We are here to defend the player hailed with faint praise as a good glove man. We are here to salute the plays dismissed as merely routine, and the fielders who make them routinely. We are here to defend things like cutting off the ball in the gap, keeping the double play in order, reaching for the short hop instead of sitting back for the in-betweener and so many other baseball plays that can't be easily measured or quantified with statistics.

Are we being a bit ... defensive? You bet we are, because when it comes to fielding in baseball, especially in the big leagues, it seems no one wants to listen. "Teams don't care," says Mariners first baseman David Segui, one of the best at his position. "GMs don't care. Owners don't care. If you went to arbitration and brought up how many runs you saved with your glove, they'd look at you like you were an idiot. No wonder so many guys spend time in the weight room or the batting cage instead of taking ground balls."

And as the game gets more and more offensive, as home runs pour out of ballparks at a record pace, as double-digit game scores become commonplace, defense likely will remain the least appreciated part of baseball. That's too bad, because some glove men out there today are among the best ever.

No one has ever displayed softer hands or smoother footwork than Cleveland SS Omar Vizquel. He barehands ground balls and, in practice, kicks grounders up to his throwing hand with perfect accuracy. Then there are the Big Three shortstops: Derek Jeter, Alex Rodriguez and Nomar Garciaparra, all of whom are redefining the position, not just with their prowess at the plate, but also with their skills in the field. "Shortstop has changed more than any position," says former pitcher Mike Flanagan. "It has become Magic Johnson on the break, Michael Jordan inventing shots in the air."

Behind the plate, we have never seen a catcher throw like Pudge Rodriguez. Says Rangers manager Johnny Oates, a former catcher himself, "Johnny Bench threw as hard as Pudge, but not as accurately. Bob Boone threw as accurately, but not half as hard. I don't like rankings and comparisons, but this is clear-cut: Pudge is the best thrower I've ever seen, by far."

In the outfield, Atlanta's Andruw Jones covers more ground and throws better than any centerfielder since Willie Mays. "I didn't believe all I'd heard until the trip to Japan last winter," says Indians manager Mike Hargrove. "Then I realized what I'd heard wasn't enough. A ball is hit to right-center, where Andruw has no chance, and then he just appears."

Then there's Ken Griffey Jr. Isn't it about time we recognize that this man, who might break Hank Aaron's record for home runs in a career, is as good defensively as he is offensively? Junior is the only player in history to twice win a Gold Glove in a season of 50 home runs.

Perennial All-Stars like Junior, Pudge and those great American League shortstops have proven that offense and defense are not mutually exclusive. But if players were judged more by the way they handle their position than by the way they handle their bat, neither Mike Piazza nor Jason Kendall would be representing the National League; Javy Lopez and unheralded Diamondback Damian Miller would.

Remember, for all the talk about the 1998 Yankees' brilliant pitching and relentless, balanced offense, that record-setting team did not lose a game as a result of an unearned run all year. Only one other team (the 1982 Orioles) in the last 25 years can say that. "There's no such thing," says Vizquel, "as a good team with a bad defense."

As good as certain teams and individuals are, veteran baseball people will tell you that outfielders don't hit the cutoff man often enough, that second basemen don't hang in on the double play because an injury could cost them a contract, that fielding is just not as good as it was two, three decades ago.

All the more reason to stress defense, says Arizona manager Buck Showalter. "In the minor leagues, you can get away with an error or two," he says. "But in the major leagues, every extra out you give a team can kill you. It may mean a pitcher has to throw 10 extra pitches, it may mean you have to face Sammy Sosa one more time. Even if you get out of the inning after you make an error, it always comes back to burn you."

Elementary as that sounds, it's difficult to prove the value of defense. For hitters and pitchers, we have more numbers than NASDAQ. But there is no defensive stat that is revealing, accurate and totally truthful. The most encompassing one, fielding percentage, is confusing -- most people don't even know how it's computed (divide total putouts plus assists by total putouts plus assists plus errors). Several years ago, Rangers first baseman Rafael Palmeiro, who takes pride in his D, went so far as to ask a writer how to get an assist. (You can bet Raffy knows every possible way to get an RBI.) And it's also deceiving. Former Dodger Steve Garvey is the only first baseman in history to play 150 or more games in a season without making an error. But his peers claim that's because he had a terrible arm and never threw the ball to a base. Instead of fielding a bunt and gunning down the lead runner at second, he just turned and flipped it to the man covering first. An out was recorded, and an assist, but his team was hurt by the runner advancing. Conversely, ex-Yankee Don Mattingly and ex-Met Keith Hernandez, surely two of the five best ever to play the position, fired the ball accurately all over the diamond. Mattingly initiated 25 3-6-3 double plays in one year. Cecil Fielder once went three years without a single 3-6-3.

Errors are also partly a function of -- believe it or not -- the groundskeeper. The infield grass at Camden Yards is cut so long that infielders have an extra split second to adjust; the infield grass at The Ballpark in Arlington is cut so short that balls regularly paralyze infielders. Official scorers play an even bigger role. In 1991, the Brewers made the most errors in baseball, but visiting teams collectively made even more. "Everything at County Stadium was scored an error," says former Brewer B.J. Surhoff. In another park, everything is scored a hit. Larry Bowa once played an entire season for the Phillies without being charged with an error at home.

But even if field conditions and official scoring were uniform, it wouldn't matter. Says Cleveland's Robbie Alomar, "When I broke the record for most errorless games by a second baseman [104, in 1994-95 as an Oriole], no one even knew it. I didn't know. Imagine if it had been a hitting record."

"Trying to sell defense to the Hall of Fame is like trying to sell diplomacy to a terrorist," says baseball historian Bill James. Former Pirates second baseman Bill Mazeroski was, at least statistically, the greatest defensive player at any position. In 1966, he took part in 161 double plays, still a major league record for second basemen. No other NL second baseman took part in even 100 double plays that season. Yet Mazeroski is not in the Hall.

So we say pitch the numbers and simply take our word: Defense matters. Once the postseason begins, the 12-8 scores now racked up almost daily will turn, more often than not, into scores of 4-3, 3-2 and 2-1. And championships can be lost on one poor play. Just ask the Indians. If Alomar, not Tony Fernandez, had been playing second base in Game 7 of the 1997 World Series, Cleveland, not Florida, might have been the champion.

Hearts are won by home run hitters, but titles are won by glove men. On the following pages are the signature plays at each position, the plays that separate those who merely occupy the position from those who elevate it.

This article appears in the July 12, 1999 issue of ESPN The Magazine.