Parrish Finds Patience Is His Strong Point : Baseball: He returns to the major leagues as a backup catcher for the Pittsburgh Pirates.

Lance Parrish grinned that familiar grin, crossed his massive arms and leaned back against his locker with a look of satisfaction.

This was two months ago, early in spring training. It had been a very nice day for the 37-year-old catcher. He had homered and thrown out a runner to help the Tigers defeat the Phillies in an exhibition game.

“I’m looking for a job,” Parrish said that day. “I don’t feel I’m just here as a guest.”

As it turned out, Parrish found a job. It just didn’t happen to be in Detroit.

Parrish couldn’t unseat Mickey Tettleton or Chad Kreuter, so he elected to start the season at Toledo, Ohio, home of the Tigers’ top farm club. He kept hoping either Tettleton or Kreuter would be traded for the pitching help the Tigers so desperately need.

“I went to Toledo because in my heart I deeply wanted to play for the Tigers again,” Parrish said. “I thought it was going to happen. I figured the only marketable players they had (for pitching help) were either Mickey or Chad.”

It didn’t happen. Then he got a call from Pittsburgh. The Pirates were looking for a backup catcher. Parrish checked with the Tigers one last time. They told him they were sticking with Tettleton and Kreuter.

Parrish headed for Pittsburgh.

“My wife and I had been talking about maybe moving back to Michigan,” Parrish said. “We made a lot of friends there in the old days. I was hoping that when my playing days are over, I could stay in the organization, maybe get into coaching.”

That still might happen. Parrish was a big favorite of Tigers manager Sparky Anderson. It was Anderson, after all, who invited Parrish to spring training as a non-roster prospect.

“He’s happy to be back in the majors,” Anderson said. “But his one regret was not coming back with the Tigers. It’s too bad that couldn’t work out, because he never should have left here in the first place.

“But I told him not to worry, that if I stay in this game, our paths will cross again. I think Lance would make a great coach.”

Ten years ago, Parrish was the toast of Detroit. He was a 27-year-old catcher whose home runs had helped the Tigers win the World Series. But he wanted more.

Like many baseball players, Parrish wanted big money. His agents told him he was worth it. Jim Campbell, the Tigers’ general manager at the time, said he couldn’t afford it.

Finally, after the 1986 season, Parrish became a free agent and walked away.

“My wife still gets mad at me for leaving the Tigers,” Parrish said. “Sometimes, I’m sorry I did, too. But I had to move on.”

He has played for four teams since then, being released by the last three: the Angels, Seattle and Cleveland.

The word was that he was washed up, that he had lost his skills.

“He keeps plodding along, doesn’t he,” Anderson said.

With the Pirates, he has been reunited with Pittsburgh manager Jim Leyland, who coached Parrish in instructional ball in the 1970s.

“This is why I had such a positive attitude all through spring training,” Parrish said. “I know a lot of people looked at me as just an invitee. But I looked at it as competing for a position.”

As fate would have it, the winning pitcher in that long-ago spring game was Mark Leiter. The Tigers couldn’t seem to find any use for him, either.

Now, Leiter is in the starting rotation of the Angels. He is 2-2 with a 3.71 ERA. That is far better than any of the Tigers’ starters, whose ERA’s range from Tim Belcher’s 9.91 to Mike Moore’s 5.68.

Strange business, this baseball.