Reuss Happy Carrying First Baseman’s Mitt

Jerry Reuss has thrown a no-hitter and won a World Series game, an All-Star game and a championship ring in the major leagues, but it wasn’t until after his 1990 retirement that he finally fulfilled a long-time baseball dream.

He made it to first base.

That’s where Reuss, a former Dodger and Angel left-hander, always wanted to be. But when the junior varsity team at Ritenour High School in St. Louis held tryouts in 1964, and the coach told players to take their positions, almost everyone went to either first or the outfield.

Reuss, then 14, headed to the pitcher’s mound, figuring it would maximize his chances of making the team.

“That was the fork in the road for me,” Reuss said.

He took the right turn. Reuss helped pitch the Ritenour varsity to Missouri state championships in 1966 and ’67 and went on to win 220 games during a 22-year major-league career; 86 of those victories were in a Dodger uniform from 1979 to 1986.

But Reuss, who played for the Angels in 1987, found himself at a similar fork in 1990, after he had thrown his last pitch in the pros. A friend running an amateur team in Pasadena extended an open invitation, telling him he could “pitch any time you want.”

Reuss said he’d play but had no desire to pitch. Instead, he picked up a first baseman’s mitt and spent two seasons with the Pasadena Redbirds before joining the Villa Park Senators of the Men’s Senior Baseball League last spring.

And 12 years after helping the Dodgers defeat the New York Yankees in the 1981 World Series, Reuss has made a return trip to the fall classic, MSBL style.

Reuss, 44, helped the Orange County-based Blue Jays to a second-place finish in the MSBL 30-and-over World Series last week, and the first baseman will join the South Orange County-based Astros this week for the 40-and-over Series.

“I enjoy this because it’s something I never did,” Reuss said. “Pitching was still fun when I retired but there was no place else to go with it. First base is something I never got a chance to do.”

And pitching in a World Series is something most MSBL players don’t get a chance to do. That was another factor in Reuss’ decision to leave the mound.

“I’ve already pitched in the World Series, the All-Star Game, and I pitched in some big games over 22 years,” Reuss said. “I’ve experienced it all, but for guys who pitch in this league, this is as close as they’ll ever get to pitching in a World Series.

“I’m sure it’s a dream of a lot of these players--they wonder how they’d do if they had an opportunity to pitch in a big game. For many, this is as big as it will ever get, and for me to pitch, that would take away from someone else’s dream. Besides, my dream was always to play first base.”

It’s a position Reuss has learned to play fairly well. Senator Coach Tom White said Reuss made an occasional error this season, “but he was real good at digging the ball out of the dirt, and a real good field leader.” Reuss also led the Senators in batting (.509) and home runs (seven in 22 games).

“You don’t think of a major league pitcher as having much of a stick, but he’s powerful,” White said. “He’s a tremendous hitter.”

Singles, doubles and homers aren’t the only hits Reuss collects. The guitar player and music buff is putting the finishing touches on a rock-and-roll reference book, which will tell readers how to obtain hit songs from 1955-79 on compact discs.

Reuss also has spent the last three seasons as a color commentator on ESPN’s West Coast baseball telecasts, so it’s not as if life after baseball has been a daily battle against boredom.

But there was a void that only competition could fill. He tried golf. Too dull. Racquetball was an old love, but a knee injury kept the two apart. So he turned to a familiar field.

“Baseball is the only thing that really gets my adrenaline going,” said Reuss, who often took batting and fielding practice with major league teams before heading to the broadcast booth. “There was a vacancy that needed to be filled, and this was the only way I could do it.”

Reuss, who lives in La Canada Flintridge, was something of a celebrity in the Southern California league, which schedules games only on Sundays from April to October.

“A lot of guys ask for autographs,” Reuss said. “They’ll get to first and say, ‘I remember watching you when I was a kid.’ I tell them, ‘I could have gone the whole day without you telling me that.’ ”

But Reuss said he doesn’t sit in dugouts reminiscing about a professional career that spanned four decades and included:

* The Sporting News National League comeback player of the year honors, a victory in the All-Star Game and a league-leading six shutouts in 1980.

* A 4-0 shutout of the Houston Astros and Nolan Ryan in the fifth and deciding game of the 1981 West Division Series playoff. The Dodgers went on to defeat Montreal in the National League Championship Series and the New York Yankees in the World Series, with Reuss earning a victory over Ron Guidry in Game 5.

* A no-hitter against San Francisco on June 27, 1980, in which the Dodgers beat the Giants, 8-0, in Candlestick Park.

“My career seems like a lifetime ago,” Reuss said. “I don’t relive it. People talk about it--I think I met 10,000 of the 50,000 people who were there when I threw the no-hitter--but I don’t dwell on it.”

Who has time when you have to rake and water the infield? Reuss may have big-league credentials, but he’s treated no differently in the MSBL--he has to pay league fees, purchase his uniform and help prepare the fields for games, just like everyone else.

Of course, Reuss has experience along those lines, too. Long considered one of baseball’s better pranksters, one of Reuss’ favorite gags was to dress up as a groundskeeper and drag the infield before games, a chore he usually performed with fellow Dodger Jay Johnstone.

“Hey, how many guys have won 200 games in the big leagues and have experience dragging the infield?” Reuss said.

He’s the only one in this league.