Gary Gets His Crack at Baseball
Cleveland Gary, the Ram named after two cities, is now a man for two seasons. By fall, it’s Anaheim and the NFL. By spring, at least on a trial basis, Gary is property of the Montreal Expos, beginning on the bottom rung of a ladder already ascended by Bo Jackson and Deion Sanders.
The question of the hour is why.
Gary is closing in on his 24th birthday, making him honorary grandfather in the Expos’ rookie-league training camp in Bradenton, Fla. He hasn’t played the sport on a regular, competitive basis since 1984, when he started at third base for the South Fork (Fla.) High School varsity. And he had to play salesman before he could play ball, having to convince the Expos he was worthy of a tryout.
A whim, one might call this. A lark. A pipe dream.
Then again, Curt Warner doesn’t play baseball, so maybe Gary knows what he’s doing.
Gary is the Rams’ tailback of the future, the Rams keep telling Gary. They made him the 26th pick of the 1989 NFL draft and they played him in eight games, watching him average 4.4 yards per carry.
They said they liked what they saw and told Gary to be patient.
Then they signed Warner, who also plays tailback and is 29. His future is now. And, at present, the Ram depth chart also lists two more tailbacks in Greg Bell, the incumbent 1,000-yard rusher, and Gaston Green, the 1988 first-round draft choice.
In this backfield, things were getting mighty crowded. The Rams’ tailbacks were to the wall. What to do?
Road trip.
In all probability, that’s all this is. Cleveland Gary goes on spring break. A few weeks in Florida, just to get away from the traffic and congestion of L.A.
He has already notified the Rams--and, significantly, the Expos--that he’ll be back in Anaheim for next month’s mini-camp and that his baseball season will end July 14, since the Rams’ full camp begins July 15.
But that still gives Gary and the Expos nearly three months together, enough time to determine if this 6-foot-1, 230-pound outfielder is more prospect than reject.
“He’ll play 45 games with Bradenton, which is basically our entry-level program,” says Expo assistant general manager Dan Duquette. “That lasts until June 1. Then we’ll send him to Jamestown in the New York-Penn League, where he will play about 30 games of Class-A ball.
“By then, we should have a decent idea of where we’re at. We’ll see if he’s shown some progress.”
Rookies come no rawer. Gary’s first love always has been baseball, but the affair was interrupted by Jimmy Johnson, then Gary’s football coach at the University of Miami, who forbade any of his players from participating in a second sport.
Gary went on to win Orange Bowls for Johnson, but deep down, he wanted a crack at the College World Series too. For four years, the curiosity fermented--to the point of Gary petitioning the Miami Miracles, an independent Class-A team, for a tryout once his college eligibility expired.
“He worked out with the Miracles,” Duquette said, “but they felt he lacked the experience it takes to compete in that league. The Florida State League has a lot of breaking-ball pitchers and, really, Cleveland hasn’t seen that much live pitching.
“So, he called us and asked for a job. Basically, Cleveland pursued us. He’d always wanted to try his skills on the baseball field, since he never could play baseball at Miami. We wanted to see him first, so we asked him to come down and try out.”
Last weekend in Lantana, Fla., Gary auditioned in front of Duquette and the Expos’ minor-league coaching staff. After three days, Duquette signed Gary to a Bradenton contract.
“He has good speed and good power, the two main requisites to be a good outfielder in the major leagues,” Duquette said. “He has good wrists, good strength. It’s worth a shot.
“He’s a project. That’s why we sent him first to our extended minor league camp. Right now, he’s getting an extended course in fundamentals. But he has a lot of desire and he’s very coachable. He wants to develop.”
Gary isn’t alone in his quest, grand illusion that it may be. Duquette said the night before he scouted Gary, he watched a game between Montreal’s Class-A team, West Palm Beach, and the St. Lucie Mets. Among the hitters in St. Lucie’s starting lineup: Minnesota Viking running back D.J. Dozier.
“These football players are seeing how great athletes like Bo and Deion Sanders have succeeded in two sports,” Duquette said. “They also see the longevity major league players have and they start comparing the financial rewards with that of football.
“They see baseball as an attractive career and want to give it a try. That’s what we’re seeing with guys like Dozier and Cleveland Gary.”
So it’s a long shot. Gary is used to them.
On July 15, he will go from one to another, strapping on the horned helmet of a team that thinks it truly has a chance of keeping San Francisco out of the next Super Bowl.