Vladimir Guerrero: baseball's quiet super talent: Expos all-around performer excels on the field despite limited publicity with Montreal's small fan base.(Montreal Expos outfielder)

PUBLICLY, AT LEAST, VLADIMIR Guerrero is a man of very few words. Recently, he spoke, not at great length, but enough to leave some impressions.

Guerrero is a great hitter, a tremendous all-around talent but, for the purposes of media discussion, something of an enigma. He speaks to the press infrequently. He is obviously very comfortable playing baseball, but he is not at all comfortable answering questions about playing baseball. He is not comfortable speaking English. And he plays, after all, for the Montreal Expos, a fact that does not exactly shine a worldwide spotlight on his considerable talents.

But last spring, Guerrero agreed to speak to a small group of reporters. Still, there was an international flavor to the gathering. The reporters had either English or French as their primary languages. Guerrero had Spanish. Expos third base coach Manny Acta kindly translated the reporters' questions to Guerrero and Guerrero's answers to the reporters, in the third person.

We start with a premise: This outfielder is the greatest relatively unknown superstar in the game. He hit 197 home runs in the last five seasons (1998-2002). In those five seasons, he drove in 582 runs. He is one of five players in major league history to record a .300 or higher batting average, 30 or more home runs, 100 or more RBI and 100 or more runs in five straight seasons. He has stolen 40 bases in a single season. He has twice hit more than 40 home runs in a season. He hasn't had the 40-40 combo in the same year, but you get the picture. The man possesses a very rare and special blend of talents.

He is in the final year of his contract, and he is only 27. He is on the Montreal roster, but he is also on a lot of teams' wish lists. But questions about his status beyond this season provoked only the mildest responses from Guerrero. Would he like to stay with the Expos, the only organization for which he has played, or might he like to try out greener pastures?

"He says he hasn't even thought about that, it's too early," Acta reported, "He's just concentrating right now on starting the season and having a good season. It's just way too early for him to start thinking about that. He says he just worries about doing his job and goes from there.

"He says he has never imagined himself yet using another uniform and as long as he's here, he's not going to think about any other uniform."