Football player on a baseball field

SCOTTSDALE, Ariz.

The back of Aaron Rowand's baseball card doesn't begin to tell you about his career.

His slightly twisted nose does.

When the Giants inked Rowand to a five-year, $60 million deal over the winter, they were certainly attracted to his ability to hit for power, play center field and run, but they spoke as much about something else.

In baseball circles, they call it "makeup."

It is what drives a player to play just as hard, whether it's the World Series or a college alumni game.

It is what drives a player to police his teammates, ensuring that all of them play with the same intensity.

And, in Rowand's case, it is what drives him into outfield fences over and over again.

"I guess it's my shtick," said Rowand, whose nose still bears a faint reminder of his epic man-to-fence confrontation at Philadelphia's Citizens Bank Park in 2006.

After that mess -- Rowand emerged with a broken, bloodied nose, lacerations to his face and the baseball -- hit the SportsCenter highlight reel, Rowand's image was sealed.

When Rowand got out of the hospital after undergoing surgery, he explained the play: "For who? For my teammates. For what? To win."

The Phillies played that sound bite on the video board for the next year and a half, and it always generated an enthusiastic response from the critical Philadelphia fans.

So when the Giants set about to reconstruct their team in the post-Bonds era with manager Bruce Bochy's so-called "warrior spirit," Rowand was a natural.

They identified what George Horton had known for years.

A 'great' Titan

Horton, the longtime baseball coach at Cal State Fullerton, recruited Rowand out of Glendora High in suburban Los Angeles. Rowand was a highly decorated, record-setting prep player.

When he arrived at Fullerton, he was hardly the inspirational team leader he would become.

In fact, no one cared much for him at all.

"He was a very confident individual," said Horton, now the coach at Oregon. "He came to a team that was very good, the defending national champion, and instead of letting his play speak for itself, he was popping off to the older guys. 'I'm really good. I'm going to take your job.' He was very boastful. He was, at the start, not very well-received by the older guys.

"I had a sit-down with Aaron and I told him to let his play speak for itself. Once he did that, I think he became one of the greatest Titans we ever had."

Rowand hit .345 with 23 homers in his three-year college career.

Foreshadowing his big-league career, some of his biggest hits came in the outfield.

Rowand vividly recalls one memorable confrontation with a cinder-block fence at Long Beach State's Blair Field in the Big West Conference tournament.

"We were up by a run, runners at second and third, two outs," Rowand said. "I was playing right field. Lyle (Overbay, a future big-leaguer) turned on one. I put my head down. I honestly didn't even see it (the wall). I went to catch the ball. Right as I caught it, I hit the wall with the side of my head, my knee and my shoulder, but I bounced off it and landed on my shoulder. It was fun. I have a hard head."

Horton said plays like that one eventually inspired them to call Rowand "the Rock."

"There was nothing that would get in the way of him getting to a ball," Horton said.

Years later, Rowand returned to Fullerton for an alumni game. The Titans had just installed a new wooden fence, partly with money donated by Rowand.

Horton was grateful for the donation and for Rowand's presence at the game, but he pleaded: "Please don't run through our wall and break it."

Rowand didn't break the wall, but he did play all nine innings of the alumni game, stealing three bases and making a couple of head-first dives.

"We had other (alumni) taking it a little easy, but hard is the only way Aaron knows how to play," Horton said. "He played nine innings like it was the College World Series or the major-league World Series."

'Full-steam ahead'

The World Series is just where Rowand found himself in 2005, his fifth year with the White Sox. Although it was a team known for its pitching and for sluggers Paul Konerko and Jermaine Dye, Rowand got no shortage of credit for his contribution.

Third baseman Joe Crede, who came up through the Chicago system with Rowand, said the team benefited from Rowand's clubhouse presence, as well as his defense in center field.

"He's a guy that brings a lot of energy," Crede said. "No matter what he does, it's always full-steam ahead. Anything that we do on the field, he's always giving it 100 percent. Even in the clubhouse, he brings a lot of energy."

