BASEBALL INSTRUCTION: SPECIAL REPORT : ON DECK : Developmental Center Is Ruthian in Its Scope

The rumblings and rumors became louder and more frequent. Then the advertisements hit the papers and cable TV.

BDC . . . BDC . . . BDC . . .

There’s the entire Los Angeles Dodger coaching staff posing together, wearing broad smiles and caps that read BDC.

There’s Mike Piazza grinning confidently, wholeheartedly endorsing BDC.

Here are Mike Lerner, 33-year-old businessman, and Joe Ferguson, former Dodger player and coach, perched in a plush office on Ventura Boulevard, raving about the “ultimate baseball experience, the ultimate baseball facility, the ultimate baseball instruction.”

BDC. Baseball Development Center. More completely, Reggie Smith’s Baseball Development Center, an astonishingly ambitious project that promises to be the Home Depot of baseball instruction.

Mom and Pop batting cages, summer baseball camps getting by on a shoestring, make way for the big boys with the big bucks.

Phones are ringing with orders for BDC instructional videotapes and reservations for BDC summer camps. Lerner, the company’s president and CEO, pulls out an artist’s rendition of the facility he said will open in the West Valley or Calabasas within a year.

“We are building the Rolls-Royce,” Lerner said.

On the drawing board: a $13-million, 120,000 square-foot indoor facility completely carpeted in artificial turf and infield-quality dirt; at least 40 batting cages, each equipped with a video camera; video screening room and library; full-sized infield surrounded by bleachers; pro-style clubhouse; sports therapy and rehabilitation center; virtual reality and video-game center; pro shop.

Oh, did we forget the food court on the mezzanine level?

And for the main attraction. . . .

Private lessons given exclusively by current and former major league players, mostly names with Dodger pedigrees. Major leaguers will work out at BDC in the off-season and will visit frequently during the playing season, Lerner said.

“BDC will bridge the gap between major league baseball and the community,” said Ferguson, a BDC assistant director who was fired by the Dodgers several months ago after seven years as an assistant coach.

Besides the facility that Lerner calls “the Disneyland of baseball,” BDC currently offers videotapes of Smith’s hitting instruction and drills, and camps that boast a full staff of current and former major leaguers.

The offers are enticing. The videotape box reminds a buyer that three consecutive rookies of the year (Raul Mondesi, Piazza and Eric Karros) have worked under Smith since he became the Dodgers’ batting coach.

The camps promise instruction from Dodger coaches and players and appearances from teams visiting the Dodgers during the season. Weekend camps for youngsters and their fathers or mothers include trips to Dodger Stadium to meet players and coaches, after which the families are escorted to box seats for the game.

From Dodgertown in Vero Beach, Fla., Smith keeps in daily contact with Lerner. BDC is the realization of a longtime dream of the former major league slugger, who lives in Woodland Hills.

“This is something I knew several years ago would work,” Smith said. “When you look at the demographics of the area, the love of baseball in the Valley, the demand is there. And we will create more demand with what we are offering.”

Looking on with curiosity and not a small amount of anxiety are those who currently offer baseball instruction. It’s too early to make a judgment call about BDC, said Bryan Maloney, owner of West Coast Baseball School.

“If they are doing it simply to make money, they are not going to make it,” said Maloney, whose school has five locations in the Valley and Santa Barbara. “There is not enough money in this business. If they do well, it will enhance the entire business of baseball instruction. But if they do poorly, they could give baseball instruction a black eye.”

The former and current Dodger coaches and players Smith has assembled for a staff is extraordinary. They will be paid, but Smith said money is not their primary motivation.

“They believe in being associated with something quality,” he said. “They want to be part of this and they believe in it.

“I could not think of any better instructors to make it work (than current and former Dodgers). We can have the greatest facility in the world but if we don’t have the instruction, it wouldn’t survive.”

Sustaining the level of instruction and the commitment of major leaguers over time could be the key to BDC’s longevity.

“At first, everyone will be in awe of Mike Piazza and other big names being there,” Maloney said. “There is glamour to that. Our question is, ‘What are they going to do once they’ve gotten everybody’s attention?’ ”