Up-and-Coming Legend : Senior Baseball Assn. Offers Stage for Fick to Resurrect Playing Career

Flashing Vida Blue the sign for a fastball high and tight might have struck Chuck Fick as a particularly odd thing to be doing on a December evening in 1989.

Yet it was no more implausible than anything else he had done the past two weeks, such as pinch-hit for Bobby Bonds, or share milk and cookies in a hotel room with George Foster.

Just another day in the Senior Professional Baseball Assn., a curious creation that catapulted Fick from quiet suburban family life in Newbury Park into the uniform of the St. Lucie Legends.

For most players, the SPBA is an opportunity to revisit old friends and major league glory days. For Fick, 34, a catcher who last played professionally in 1983 and never made it past triple A, a moribund ambition has been resuscitated in the Florida sun.

“I might not be a major league catcher, but I’m a good senior league catcher,” Fick says.

That in itself is extraordinary. The last time Fick had framed a pitch and turned disbelievingly to the home plate umpire, the man crouched behind him was Leslie Nielsen. The comedy “The Naked Gun” was being filmed and Fick was merely acting the part of a catcher.

Five years in the minor leagues and an effervescent nature qualified him for a smattering of roles needing a ballplayer. The Screen Actors Guild and a walk-on position as assistant coach at Thousand Oaks High kept him buttoning a baseball uniform. Maybe a job as a scout was down the pike.

Fick was content. He could feed his family of four and stay close to the game he loved. Actually playing again was almost inconceivable; he wasn’t even on a softball team.

That all changed in October. Fick, oblivious to the fact that more than 700 ex-big leaguers wanted to be considered for the 192 SPBA roster openings, phoned Ray Negron, general manager of the Legends, and begged for a tryout.

“When I discovered I was eligible, I had to give it a shot,” Fick says.

Players must be 35 and have major league experience, with two exceptions: Catchers may be as young as 32 and three players on each team need no time in the majors. Fick wedged through both loopholes and talked his way in the door.

“He fed me a good line of stuff,” Negron recalls. “I found Chuck very charming. He’s an underdog. I said, let’s give him a chance.”

Fick worked out for a few days with high school players, then boarded a flight to Florida, paying his own way. Despite hitting a home run in an exhibition game and impressing Negron, he was cut two days before the season began. Jerry Grote and Clint Hurdle were kept on the roster as catchers.

“Chuck did really well in training camp,” Negron says. “It was a situation where names, not ability, beat him out. I told him that from a political standpoint I had to go with Grote although he beat out Grote.”

All Fick could do was stay near the phone and hope that his enduring memories of the SPBA would be more than playing poker with Graig Nettles and watching “I Dream of Jeannie” reruns with Foster. He kept in shape and even found an L. A. Municipal League ballgame to play in one Sunday.

“I proved to myself in training camp that I could play with those guys,” says Fick, who is 6-foot-1, 212 pounds. “It had gone from being a dream to being something I knew I could do.”

The call came Nov. 19, a few days after Negron traded Nettles, the team’s manager and third baseman, and made Bonds player-manager. Bonds, it turned out, had been impressed by Fick the first time around.

“When I got the club, I wanted him back,” Bonds says. “Believe me, he’s holding his own. He knows what he’s doing. He receives the ball real well and he gives us some right-handed pop with the bat.

“He fits in like he played in the big leagues.”

Fick was rudely reminded that he hadn’t as he prepared for his first at-bat. Foster had been the previous batter and the PA announcer had rattled off the slugger’s impressive lifetime home run and RBI totals. As Fick stepped into the batter’s box, a leather-lunged fan bellowed, “What’d you ever do, Fick?”

His acting credits, which also include “Brewster’s Millions” and several commercials, helped him establish an identity with the fans. Now, “Hollywood Swinging” by Kool and the Gang is heard over the loudspeakers when he comes up to bat.

“We play off Chuck’s Hollywood image. This is all part of show biz anyway,” Negron says. But it’s baseball business too. Marquee names like Foster, Blue and Bonds have not resulted in large crowds or many victories. The Legends are last in the SPBA with a 9-24 record, and Negron admits that they must draw larger crowds than the 359 who showed up for a recent game.

Promoting the Legends is similar to promoting a Class-A team and Negron is resorting to gimmicks. A few days ago he had Fick and a couple of other players choose eight Legendettes, dubbed “the first professional baseball cheerleaders,” from a field of 35.

Still, Negron insists, “If we win, we’ll draw.”

Fick, who is seven for 26 (.268) with six runs scored, helped the Legends snap an eight-game losing streak Nov. 26. He had three hits in a 13-6 win over Winter Haven and his quick thinking played a key role in a 13-3 victory over St. Petersburg two days later.

With the bases loaded and one out early in the game, a ground ball was hit to St. Petersburg third baseman Alan Bannister. Bannister threw to second to begin an inning-ending double play but Fick, running from second to third, stepped in front of the throw. The ball glanced off his hip into left field, allowing two runs to score.

The Legends scored eight runs in the inning, their biggest outburst of the season.

“He let the throw hit him,” Bonds recalls with glee. “We told him, ‘They must not teach you to duck in Hollywood.’ He’s a hard-nosed son of a gun.”

Fick gave Bonds another chuckle later in the same game. After fouling off three consecutive Dock Ellis fastballs on a 3-and-2 count, Fick was caught off-stride on a slider and swung and missed.

On his way back to the dugout, Fick hollered out to Ellis, “Challenge somebody!” The St. Lucie dugout erupted in laughter.

“Chuck don’t know who he’s talking to,” Bonds says. “Next time he’s sees Dock, he’ll get one right between the eyes. Dock once went through the whole Cincinnati Reds lineup hitting people.” Bonds pauses and laughs. “Chuck didn’t mean nothing by it. That’s just the spirit he has.”

There is nothing jaded about Fick, the only Legend without major league experience. “This is so much fun,” says Fick, who is being paid about $12,000 for the three-month season. “I am enjoying it totally. I try to appreciate every day I’m here.”

The appreciation is mutual. “Everybody likes him. He fits right in,” Bonds says. “I think he’s here to stay.”

If not, there is always the quiet life in Newbury Park and his acting career. Fick’s acting skill impressed Negron the day he cut him after training camp.

“He cried in my office when I let him go, literally cried,” Negron says, laughing. “Chuck pulled pictures of his kids out of his wallet. In doing so, he dropped his union acting card on the floor.

“I’d love to release him tomorrow so I could see another performance.”