Sports: The regular

Baseball

The regular

A steady and productive player for the Blue Jays, outfielder Shannon Stewart still regards every opening day as another chance to prove himself.

By LAURA LEE

SkyDome will be filled with 50,516 fans. More than 200 media types will crowd both press boxes. Today's game will be broadcast on ESPN, as well as television and radio networks in New York, Canada and Japan. Millions around the world will tune in.

Few will notice Shannon Stewart quietly jogging to leftfield for his sixth major-league opening day.

Stewart can take little credit for the hoopla. It would be happening with or without him. After all, Toronto's first date is with the New York Yankees.

He will do his best to ignore the excess that comes with playing the Yankees. For Stewart, 29, it is just another opening day. Another clean slate. Another chance to do something worth talking about. One of Toronto's most consistent players, he didn't have to stress over making the roster. Instead, spring training was what it is meant to be: practice.

"You come to spring training and the first thing that comes to your mind is opening day. Opening day, opening day," Stewart said, his words fading to a chanted wish. "It's something that no matter how many years you're in the league, it's very special."

Special. That's about as exciting as Stewart can make it. There will be more beginnings for him, and this one will be no different. It is one game leading to more than a hundred; his only expectation is to be productive.

In his first opening day with the Jays in 1998, he went 0-for-1 in Minnesota and suffered a minor hamstring injury, missing the next four games. He went on to finish with a team-best 51 steals, third in the American League. In Stewart's third opening day in 2000, he hit a leadoff homer against Kansas City and added a second. That season he registered 20 home runs along with 20 steals. The next season the Jays opened in Puerto Rico against Texas. The contest had all of baseball's attention, being the only game that day. Stewart went 3-for-5 with a homer and went on to finish with a career-high 201 hits.

Last season, he spent opening day in an uncomfortable position, playing designated hitter for the first time. He eventually made his way back on the field and says he learned he can't control everything, so he shouldn't try, just play ball.

No matter how routine it can be, Stewart has been thinking about this opening day since the start of spring training. It is Toronto's first opening day against the Yankees.

"Every year, you try to prove to yourself and prove to the league that you belong. If you can play or not," he said.

Stewart said this one is of no special importance, although it could be. His father, Harold, will be in the stands, attending his first opening day.

"It doesn't even matter," Stewart said. "He'll be there, but I won't realize he's there. I'm not going to know where he's sitting."

Another possible point of significance for Stewart is that this could be his last season with the Jays, who drafted him out of Miami Southridge High School in 1992. Stewart, who signed a one-year, $6.2-million contract in February, said he hasn't given any thought to the possibility of being traded during the season or becoming a free agent.

He doesn't allow those things, those distractions, into his head. If it's not part of the game, if it's not on the field, he blocks it out.

"I've got a job to do," Stewart said. "I can't let myself get involved in what's going on around me.

"I'm supposed to get on base. I'm supposed to score runs," he said. "I'm supposed to do things that help the team win. Right now, it's my job. That's how I look at it."

It's a job he has done fairly well. Stewart played minor-league ball in the Jays organization and got a call to Toronto to play a few games in 1995. He got more and more time in the majors and finally put in his first full season in 1998. Ever since, he has been a solid leadoff-hitting leftfielder. For the past four seasons he has hit over .300, putting him second in franchise history with a career average of .302.

He knows he hasn't reached such status where millions can recall their favorite Shannon Stewart moment, and he doesn't know if he ever will.

"I'm the type of dude, I'm not all about the attention," Stewart said. "I like to play my game and do my best. It's about performance, not being popular."

At least for this game, the masses will be watching. Stewart said he hopes the Yankees are retired in order in the first. Then he'll have his chance at-bat. It's a moment he has been visualizing so much that when it happens, it will seem familiar. A number of scenarios could play out, but what matters to Stewart is that when it's over, it's over. Now this season can start. Now he can play.