Independents’ Day at the Ballpark : Bottom Rung of Minor Leagues Is Last-Chance Stop for Players

Mike Smedes wasn’t going to waste this opportunity when the call came a year ago.

“ Outfield? Yeah, I can play the outfield. Like Willie Mays, I can play the outfield. “

OK, he lied. Smedes had never strolled past the infield dirt in his entire baseball career. He was a first baseman and pitcher at Laguna Hills High School and Oklahoma. A fly, to him, was something you swatted with a rolled-up newspaper. But the guy on the other end of the phone didn’t know that.

The caller was a coach for the Duluth-Superior Dukes, an independent team in the Northern League. He needed an outfielder and Smedes needed a team.

“I was on the phone every day with scouts and coaches,” Smedes said. “Here was one who called me. If they wanted an outfielder, then sure, I was an outfielder.”

Smedes would do anything to stay in the game. He got his chance with an independent team. Today, he is a right fielder--and a decent one--for the Erie Sailors, one of eight independent teams in the Frontier League.

To many, this is the bottom rung of professional baseball. Teams made up of castoffs and wanna-bes, all just a swing-and-a-miss from slow-pitch softball.

But to those involved, that is a misconception. Independent teams, which are not affiliated with a major league franchise, offer a chance to play and have some fun. Maybe even a chance to be seen by a scout and--dare they say--get picked up by a major league organization. That’s a golden opportunity, one players have to shoot for, even it means playing outfield.

“I was a mess out there last season,” said Smedes, one of 10 Orange County products currently playing for independents. “One time a ball was hit and I was sure it was over my head. I turned around and ran. When I looked back, it landed 20 feet in front of me.

“Yeah, it was a struggle. But as long as I’m playing, the dream is still alive.”

*

Sometimes it’s a dream. Sometimes it’s a nightmare.

Duane Page was pitching for the St. Paul Saints and who steps up to the plate but Pedro Guerrero. The Pedro Guerrero, former Dodger, now designated hitter for the Sioux Falls Canaries.

“I was scared,” said Page, a graduate of Ocean View High School. “I was thinking, ‘Wow, I’m pitching to Pedro Guerrero. This guy was good enough to bat .300, hit 20 home runs and drive in 90 runs every year.’ I was a little intimidated. He lined a single on the first pitch.”

Page then thought things over.

“He came up again and I realized he may have had major league talent once, but now he was on the same level as me,” Page said.

Page struck out Guerrero the next three times.

“Basically, the talent level depends on who’s pitching that day,” said Page, who was released by St. Paul and picked up by the Thunder Bay Whiskey Jacks last week.

“If the two pitchers have rookie league experience, then the talent is that of rookie league. If they have triple-A experience, then the talent will be equal to triple-A.”

Still, there are some “name” players.

Former Cub Leon Durham plays in the Northern League, for the St. Paul Saints. Former Boston Red Sox pitcher Oil Can Boyd was with the Sioux City Explorers before an injury forced his retirement.

Then there are the likes of former Cal State Fullerton outfielder Chris Powell. A year ago, he was tearing up a Fullerton slow-pitch softball league. Now he’s with Sioux Falls and leading the Northern League with a .376 batting average.

“You have guys here like Pedro, who just love playing baseball,” said Gary Weckwerth, Sioux Falls general manager. “Then you get a guy like Chris Powell, who was snubbed by the draft.”

They were all found through tryouts, personal contacts and, of course, the waiver wire. Independent teams leave no stone unturned in the search for talent. Marty Neff, a graduate of Magnolia High, was released by the Pittsburgh Pirates during spring training, then answered a cattle-call tryout at Pepperdine, which drew 300 players. Neff was signed by the Sioux City Explorers.

It doesn’t take much to make a team, just a little talent and luck.

Former Rancho Santiago pitcher Paul O’Hearn was not drafted in June, even after going 9-1 at North Alabama last spring. Nor was he looking to play professionally.

“I was planning to get a part-time job and hang out at the beach this summer,” said O’Hearn, a Saddleback High graduate. “I was going to enjoy myself.”

He’s enjoying himself, all right.

In Utah.

The Ogden Raptors held a tryout in Long Beach in May. A North Alabama teammate came west to participate and stayed with O’Hearn. On the third day, he told O’Hearn to come out.

“He told the manager about me and said that I was better than any of the guys they had,” O’Hearn said. “I struck out six consecutive batters and broke the bat of the seventh guy. They offered me a contract right there.”

O’Hearn is 7-3 for the Raptors, the only independent in the Pioneer League. The Raptors are two games behind the Helena Brewers in the Southern Division.

“It’ll be great if we win it,” O’Hearn said. “Guys from other teams try to big-league us. They are with an organization, so they think they’re better than us.

“Those guys all make more money than us, but we can play with them.”

O’Hearn made that clear recently by shutting out the Great Falls Dodgers, 4-0.

*

Independent teams have had some success financially. Enough, anyway, that more have popped up. A year ago, the six-team Northern League was the only all-independent league. This season, the eight-team Frontier and eight-team Texas-Louisiana leagues were formed. Next season, a league is planned for California.

