Valle Keeps His Struggle in Perspective

Dave Valle knows that for his baseball career, these are not the best of times.

The Mariners catcher, widely acknowledged to be among the best at his position in the American League, isn’t hearing much praise this season. A .137 batting average, lowest in the major leagues among regular starters, tends to overshadow anything good.

But Valle also realizes these are not the worst of times. That perspective has allowed him to keep his reputation as a top defensive player, not to mention his sanity.

“I really admire him,” Mariners Manager Jim Lefebvre said. “Sometimes you think he’s going to commit suicide when he walks around yelling and screaming and slamming stuff. But when he walks out behind the plate, he’s never taken his 0-for-4 or whatever it is out there. And that’s something a catcher can never afford to do.”

Maybe it’s that Valle has lived with adversity since he was 8 years old, when his father died of a heart attack at age 41. The youngest brother in a family of five boys and three girls, he learned to fight for everything, up to the last piece of pizza on the table. His mother, a nurse, worked the graveyard shift from 11:30 p.m. to 7 a.m.

He grew up in Queens, a borough of New York City, where for many struggling is a fact of life.

Even as a professional baseball player, he’s known more adversity than most. Since 1979, he’s been on the disabled list 11 times with injuries, some career-threatening.

So when it comes to persevering, Dave Valle is an expert. And when it comes to facing adversity, he knows he’s not the only one.

“Since the time I’ve become a Christian I’ve realized that struggles are not an unusual occurance -- they’re more the norm for everybody,” he said. “One person may have cancer, another may be dealing with divorce in their family. They’re trials that every person has to deal with.

“For me, I’m not hitting. I wouldn’t even want to compare that to what people feel when they go through a divorce or lose a parent. This means nothing compared to stuff like that.”

That ability to keep things in perspective has never been more important for Valle as a baseball player, because the pressure has never been greater.

Before the season, Valle signed a three-year contract for more than $1 million per season. In baseball’s ever-spiraling salary picture, that’s now barely above the major-league average. But three-year deals are rare in Mariner history.

So he entered the season with high expectations, from himself and from others. But his batting statistics have been a formula for frustration. Prior to Wednesday night’s game, he was 99 points below his career average of .236, he has only nine hits in his past 97 at-bats (.093), and is hitting just .087 (4-for-46) with runners in scoring position. In 181 at-bats, he has four home runs but only nine runs batted in.

Yet when others might have, Valle hasn’t developed ulcers or ground his teeth to the gumline.

Another part of the reason is his ability as a catcher. For throwing out base runners and blocking balls in the dirt, there is none better in the AL.

“The way it’s happened for me this year, my defense has almost become an isolation from everything else,” said Valle, whose 42-percent success rate throwing out base stealers leads the major leagues. “I can just totally absorb myself in the defensive part of the game, because I know I’ve got to do that well if I want to continue to play. That part just has to be there.”

His value as a catcher is hard to overstate. His ability to block pitches in the dirt makes a formidable Seattle pitching staff that much better. Pitchers know they can risk baiting hitters with a hard sinking pitch while a runner stands at third, for example, because Valle will keep the ball in front of him.

They’re also confident that he’ll call for the right pitch in the right situation.

Keeping that focus hasn’t been easy. When Valle grounds into a double play with the bases loaded, he hears the boos. For a few moments, it grates on him. Often when he makes the final out of an inning, Valle will take his time putting on his catching gear, dealing with and disposing of that moment’s frustration.

“Your role as a catcher is so vital to the game,” he said. “I’m back there calling pitches, I’m trying to quarterback the defense, so to speak, and I’ve got to be there for my pitcher. If he’s struggling I’ve got to be there to help him be the best he can be that night.”

But Valle’s own struggles have been his story so far this year. They haven’t been for lack of effort, Valle’s teammates and Lefebvre agree. He runs out every ground ball. He takes extra batting practice.

Sometimes, Valle admits, he overdoes it.

“I try to relax and not try too hard,” he said. “But that’s the hard part about hitting, I guess. Mentally, you have to be alert and aggressive, but then physically you have to be relaxed.

“That’s probably why Ted Williams said it’s the toughest thing in sports to do. You’re dealing with a 90-mph fastball and they say, ‘Just relax.”’

Teammate Alvin Davis, one of Valle’s closest friends and a player who’s had his own offensive struggles this year, knows how tough it can be.

“Earning the big salaries that are in the game now, to play every night and give 100 percent is not enough. You have to have success,” said Davis, whose .233 average is 56 points below his career mark. “I’m not saying the fans or the front office don’t appreciate effort, because of course they do. But the bottom line is they’re looking for results. That’s probably the greatest pressure that we have.”

Adding to that pressure, Valle’s lack of success at the plate could give him an unwanted place in major-league infamy. The lowest season batting average this century for a player with at least 300 at-bats was .139, by Brooklyn Dodger catcher Bill Bergen in 1909.

Again, Valle finds a silver lining.

“The one thing I have learned in this game is that you have to take adversity as your friend and learn from it,” he said. “If you don’t learn, you don’t grow as a person, as a baseball player, as a husband, as a father, unless you deal with tough times.”

Valle, who lives in Renton, Wash., with his wife, Vicki, and children Phillip, 6, and Natalia, 2, shares that philosophy with young people through the CATCH Foundation, which he formed last year with teammates Brian Holman and Harold Reynolds. CATCH stands for Christian Athletes Teaching, Challenging and Helping.

Through foundation activities, Valle tells youngsters of his own struggles, reminding them that it’s often during tough times that true growth takes place. Life must be seen as a big picture of challenges and rewards, he tells them, not as momentary scenes of frustration.

Recounting that philosophy has helped him get through this, his toughest season, by keeping things in their proper order of importance.

“If I look at my situation right now, you just want to quit,” he said. “But I know the bigger picture. It’s being able to pull yourself up and look at the bigger picture so you don’t get overwhelmed.

“In life, people lose their jobs. They get laid off. It’s easy just to get overwhelmed by it and pull up the drawbridge and not let anything in. But that’s not going to make things better. You’ve got to get back out there.”