Tettleton Surprises With Homer Prowess

If you hang around his locker long enough, if you push him on the matter and don’t mind that the words come out softly and chopped between long drags on a cigarette, Mickey Lee Tettleton will admit that, no, he’s not surprised by any of this.

Not by leading the American League in home runs or by being called back onto the field for a curtain call Wednesday or by playing a huge role in the Baltimore Orioles’ stunning success.

Press him and he’ll tell you about three wasted years in the outfield at Oklahoma State. About a conversion to catcher that had the Oakland Athletics sending him back to Class A Modesto, Calif., for three consecutive seasons.

He’ll talk about all the bruised collarbones and swollen hands and aching legs. He’ll talk about winning the Athletics’ job in 1986, then being sidelined with a badly infected foot.

He’ll talk about winning the job again in 1987 only to be sidelined with a bruised shoulder -- an injury that allowed a young phenom named Terry Steinbach to rush past him on the depth chart.

Finally he’ll talk about what happened four days before the start of the 1988 season, about how A’s General Manager Sandy Alderson called him in and gave him his release.

He was 27, with a .212 career batting average, and when he walked out of Alderson’s office that afternoon, making the major leagues was barely on his mind. “I just wanted a job in the minors,” he says now. “My concern was not going somewhere and finding I’d be sitting behind a young star in the minors.”

So in 1989, with him hitting home runs more often than any American League catcher in 40 years, with all the jokes about his overnight success and energizing breakfast cereal (Froot Loops), he alone knows what his admission price has been.

“I’m playing the way I always hoped I could play,” he said. “I can’t explain why it’s happening now, but I won’t question it. It’s a lot of things. A new uniform meant a fresh start. I also got a chance to play, and it’s pretty hard to be a consistent player unless you get consistent at-bats.”

One of the byproducts of his Oakland days was a dedication to winter weightlifting, which has left him with watermelon biceps and thick forearms. Yet, for the first time, he’s also lifting during the season and Tettleton mentions this in what has been an endless search for the answer to: What gives?

How else could a player with 33 homers in 992 career at-bats suddenly become one of the AL’s most prolific power hitters? What else explains his hitting eight homers and three doubles and driving in 16 runs in his last 17 games?

This from the same guy who struck out 12 times in 26 at-bats earlier this season. This from a guy who had never hit more than 12 homers in any single professional season, including the minor leagues.

A lot of Tettleton’s success apparently began that day in Arizona when seven years in the Oakland organization ended so abruptly. It stung, especially because the bureaucracy of the waiver wire forced him to wait a week before catching on with another team.

Yet it also gave him a new beginning.

“By the time (Alderson) told me, the league offices in New York were closed,” Tettleton said. “That meant I couldn’t go on waivers until Monday, and that it would be another four days before I could sign with another team.

“I had a lot of time to think, and I was hurt. It was a very long week, but it did give me a chance to relax and get it off my mind. I could realize it was over for me in Oakland and I could go someplace else.”

When he finally cleared waivers, there was no shortage of job offers because there is a shortage of catchers, especially ones who are 6 feet 2, 214 pounds who switch-hit and throw decently. The Reds and Pirates phoned, but he ended up with the Orioles, signing a contract with Class AAA Rochester.

“They told me I’d play, and that’s all I could ask for,” he said.

The Orioles were about to start their worst season ever, and when Tettleton was called up on May 9, they were 4-26 and going nowhere. Manager Cal Ripken Sr. had been fired and the front office was more concerned about punching tickets out of town for Eddie Murray, Mike Boddicker and friends than worrying about who was already in town.

Tettleton was called up at a time when starting catcher Terry Kennedy was in a terrible slump, and as new manager Frank Robinson looked for answers, he tried a new catcher.

So when Tettleton slipped into the uniform that day at Memorial Stadium, he would not only get a chance to play, but in a completely pressure-free atmosphere. He’s among the quietest of all the Orioles anyway, and in 1988 he could sit in his locker, smoke and sip postgame beers without anyone noticing.

No one did. He hit .261 with a career-high 11 homers and 37 RBI, and the Orioles could have cared less. He had won a spot for 1989, but was still considered no more than a stopgap for a franchise that had decided to clean house and start over.

When the housecleaning was over, Tettleton was still their starting catcher, and as they’ve started fast, so has he.

With the A’s he had 22 homers in 709 at-bats, an average of one every 32.2 at-bats. That average improved to one every 25.7 at-bats last season, and this season, despite stretches when strikeouts have come two and three a game, he has homered every 11.6 at-bats.

He credits added strength, more playing time, mechanical adjustments suggested by hitting coach Tommy McCraw and -- luck.

“Last year was a perfect situation for me because I was getting to play, and I could go through a slump, get hot, whatever,” he said. “No one gave me a second thought.”

Robinson said he began the season hoping Tettleton would hit 15 to 18 homers.

“That would have been excellent,” Robinson said. “What he’s done has been incredible. He’s in a tremendous groove and no one could have predicted it. Mickey doesn’t have a track record for hitting home runs. He’s getting to play on a regular basis for the first time. Also, he is a much better left-handed hitter now than when he came to us last year.”

Last year Tettleton hit nine of his 11 home runs batting right-handed. This year he has hit nine of his 13 homers from the left side and is hitting almost everything hard.

“I hit a little stretch last year where I was swinging the bat real well, not home-runwise, but I was getting my hits and I felt good,” he said. “Right now confidence is just playing a big part of it.”

After last season, Tettleton returned to his home in Scottsdale, Ariz., and felt confident enough about his career to buy a horse and spend the winter relaxing on his ranch. When he wasn’t relaxing, he was lifting weights, and when he showed up at spring training, he had not only confidence, but strength.

“I’d lifted in the winter before,” he said, “but this is the first time I’ve ever lifted during the season. I don’t know what it’s doing for me strengthwise, but you do go up there with more confidence that you’re stronger.”

The home runs say he’s stronger. Of his 13, five have been hit to the opposite field. It has also helped him endure the daily grind and the assorted bumps and bruises of catching.

“Everyone talks about how rough it is, but I enjoy it,” he said. “I liked it from the beginning. The catcher is in the middle of the play, and he kind of controls what goes on.”

He has taken his sudden fame calmly, accepted the jokes about Froot Loops and the new nicknames (“Babe Loops” is one). He is too shy to bare much of his soul, too polite to interrupt the 30-second sound bites about Froot Loops and overnight success.”I don’t know if this is all a dream,” he said, “but whoever wakes me up is going to get punched.”