All-Star snub is team's favorite Renteria quietly becomes leader

ATLANTA - You will not find him in the Braves' promotional materials. You will not hear him on the radio or on TV much. And you will not see him during tonight's All-Star Game in San Francisco.

But inside the Braves' clubhouse, Edgar Renteria has earned a stature otherwise reserved for players named Jones and Smoltz.

After coming to Atlanta in a trade before last season, the shortstop has been arguably the team's most valuable player - and according to teammates, its biggest all-star snub.

"Edgar is our leader," left fielder Matt Diaz said. "He's our hardest worker, our most consistent player. Edgar, without a doubt, makes this team go."

With Chipper Jones missing 24 games because of injuries and Andruw Jones mired in an epic slump, Renteria has anchored Atlanta's offense. His .319 batting average ranks second among the Braves' everyday starters. He's one of only two shortstops hitting .300 or better with more than 10 homers and 40 RBI.

Renteria, 31, said this has been one of the best seasons of his 11-year career, all-star selection or no all-star selection. But he downplayed his role in the clubhouse.

"Leader? No," he said. "I really just try to do my job. I try to play every day, and do what I have to do on the field."

But that's where Renteria's leadership comes from, teammates said. Diaz, while reading Atlanta's lineup for a broadcast last month, introduced Renteria as "our silent leader."

Part of that has to do with a language barrier. Born in Colombia, Renteria can communicate in English. But he doesn't speak it so well that he would be comfortable standing up and talking in front of a room full of people. His gregarious side is more likely to come out when he is around Spanish-speaking teammates.

But there is another reason why Renteria is cast as a lead-by-example type, and it's because of the example he sets - not even so much during games as before them.

"I love watching him work," manager Bobby Cox said. "He's such an organized professional athlete. He has his routine, and everything is in order."

Cox especially values that because so many of his players are young and impressionable. And the more they emulate Renteria, the better, Cox said.

"Every young ballplayer that comes up here follows him," he said. "It's like, 'No, not the other guys, I'm following him,' in the weight room, in the cage, everything."

A recent example is rookie Yunel Escobar, who was called up from the minors in June. Escobar is in some ways like Renteria a little more than a decade ago - a prodigious young infielder from a Spanish-speaking country, in his case Cuba, adjusting to the big leagues and life in the U.S.

Escobar credited Renteria for playing the role of mentor over the past month. And when asked about Escobar, Renteria spoke about him in almost a fatherly manner.

"You have to do that with every young player, because they don't know what it's like here," he said. "So you treat them the right way, and they're going to be good - not only be good players, but off the field, too."

Teammates might respect the way Renteria carries himself. But, ultimately, as with every other player, he earns his stature on the field.

He has been known as a clutch hitter ever since his game-winning hit in Game 7 of the 1997 World Series with the Florida Marlins. This season, his .355 average with runners in scoring position ranks second in the National League.

"He's gotten so many clutch hits for us, it's fun to watch him," right fielder Jeff Francoeur said. "He's not going to talk your head off, but he'll go out there and play hard for you every day. And that's why he's one of the guys that we look to."