Griffin, Toronto Star

BODY:
BATTING CLEANUP and playing right field for the Yankees last night was a familiar face for Blue Jays fans. In that key RBI position, fourth in the order, for the most storied franchise in baseball history, was Raul Mondesi, obtained on Monday for another pitcher named Scott. What's surprising is that he rarely batted fourth in Toronto.

The amazing aspect of last night's Mondesi sighting was that this is a man who has yet to drive in 100 runs in a season. But there he was, batting in the same spot in the vaunted Yankee lineup, playing on the same diamond in the same sublime pinstripes as Lou Gehrig, Roger Maris, Mickey Mantle, Yogi Berra and many other Bronx icons. Mondesi entered the Yankee clubhouse some three hours before the game, where he was greeted by a trio of Toronto writers, the same ones he had snuck out of town without talking to four days earlier in Boston. Mondesi smiled broadly.

He spoke, but someone had obviously reached the loose-cannon right fielder to silence him. Instead of the flippant, off-the-cuff remarks that made their way onto the sports wires on Tuesday about always being behind by six runs before the Jays came to bat, Mondesi was politically correct yesterday.

When it came time for the Yankees to hand the field over to the visitors for B.P., Mondesi wandered over to the Jays dugout and chatted briefly with batting coach Mike Barnett. Manager Carlos Tosca called out a hearty hello, then had a short tete-a-tete with his former right fielder. There was not a lot of visible warmth.

Mondesi diplomatically refused to comment to Canadian writers on his squabbles with Tosca over his being disciplined in Tampa, or even to offer up if he was luckier than his teammates to be out of a losing Jays situation. He only praised the Yankee fans and the boost of playing in front of huge crowds every night.

Specifically, there's the Bleacher Creatures. It's strange. When Mondesi was last here as a Blue Jay in mid-May, the fans who populate section 39 of the right field bleachers were merciless. They yelled hard-core insults in Spanish, which he responded to several times as he patrolled right field.

Last night, as the game started, Mondesi was at his right-field position, proudly sporting his pinstripes. The response to his presence from the bleachers was far different. As is their daily tradition, they began the roll call. They started with Bernie Williams, moved on to Rondell White, then got to Raul.

"Rah-ooooll," they howled like a pack of Bronx hyenas. He turned and pointed his index finger at the bleachers, with a huge smile spreading across his face. The Creatures are magic. They never have to apologize.

"Whoever plays for the Yankees is one of us," bald-headed Ray, the leader of the Bleacher Creatures, said between innings. "When David Justice was with the Indians, he said (in the paper) they should check us for weapons. When he came out to right we yelled, 'We've got Uzzies. We've got Uzzies.' But then when he came to us, he was a Yankee."

Just then someone in the upper deck just to the left of the bleachers, stood up and peered over the edge from high above. The Creatures interrupted their leader's conversation with the chant: "Jump, jump, jump, jump." Tough crowd.

Clearly, Mondesi's days as a Blue Jay are receding quickly in his personal rear-view mirror. It seems that whenever a slumping veteran is obtained by the Yankees in mid-season, his career is revived. Such will likely be the case with Mondesi.

Tosca was asked if he had had to change his signs for this Yankee series, because of the threat Mondesi might steal them if they remained the same. That's a common team practice after losing a player to another team.

"No," Tosca said, with a big smile of his own.



LOAD-DATE: July 6, 2002