TOWER GROVE — Back in 1997, a young shortstop named Edgar Renteria was still a few days away from a defining moment in his career — that title-winning single to center field in the 11th inning of the World Series’ Game 7 — when he took a seat at a press conference. Renteria and the upstart Florida Marlins were the surprise winners of the National League pennant, the wild-card team made good, and  they came in to Cleveland for Game 3 tied 1-1 in the series.

Naturally, the first question Renteria fielded was about the … cold.

Q. Edgar, what are your experiences in cold weather, what do you think of playing in very cold weather?

EDGAR RENTERIA: Yes, I spent three years playing in cold weather in the Minor Leagues and I love playing in cold weather, I love the cold.

Q. Why do you like playing in cold weather?

EDGAR RENTERIA: I don’t know, I just enjoy it. I like it a lot.

Maybe the transcription is wrong, because that answer has certainly changed. Renteria doesn’t “like it a lot.” Renteria likes it hot.

Or, at least warm.

SS Edgar Renteria: Cozy as a Cardinal?

As the Hot Stove season simmers, Renteria was among the players to officially file for free agency Monday, a few days after the Detroit Tigers notified him they would not pick up his option for 2009. The St. Louis Cardinals are in need of a shortstop and are intrigued by the idea of reuniting with Renteria, who was an All-Star and Gold Glove shortstop for the Cardinals through 2004. Renteria, who is 33, is coming off an uninspiring season with the Tigers, where he hit .270 (second lowest in his career), slugged .382 (his lowest since 2001) and played erratically enough in the field for some to wonder if his career his tilting toward third base.

There are some worrisome indicators for Renteria’s career curve.

But there is also a compelling trend in his statistics.

He appears allergic to the American League.

Of his 1,860 major-league games, Renteria has played 291 of them for an American League team — over a grand total of two seasons. Two disappointing seasons. Back in 2005, he committed 30 errors and hit .276 with 100 strikeouts for Boston, who wooed him away from the Cardinals in the Shortstop Carousel of ‘05. Traded back to an AL team last winter, he struggled again. His splits illustrate this NL leaning:

CAREER: 7,140 AB … 1,090 R … 127 HR … 817 RBI … 241 E … .290 BA … .405 SLG

IN AL: 1,126 AB … 169 R … 18 HR … 124 RBI … 46 E … .274 BA … .384 SLG

IN NL: 6,014 AB … 921 R … 109 HR … 692 RBI … 195 E … .310 BA … .410 SLG

The numbers are striking, especially in the batting average. But it was while digging through these numbers that something struck me — the georgaphy of Renteria’s career. Consider the two American League teams Renteria has played for would be considered cold-weather clubs, their summer regular season bookended by a chilly start in April and a chilly finish in September. Two of the three National League teams that Renteria has played for are warm-climate clubs, Florida to start his career and Atlanta, where he regained the performance Boston froze out of him.

It may not be the league. It’s location.

Location. Location. Location.

I don’t mean to go all Chuck Todd on you here with a bunch of numbers and the trends they tell, but this morning I decided to dig into the cold-weather concept here as a possible explanation of Renteria’s struggles in the AL. I went through Renteria’s career stadium by stadium and in 10 current ballparks that play in the north (Camden, Fenway, Yankee …), he’s done fine: .297 average and a .426 slugging percentage. Three retired cold-weather ballparks — County, Three Rivers and Veterans — were not as friendly with a .240 average and .326 slugging. But that’s cherry-picking stats to prove a point. In seven warm-weather ballparks (the Chase and Turner fields and Dolphin Stadiums of baseball), he’s a .287 hitter with a .387 slugging.

On a trusty yellow legal pad (my own dry-erase board), I tracked a whole bunch of these numbers looking for a warm-weather trend (Florida! Florida! Florida!). Checking into his former home ballparks is somewhat more helpful than just grouping ballparks by geography:

Dolphin … 229 games … .286/.355/.377

Busch II … 469 games … .289/.347/.411

Fenway … 88 games … .282/.341/.393

Turner … 170 games … .304/.363/.423

Comerica … 77 games … .331/.373/.451

Those numbers could illustrate the evolution of a career as much as the performance in a specific place. The stats at Detroit’s Comerica Park are especially intriguing as they show the improvement he made offensively through this past season.

But the ballpark research is faulty because it doesn’t do it by temp. It’s a rough and sketchy sampling.

August is August is August, whether the ballpark is Fenway or the Big A or Safeco.

And we do know that Renteria really digs August.

One of the real leaders of the Cardinals’ core that led the club to such success earlier this decade, Renteria told reporters when he came to Atlanta that he dislikes hitting in the cold and that the weather might have been a reason why he was so chilly toward Boston. He’s hinted at other times about not liking to play in the colder months, especially early in April.

Renteria is a mid-summer hitter, and that was especially the case when playing for an American League team. He hit .342 last August and is a .298 hitter in his career in summer’s hottest month. His lowest months by batting average are April and September, with .282 and .275 respectively. His slugging percentage is lowest in September with a .384. Consider his month-by-month averages from his career and from Detroit in 2008 and Boston in 2005:

APRIL … Bos .228 … Det .314 … Career .282

MAY … Bos .354 … Det .235 … Career .288

JUNE … Bos .231 … Det .256 … Career .286

JULY … Bos .274 … Det … .220 … Career .309

AUG … Bos .342 … Det .294 … Career .298

SEPT … Bos .229 … Det .305 … Career .275

Cold Snap: Renteria bats in Detroit

There are many ways to read these numbers and there is a significant margin for error either way. Could be Renteria tires. Could be the way the schedule broke for the Tigers in 2008. Could be. Could be. The sore thumb sticking out there in this argument is Renteria’s .314 average and .448 slugging percentage in April 2008, while with Detroit. Wasn’t April chilly at Comerica? Explain that.

Easy.

Again, turn to the trusty yellow legal pad. In the last week of April, the Tigers played at Toronto — an indoor ballpark, the kind not factored into the above discussion of ballpark — and in pleasant, mid-60-degree to 70-degree weather against Texas and the LA Angels. In those 10 games, Renteria hit .368 and slugged .578. Of the 34 hits Renteria had in the first  month of last season, 14 came in that 10-game span. In the “cold” games, Renteria hit .278 and slugged .361.

Detroit played 15 games last April in temperatures that were below 60 degrees, and only three of their outdoor games were warmer than 70 degrees.

The shortstops available to the Cardinals via free agency include incumbent glove Cesar Izturis; Rafael Furcal, a possible lineup-changer with his speed and ability to hit leadoff; Orlando Cabrera, a steady contributor and slick glove who was also part of the ‘05 Carousel; and Renteria, who brings the comfort of familiarity. But is his game also familiar? Is there a feeling that Renteria would thrive in a return to the National League, like he did back in 2006 with Atlanta? Will Renteria warm with the weather …

The Cardinals, like Detroit, played 15 games at temps below 60 this past April.

But they also had 14 games warmer than 60 degrees.

***

Off to vote …

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