SAN FRANCISCO — It was 5 a.m. in the casino at the Ritz-Carlton beside the balmy beaches of San Juan, P.R. Two ballplayers sat at the blackjack table and laughed at what they thought was their amazing good fortune. The cards were smiling upon them that morning in June, and both players walked away with a few extra dollars in their already well-filled pockets.
“It was just the two of us, and we did good, too,” said Jeff Francoeur, one of the players sitting at the blackjack table that morning. “We both won that night.”
His team, the Mets, was playing the Florida Marlins in a special three-game series in Puerto Rico, and many players visited the hotel casino during the excursion. But on this occasion, all the other players drifted back to their rooms, while Francoeur and Marlins outfielder Cody Ross stuck it out until nearly dawn as the chips kept coming their way.
But if Francoeur and Ross thought they had good fortune then, they would be overwhelmed by what would follow three months later, when they met again. Within weeks of that morning, each found his way off a losing team and onto a league champion. Ross was waived by the Marlins and signed by the San Francisco Giants on Aug. 22. Francoeur passed through waivers and was traded to the Texas Rangers on Aug. 31.
Back in the casino, they were playing alongside one another. Now they are playing against each other in the World Series.
“Our luck is still running good,” Ross said with a huge smile. “Now we’re both here. It’s amazing.”
Ross’s run of luck has been a boon for the Giants. Playing in his first postseason, he hit four home runs in his first 10 games, including three in the National League Championship Series, and batted .324.
“I’m happy for Cody,” Francoeur said. “Everything has really worked out for him. I wanted the best for him that night in the casino, and maybe if we have an 8-0 lead, it would be O.K. if he hit a solo home run.”
For Francoeur, the meaning of being in the World Series at AT&T Park was even more rewarding because of his most recent memory here. A few weeks after his bonding moment with Ross in Puerto Rico, Francoeur was in San Francisco with the Mets, in what would signal the beginning of his ending with the team.
Carlos Beltran was returning from off-season knee surgery and was ready to take back his starting job in center field. The backup center fielder, Angel Pagan, had played so well in the first half of the season that the Mets wanted to move him to right field, Francoeur’s normal position. Francoeur was relegated to a platoon role, expected to play only against left-handers and sometimes in late-inning defensive situations.
But the Mets lost the first three games here, and they never recovered. They finished the West Coast trip with a 2-9 record, and their season continued to spiral downward, making Francoeur expendable. Eventually, Mets General Manager Omar Minaya and Manager Jerry Manuel paid with their jobs.
While the Mets scramble to recover, hiring Sandy Alderson as their general manager, Francoeur continues to play baseball.
“For me, it’s funny that I’m back here,” he said. “My season started to change here, and now here I am back in the World Series. When we came here, Carlos was back and this was the first place I had to start platooning. So for me, it’s even more gratifying.”
Francoeur is still platooning. He is not expected to start until Game 3 in Texas, when the Giants start the left-hander Jonathan Sanchez. But in the World Series, he has no complaints, as long as his luck continues.
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