Independent teams also dot the standings of many minor leagues with affiliated teams.

“People here were a little skeptical of us first,” said Pat Brown, general manager of the Erie Sailors. “Once they gave the team a chance, it snowballed. They saw the quality of play and the promotions we were doing and they came out to the park.”

Attendance at Northern League games is booming as well. St. Paul, which is co-owned by Bill Murray, fills its 6,000-seat stadium almost every game. This for a team that is playing .500 ball.

If they don’t come for the team, they at least come for a massage. A big crowd favorite is Sister Rosalind, a Roman Catholic nun who doubles as a masseuse. Fans can get a back rub while watching St. Paula, the team pig, carry baseballs in a pouch to the home plate umpire.

Silly, yes. But what do you expect from a team whose president is Mike Veeck, son of shameless promoter and former Chicago White Sox owner Bill Veeck?

All teams in the league are averaging 2,000 fans or better. Winnipeg’s Goldeyes, the first-half champions, draw 5,800 per game.

“We succeeded beyond anyone’s imagination,” Weckwerth said. “We’re on a pace to hit 1 million fans for six teams in our second year. Everybody looked to see what we did.”

What they did best was keep things cheap.

*

Powell is living the good life these days, making $1,025 per month--a small fortune by independent team standards. He also lives rent-free with what he describes as a well-to-do family. Everything he makes, he pockets.

“They have a three-story house and a van they let me use,” said Powell, who helped Fullerton reach the 1992 College World Series championship game. “All I have to do is baby sit their kids once in a while.”

Not everyone has it so sweet.

“I’m at the whim of anyone who has a car,” Page said. “If someone is going to eat, I have to go with them, even if I’m not hungry. It may be my only chance to eat.”

The competition and expectations may be high, but the budgets are low. Some teams, in fact, are downright democratic when it comes to money. Everyone at Ogden makes $650 a month.

The Northern League operates under a salary cap of $76,000 per team--are you listening out there Donald Fehr? The money--about two-thirds the major league minimum salary--is divvied up according to experience.

Guerrero makes $2,000 per month. Page, with only one year of rookie league behind him, makes $650. It can be a struggle.

“I was earning frequent flier miles with Western Union there for a while,” Page said. “I was calling home for money quite a bit.

“After taxes, I take home $290 every two weeks. With that I have to take care of rent, food, cable . . . all the necessities.”

Cable? A necessity?

“There’s no money for going to the movies,” Page said. “You play baseball, eat and watch TV.”

At least there’s money for food.

“Well, you eat a lot of Taco Bell 59-cent value meals,” Page said. “Toward the end of the month, you have to do without a few personal items, like deodorant and toilet paper. It can get a little rough.”

But Page roughs it. He was released by the Seattle Mariners’ organization during spring training. But, no matter how difficult it gets in Thunder Bay, he is playing professional baseball.

“Sometimes I sit back and think about leaving,” he said. “You could go home and make more money working at a fast food joint. Then I realize what’s important to me and that’s to play baseball and try to get back in an organization.”

*

There are those looking to jump-start a career. Then there is former Cal State Fullerton shortstop Kevin Farlow.

Farlow, 25, has had his fill of affiliated teams. He has been released by the San Diego Padres and Angels, but has found his niche with Sioux City. He earns a little cash during the summer and attends college.

“You have rookies who didn’t get picked in the draft and they’re hungry,” said Farlow, a member of the Titans’ 1990 College World Series team. “Then you have guys like me, who had our taste of organized ball. We’re just out here to have fun and win a championship. We’re here because we love the game.”

Said Weckwerth: “We’re not here to develop players. We want to put winners on the field and provide winners for communities. We could care less about scouts, player directors and agents.”

Well, management has its agenda. Players have theirs.

“I can spot a scout in the stands easy,” said Smedes, who was an eighth-round pick out of high school. “We’re all hoping.”

Those hopes have been realized in the past. Major league teams will pick up talent from independents and, once in a while, those players make it.

Tim Fortugno was cut by Philadelphia in 1989. He had a wife and a child. Still, he kept pitching for the Reno Silver Sox, then an independent, for $500 a month.

A Milwaukee Brewer scout spotted him and liked his stuff. The Brewers purchased Fortugno’s contract for $2,500 and 12 dozen baseballs. Fortugno eventually made it to the major leagues with the Angels and is now with the Cincinnati Reds.

So perhaps there’s hope for the likes of Zack Raney, an Amarillo (Texas-Louisiana) pitcher who was recently traded to Beaumont for three dozen baseballs and a bat.

“We’ve bought players from independent teams in the past,” Angel General Manager Bill Bavasi said. “We don’t scour those leagues, but we watch for talent.”

That slim chance keeps a lot of players playing.

“A lot of guys want to go on to be a fireman, a policeman or something,” Neff said. “They’re just looking for that one last chance. I’d like to catch somebody’s eye.”

It might happen. Then again, it might not. Either way, they play.

“I just go out and have fun,” Powell said. “What else can you do?”