Cardenas is River Cats’ renaissance man, hit leader

Besides being passionate about baseball, Oakland Athletics prospect Adrian Cardenas also has a passion for learning and the arts.

The 23-year-old Sacramento utilityman combined the latter interests last fall, when he enrolled at New York University to study creative writing.

"I wanted to go to college ever since I was in high school, not only for baseball but just to learn because I liked it," Cardenas said before going 0-for-4 in the River Cats' 11-4 win over the 51s on Friday at Cashman Field. "I felt it did me justice as a person."

Cardenas, who leads Sacramento in batting (.311) and hits (90), put off college after being a 2006 first-round draft pick by the Philadelphia Phillies. When the team made him an attractive offer, he decided to turn pro instead, reasoning he could always go back to school.

"But it got to a point where I felt I needed that kind of stimulation, to be around that environment," he said.

As an NYU freshman, he got A's in his first four classes. He plans to double-major in philosophy, but that might change.

"I like philosophy a lot, but I want to get into film and kind of expressing myself through writing and film as well," Cardenas said. "I like writing fiction, but based on true stuff, expressing my ideas, my beliefs and my philosophies in a fictional way."

Depending on whether he is called up by the Athletics in September, Cardenas plans to return to NYU this fall to continue his studies.

Growing up in Miami, Cardenas was exposed to a wide range of literature, music and movies by his parents, especially his father, Juan, who has huge collections of CDs and films.

"Anywhere from classical music to oriental music to rock, jazz, blues. Anything," he said. "You name it, we have some sort of music from the genre, which is pretty cool.

"It's the same thing with acting and reading. (My father) was always very into it and introduced it to me by default."

As a result, Cardenas has eclectic tastes. His favorite films include the classics "Cool Hand Luke" and "Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid." But he also loves a modern French film entitled "Incendie."

"We have a lot of foreign films," he said. "Sometimes that would be my reading assignments. Every time I didn't want to read, (my parents would) tell me, 'You can watch this movie.' I had to read English subtitles for an Italian movie or a French movie.

"That's stuff I didn't appreciate before, but now I do."

Cardenas, who grew up playing the piano, said his favorite composer is Hungarian Franz Liszt. But don't bother dropping Liszt's name on River Cats hitting coach Todd Steverson.

"Some people (Cardenas) likes in music, I never even heard of them," Steverson said. "I'm old-school R&B. I know he ain't there.

"He's an eclectic guy. To be a quote-unquote 'jock' doesn't mean you can't enjoy different parts of culture."

His favorite authors include Gabriel Garcia Marquez and Ayn Rand, but one of his favorite quotes was uttered by Ernest Hemingway: "There's nothing to writing. All you do is sit at a typewriter and bleed."

The same often can be said of baseball, Cardenas said.

"The ups and downs are very similar," he said. "As a hitter, (Wednesday) I went 4-for-4, but (Thursday) I went 0-for-4. It's the same thing in writing, if you write every day.

"Some days I feel I'm on top of it. I'm in complete control. But most days I feel like I'm writing in a foreign language."

Contact reporter Todd Dewey at tdewey@reviewjournal.com or 702-383-0354.