

LOS ANGELES – The man who would be in right field at Dodger Stadium on Thursday night, almost impossibly wide in the shoulders, turned and grinned at the memory of his first week in the major leagues.



He'd hit home runs, driven in runs and been compared athletically to some of the best to play the game. After a few at-bats, he'd inspired a citywide crush. A softer soul might have found it to be too much, but not him. It was all too good, too fun, so special in that you're-only-young-once way.







"The time of my life," Jason Heyward said, meaning all of it, from then to now. "The time of my life."

He's 23, a little more than a year older than Yasiel Puig.

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Not so long ago, he'd introduced himself to Atlanta as Puig has this week to Los Angeles. On that opening day in 2010, before 53,081 at Turner Field, he'd started by catching the ceremonial first pitch from Hank Aaron. To the afternoon's poets, that baseball came dressed as a torch.

Heyward homered on the third pitch of his first at-bat. He had four RBIs that day. By the end of that week, he had two more home runs and four more RBIs. After 13 games, he'd hit four homers and driven in 16. He'd be an All-Star, he'd be runner-up to Buster Posey in the Rookie of the Year balloting, he'd receive MVP votes.

Three years later, he seeks a regular, dependable game. Regular production. A reliable swing. Regular health. He's a career .254 hitter, almost 1,900 plate appearances in. And, still, just 23. There's a whole career out there for him.

The game is hard. Yesterday's mania is today's .185 hitter, or today's Hall of Fame lock, or is surviving somewhere in between.

"That's what we're all trying to do," Heyward said. "Find our way."

Before Thursday night, other than here or there on the late-night highlight shows, he had not seen Yasiel Puig. By late Thursday night, he was drifting to the right-field wall, following the arc of the grand slam Puig hit in the bottom of the eighth inning, the arc of the ball that would send shivers through the old ballpark.

Big, strong and bright-eyed as well, Puig is walking in Heyward's cleats, and those of so many before him. The Cuban defector has been a Dodger for four days and he is having the time of his life. Already they are selling his No. 66 T-shirts in the team stores. Already he leads the club in curtain calls. Already he has three home runs, nine RBIs. He is batting .438. And the people here yodel his name – "Pweeeeeeg!" – like he's been one of theirs forever.

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