Omar Vizquel gets his mitt on at 44, plays first base for 1st time

Somewhat surprisingly, 44-year-old Omar Vizquel did something new on a baseball field Saturday afternoon.

In his 2,874th career major league appearance, Vizquel, an 11-time Gold Glove winner at shortstop, grabbed a mitt and played first base for the first time. As in, his life.

The Chicago White Sox needed him to shift from second base after manager Ozzie Guillen removed Paul Konerko for a pinch runner in the top of the 11th inning against the Toronto Blue Jays.

Vizquel, who said he never had played first base in his life before Saturday, had a hard time finding a comfortable mitt. He went through several that belonged to Konerko and Adam Dunn (who, like Vizquel, is a right-handed thrower in case you're wondering) before finding the right one.

Like "Goldilocks and the Three Bears," only with mitts. As reported in the Chicago Tribune:

"I never even put a [mitt] on my hand at first base," Vizquel said. "It felt very weird. I was really close to playing with my glove."

And, as you might expect, the ball found him quickly. With two outs in the bottom of the 11th, Corey Patterson hit a ball to Vizquel, who muffed the grounder, but recovered in time to throw him out at first base.

His teammates apparently razzed him from the dugout, too. Not even a 23-year veteran can escape the jocular teasing of grown boys.

But Vizquel wasn't having any of it.

Comically, Vizquel playfully flung his mitt toward them as the defense came off the field. In the 12th, he handled another chance without any trouble. It beat his day at the plate ? 0 for 6 with two strikeouts to drop his batting average to .282. And the Blue Jays beat the White Sox in 14 innings on Patterson's home run.

Vizquel went on to say that he thought the coaching staff was joking in spring training when they told him he might be pressed into duty at first base. With Konerko and Dunn on the roster, surely they jest!

"It never went through my mind I'd have a chance it would happen," Vizquel said.

In a long season ? and career ? just about anything is possible. As versatile and valuable as Vizquel has been through the years, he still has yet pitch or get behind the plate. He has logged nearly 22,900 innings at short, along with nearly 800 at third, 324 at second and one in right field. (Plus a start at DH in 2010.)

All that's left is the battery, which makes sense for a guy whose career just keeps going and going.

If the White Sox fall out of the AL Central race in September, Guillen should pull a semi-Bert Campaneris and use Vizquel as a catcher, and also in relief, while he's still able to drink from the Fountain of Youth.

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