Parrish Begins Long Road to Majors in Staten Island

What should have been a four-hour bus trip turned into a 10-hour trek last week for the Staten Island Yankees and catcher David Parrish.

“We left at 8 o’clock in the morning, but the bus broke down and we didn’t get to the ballpark until only about 45 minutes before the game was scheduled to start,” Parrish said. “All we had time to do was stretch and throw the ball around a little before the game started.”

But Parrish isn’t complaining. He’s enjoying his first professional season in the rookie-level New York-Penn League, where some bus trips are eight hours without mechanical breakdowns or flat tires.

Parrish, who played at Esperanza High and then for three years at Michigan, was selected 28th overall by the Yankees in the first round of the amateur draft in June. He received a $1.4-million signing bonus.

But Parrish hasn’t been living the way a young millionaire might.

“The good thing about going on the road is that I have a television to watch in my hotel room,” Parrish said.

Parrish said the dormitory-type room he shares with one of his teammates doesn’t have a TV, or a telephone.

“I don’t even have a regular bed,” he said. “I sleep on an air mattress. But it’s not that big a deal. It seems like we’re in the room for only about an hour a day when we’re not sleeping. Most of the time we’re at the ballpark.

“That’s the way the whole team lives, and I don’t want to do anything different from what the rest of the guys do.”

Besides being a first-round draft choice, Parrish carries the added pressure of being the son of Lance Parrish, who played 19 years in the major leagues. A key player for Detroit’s 1984 World Series champions, Lance Parrish is now a coach with the Tigers.

But it was the Yankees who showed the most interest in signing David Parrish, drafting him twice.

New York selected him in the 10th round after his senior year at Esperanza. Parrish decided to attend Michigan instead.

“I think that turned out to be a good decision for me,” Parrish said. “I was able to learn a lot of things I needed to learn in a college environment. I learned a lot about myself and my work ethic. It’s probably different for everyone, but I don’t think I was ready to go straight into professional baseball after high school.”

Parrish’s career at Michigan apparently enhanced the Yankees’ interest. As a junior this year, Parrish led the Wolverines with a .356 batting average, 11 home runs and 41 runs batted in. He was selected to the All-Big Ten team.

“I don’t know exactly why the Yankees stayed so interested, but they apparently saw something in me they liked,” Parrish said. “Most teams draft based on what their needs are, and I never felt like I was being overlooked by Detroit. Those are front-office decisions that have nothing to do with my dad playing there before and coaching there now. He was really happy when I called and told him that I had been drafted in the first round.”

Parrish said his first month with Staten Island was an adjustment.

“Just playing every day is a big difference from college,” Parrish said. “I also had to adjust to the wood bat again after hitting with the metal bat in college. The summer before last was the first time I hit much with a wooden bat, and it didn’t go well at all. I did a lot better last summer when I used it in the Alaskan League.

“This summer, my first 25 or 30 at-bats were a transition period for me, and that first week was tough. I didn’t hit as well as I would have liked, but I know I put a lot of pressure on myself to do well right away because of being a first-round pick. I don’t think I’m as anxious about all that now.”

Parrish is batting .280 with four homers, nine doubles and 14 runs batted in in 28 games through Saturday. Parrish expects to develop more power as he matures physically. “I think my power numbers will eventually come,” he said. “I plan to hit the weight room hard in the off-season.”

The New York-Penn League season ends in early September, but Parrish said he will attend a Yankee mini-camp in Tampa in the fall.

POWELL STRUGGLING

Former Cal State Fullerton outfielder Dante Powell is trying to revive his sagging career with the Dodgers’ triple-A team in Albuquerque, but it has been a struggle.

Powell, 26, was batting .261 after his first 13 games, but he went into a slump and did not play regularly for several weeks. His batting average dropped as low as .188 on July 6.

Powell has played more recently, and was 10 for 26 with three homers and eight RBIs in an eight-game stretch. He has raised his average to .233 through Saturday.

Powell played 35 games in two seasons in the major leagues with the San Francisco Giants and 22 last season with Arizona. Powell batted .332 in 51 games with triple-A Tucson last season, but the Diamondbacks traded him to St. Louis. After going to spring training with the Cardinals, he signed with the Dodgers as a free agent.

TOUCHING BASES

Former Cal State Fullerton catcher Brian Loyd has returned to Toronto’s double-A team in Knoxville, Tenn. He was promoted to triple-A Syracuse for about three weeks while Charlie Greene was with the Blue Jays. Loyd had a game-winning, pinch-hit double for Tennessee on Monday. He is batting .302 with 21 RBIs in 57 games through Saturday for Tennessee.

Brandon Duckworth, a former Cal State Fullerton pitcher, leads the double-A Eastern League in strikeouts with 125. He is 8-6 with a 3.52 earned-run average for the Reading, Pa., Phillies.