Eddie Miller Bides Time Playing Ball in Mexico

Like all junkies, Eddie Miller dreams of the perfect high, the one that will last.

Miller is hooked on baseball--has been since childhood. In the 12 years since he left high school, he has gotten several doses of the real thing, the major leagues. The rest of the time he’s spent trying to get back.

Miller, 29, plays centerfield for Mexican League champion Mazatlan, although a left leg tendon pull will keep him out of the starting lineup when the Caribbean Series opens Tuesday.

The setback doesn’t phase him, though. He’s been through too many setbacks to let them affect him.

Hardcore fans in Texas, Atlanta, Detroit, Philadelphia and San Diego may remember Miller. He’s had a cup of coffee with all of them. He’s still waiting for the time when he gets to stay.

“I’m 29, but I feel 22, and play like I’m 19,” says the Richmond, Calif., native, whose major league career stats include a .238 batting average with 49 stolen bases in 132 games. “I have the desire to keep playing, and maybe some day my dream will come true.”

Miller hit .312 with 10 home runs and a league-leading 31 stolen bases in 60 games for Mazatlan this winter, and had equally impressive numbers with Mexico City during the summer season. Still, no major league team drafted him this year, and the dream is more distant than ever.

“There’s no question I’m major league caliber,” the 5-foot-9, 175-pound Miller said. “The scouts know it, the general managers know it, and the fans know it. There’s just been a lot of political things that have kept me from making it.”

Angel Figueroa, scout for the Pittsburgh Pirates, shakes his head at that last comment.

“There’s only one reason a player doesn’t stick in the big leagues, and that’s because the people who make decisions believe that player can’t help them on an everyday basis,” Figueroa says.

“There are a lot of players who are capable of playing in the big leagues, but if the teams don’t think he can be an everyday player, there’s no sense keeping them on the parent club.

“Some players in the big leagues aren’t as good as some of the players in the minors, but they may fill a part-time role on the big club. There’s no sense keeping a good player in the major leagues if he’s going to sit.”

Sitting quietly has not been one of Miller’s fortes. He believes he can be a starter anywhere, and always told his managers so.

“There’s just a lot of bull,” Miller says of what he perceives as politicking. “There’s a lot of players around who can play in the big leagues and are not getting the chance. Sometimes it doesn’t matter how good you are.

“I came into the game very naive, but now I know it inside out. I’m at a point in my career where I’ve got to watch everything I say. Early on, I came to be known as a little too expressive.

“I was 17 years old when I left home to play baseball, and I didn’t know what life was all about. I stepped on a few toes. There are things you learn.”

For Miller, quitting was not one of them.

“Before a game, I get a thing in the middle of my stomach,” he says. “When that goes away, when the butterflies stop, then I’ll give it up.”

In the meantime, he plays. The Padres released Miller in the spring of 1985, and he has played in Mexico since. The memory of his stint with San Diego sustains him.

After the Padres had clinched the National League West title in 1984, Miller was one of the players they brought up in September. He had been hitting .329 with Class A Reno California League, but went 4-for-14 with San Diego. In his last major league at-bat, he hit his only big league home run. It came off Pascual Perez.

When Kevin McReynolds broke his wrist just before the playoffs, Miller was certain he would take the roster spot. But the Padres added Ron Roenicke instead.

“If expansion comes around, maybe I’ll get my chance,” he says. “It’s going to be really difficult, but maybe somebody will say ‘Is Miller still playing? He can play.’ ”

If not, Miller will try to play five, maybe six more years in Mexico, where the fans see him as something special.

“I’m a ghetto kid, and I played major league baseball, with some great players,” Miller says. “I’ve done some great things. When it’s over, I’ll just go home and cut hair--I’m a hair stylist and a cosmetician--and I’ll look at the few mementos I’ll have on the wall.”