Pitcher Mark Buehrle said Rowand's outfield play saved him countless runs in their years together in the White Sox system.

"I will take him on any team I ever have," Buehrle said. "He's that good of a player."

Buehrle also said it was no coincidence that the White Sox slipped from 99 victories to 72 in the two years since Rowand was traded to the Phillies.

"You could see how much we missed," Buehrle said.

Added Crede: "It was noticeable. We definitely missed that presence and energy."

Rowand's first year with the Phillies was marked by that memorable May 11 catch against the Mets, the one that landed him on the disabled list with a broken nose.

The sidebar to that play is that Rowand saw it coming. The first time he played at Citizens Bank Park, in an exhibition just before opening day, he alerted the team that they needed more padding in one particular spot on the fence. There was an uncovered metal bar at the exact height to intersect with Rowand's face.

"You need to pad this, because I am going to kill myself on this thing," Rowand told Phillies' execs. "I'll hit it. I promise."

The Phillies agreed. They ordered more padding and actually had it on the premises, ready to be installed, on the day Rowand's prediction came true.

Ironically, the catch that made Rowand such a favorite in Philadelphia was an example of one of the reasons the Phillies didn't bring him back after his breakout offensive season in 2007.

Rowand hit .309 with a career-high 27 homers and 89 RBIs last season. When it came time for the Phillies to negotiate a long-term deal, they wouldn't go for the five years that the Giants offered.

"He's going to get hurt during the course of his contract," general manager Pat Gillick said at the time Rowand signed with the Giants. "Most players on a five-year contract get hurt. But I think Aaron, probably a little bit more, just because of his style of play."

Rowand didn't care for that comment.

"It's upsetting," he said. "It's almost like you are getting penalized for the way everybody preaches that they want you to play. From the first moment I was in Chicago and my entire career, that's the way everybody preached that we need to play the game. That's winning baseball. When it came time to sign an extension, in the Philadelphia Phillies' eyes, it ended up hurting me. It still stings a lot."

Rowand pointed out that he has been on the disabled list only twice, both in 2006. Aside from the broken nose, he also fractured his ankle in a collision with Chase Utley.

Rowand said he's heard for years that he should tone it down, but he can't. He is a football player on a baseball field, and that's the only way he knows how to play.

"I take my aggression out on fences now," he said. "I look for contact at home plate, breaking up double plays . . . I've always had it preached to me when I was younger, by my father, that you go out and play 100 percent every time . . . I enjoy going out and throwing myself around and trying to make plays and getting dirty. That's what it's all about. You respect the game and play the game the right way."

'One of the leaders'

Rowand has been in a Giants uniform for just a few weeks, and so far he hasn't run into anything. His new teammates already have an appreciation for his presence in the clubhouse, though.

"He's come in here and been exactly what we thought," said Rich Aurilia, whose locker is next to Rowand's. "He goes and does his job hard every day. He's probably going to be one of the leaders of the team. He adds a little spirit to this clubhouse.

"I think we have a bunch of people in this clubhouse who are leaders and a lot of guys who lead by example, but he's more of a vocal leader. He's more vocal with his thoughts and how he thinks things should be done. That's good. You need someone like that."

Rowand has already organized team bowling tournaments to bring players together off the field. He jokes around with just about everyone in the clubhouse, from the youngest rookies to the most-seasoned veterans.

Rowand said it's vital to be comfortable with everyone if his words are to have any impact down the road, when he may have to quietly pull a player aside and remind him to run out a popup or show up on time for stretching.

"I think that's part of the reason they wanted me here," he said. "I look at it as me being myself. I'm not trying to come in here and be a savior or a leader or this or that. I'm not any self-proclaimed anything. I'm here to be myself and help this team win, and that's it."

You can reach Staff Writer Jeff Fletcher at 521-5489 or jeff.fletcher@pressdemocrat.com.

"I take my aggression out on fences now. I look for contact at

home plate, breaking up double plays. . . . I enjoy going out and

throwing myself around and trying to make plays and getting dirty."

AARON ROWAND, Giants new outfielder