Chesapeake's Scott Sizemore: Put me in, coach

LAKELAND, Fla.

To become the Detroit Tigers' rookie second baseman, Scott Sizemore must be himself.

"That's the big thing," said Chesapeake's Sizemore. "Relax, and play the game like I always have."

To become, incredibly, the seventh everyday major league player from South Hampton Roads - joining Michael Cuddyer, David Wright, Ryan Zimmerman, Mark Reynolds, B.J. Upton and Justin Upton - Sizemore must channel the ability that made him Detroit's minor league Player of the Year last season.

"If he's even being mentioned as being a starting second baseman in the big leagues, he's good enough to be here," said Tigers third baseman Brandon Inge who, like Sizemore, played at Virginia Commonwealth.

But to make the team, Sizemore must be healthy.

Friday, inside Joker Marchant Stadium, Detroit's spring home, Sizemore showed the railroad-track surgical scar on the left ankle he shattered in an October fall league game. He is still on the road back from that and, after playing Sizemore in two straight games, Tigers manager Jim Leyland held him out of Friday's exhibition against the Houston Astros.

"It's coming along well. Yesterday it felt better than the day before, so..." Sizemore said before taking batting practice and extra fielding practice with two other infielders. "I still have to build up that tolerance and the conditioning to play a whole nine innings."

To make the team, and to ease the nerves of Tigers fans used to seeing sure-handed veteran Placido Polanco - statistically the majors ' top defensive second baseman last year - patrol the right side of the infield, Sizemore must treat the routine play as the routine play.

"Catch everything, be a vacuum out there," said Sizemore, who admits dismay over his 21 errors at Double-A and Triple-A last season. "If you make the great plays, that's great, too. But consistency, that's my goal this year."

To be a Tiger with teeth, to help Detroit finish better than 10th again in runs scored in the American League, Sizemore must be the steady, line-drive hitter who averaged .308 in the minors last year, with 17 home runs.

"If I get one out of the park, that's great, but that's not my forte," said Sizemore, a 6-foot, 185-pound righthanded swinger. "I have to be a table-setter, get on base, hit lots of doubles. Do a little bit of everything to help the team out."

To be welcomed into the fraternal den of the major-league clubhouse, Sizemore, a former teammate of both Wright and Justin Upton at Hickory High, must continue to be seen, but minimally heard.

"We're paying attention, because we know there's a good chance he's going to be on the team with us," said Detroit's ace Justin Verlander, who pitched at Old Dominion and faced Sizemore in one game. "He's doing his work, not saying too much, going about things the right way. He's doing a good job."

To be the player the Tigers need him to be, Sizemore, 25, must not act like he is that player. Not yet, at least.

"He asks a lot of questions; that's when you know you've got a good guy, a good rookie, when the guy wants to know the right way to do things, or how things have been done in the past," Inge said.

"Some guys think they know it all, or think they belong here without having ever really proven anything. You've got to put your time in first before anyone's really going to respect you."

To make the team, to take the job the Tigers are counting on him to take, Sizemore must be the natural extension of the kid who learned as a Virginia Blaster club player, who blossomed at VCU, and who's come to the cusp of a rare and enviable place.

"He's a ballplayer, and I don't want him to turn into something else when he comes up here," Leyland said. "I just want him to play. Be yourself and go play."

Coming Sunday Part 2 of Sizemore's bid to make the team.

Tom Robinson, (757) 446-2518, tom.robinson@pilotonline.com