When the Texas Rangers' 727 touched down in Baltimore Sunday night, most players went to the team hotel, the Renaissance Harborplace, downtown. But one of them, first baseman Mark Teixeira, went someplace else instead. He went home.
Teixeira, 25, slept in his old bedroom in his parents' Severna Park home, surrounded by his Little League baseball trophies and his childhood dog, Mackenzie, a 14-year-old West Highland terrier. The neighbors brought over desserts. Teixeira ate meatball sandwiches for lunch. And then he went to work - at Oriole Park at Camden Yards.
The Rangers' four-game series against the Orioles this week was Teixeira's first trip home this season, and his first visit to Baltimore as an All-Star. He was voted the starting first baseman on the American League All-Star team this month, and he's tied for the league lead in home runs, with 28 through Thursday.
For those who grew up playing ball with Teixeira in Anne Arundel County and at Mount St. Joseph High School, for those who taught him and coached him, and even for his parents, it's astonishing to see the polite young man they knew develop into one of the best young power hitters in the game.
"You watch baseball and you love baseball and you look at the players as gods," says Dave Norton, who was Teixeira's high school coach. "And then here you have somebody that you coached, that you taught, and he's with these other people. It's unbelievable. It's just surreal."
Connecting with home, family and familiar traditions - Teixeira found time to eat some hard-shell crabs before Wednesday's game - provided a respite in the midst of a long season.
"It lets you get away from the normal routine of a season - staying in hotels, eating room service," says Teixeira, sitting in the clubhouse before a game this week. "It's nice to go home and get a home-cooked meal and sleep in your old room."
Teixeira seems to be a low-key presence in the clubhouse, quietly focusing on his work. One afternoon this week, he sat in a folding chair in front of his locker, huge arms folded across his chest, talking baseball with a teammate. With his close-cropped brown hair and tailored suits, Teixeira is unassuming enough that he is not often recognized on the street.
But that could change soon.
