Billy Bean Enjoying His Week in the Big Time With Tigers

Billy Bean has been in the bigs for all of five days, but he seems to have settled in rather well.

He signed a major league contract with Detroit Saturday morning. An hour later, he walked into the clubhouse to discover he was leading off and starting in left field. And a couple of hours after that, he was finishing off a 4-for-6 debut with an hourlong news conference in front of a locker that didn’t even have his name on it yet.

Tiger Manager Sparky Anderson has seen rookies get four hits in their first big-league game before, but that’s not to say he wasn’t impressed. It’s just that Bean made a bigger impression the next day in the clubhouse than he had on the field.

“I’m holding a meeting with our outfielders, asking what they’re supposed to do in different situations,” Anderson said, “and this kid is answering all the questions. He knows where to be, where to throw, who to back up on every play I can think of.

“We got guys in the room with 10 years of major league experience and this kid has got all the answers. Fundamentally, he does everything perfectly. He came in here as well-coached as a human being could be.”

Look up the word hyperbole in the dictionary and Anderson’s picture is liable to be there next to the definition. But Bean, a 22-year-old who played at Santa Ana High School and Loyola Marymount University, is clearly a student of the game.

At the moment, he’s rising to the head of the class.

“He caught my eye this spring,” said Vada Pinson, the Tigers’ batting coach. “It wasn’t so much his talent, but his command of the fundamentals.

“There’s nothing left to teach him. . . . Baseball is a game of reacting to what you see and he reacts instinctively. I say leave him alone.”

Bean, who was the Tigers’ fourth pick in the 1986 June draft, was not one of the nonroster players invited to spring training, but he was allowed to make one four-game road trip.

Obviously, he made the most of it.

And he’s doing exactly the same with his opportunity to play in the majors.

In three games before Wednesday night, Bean had six hits--two of which were doubles--in 14 at-bats. Wednesday, with a couple hundred friends and relatives on hand at Anaheim Stadium to cheer him on, he had a single in three at-bats during a 2-1 victory over the Angels. His average dropped to .412.

Yes, it’s been a big, big week for Billy Bean.

Friday, he was a Toledo Mud Hen, hoping to get a call in September when major league rosters are expanded.

“We had just lost a game and (Toledo Manager) Leon Roberts called me into his office,” Bean said. “I had no idea what was going on. He had this big smile on his face. When he first told me I was going up, I was sure he was kidding.”

His first duty was to sign a contract so he could play that afternoon.

“I wasn’t going to bargain,” Bean said, laughing. “Anyway, I was pretty happy with the 1,000% raise.”

And the Tigers, who sent down catcher Dwight Lowry to make room for Bean, are satisfied they’ll get their money’s worth.

“We have a kids in the minors with more speed and better arms,” Anderson said, “but they’re a year or two away. Billy’s got the discipline now.”

And, apparently, the poise to go with it. His professional tour of duty literally hours old, Bean was entertaining a media crowd that would make Reggie Jackson jealous.

“He handled the press remarkably well,” Pinson said. “He’s given this team a boost. It’s pleasant to see new juices flowing.”

Bean is just grateful for the chance to prove himself.

“Nobody has detailed the reasons why I’m here,” he said, “so I’m just going to wear this smile on my face and play as hard as I can until they tell me to go home.

“Walking on a major league field has always been my goal. Now, my goal is to do it tomorrow and the next day and the next and the next . . . “