Dream Job for Mayne

Brent Mayne could have stayed home and sweated out his job search, no sure thing for a veteran catcher in a cost-cutting era. But he had sacks of baseball equipment to donate and waves to surf, so he packed his bags and headed for Nicaragua.

“I was down there calling my agent to see if I had signed,” he said.

He had, with the Arizona Diamondbacks. And, on July 31, he was traded to his seventh major league team -- the Dodgers, a team within driving distance from his Costa Mesa home.

“I’ve been trying for 14 years,” he said. “Just when I had given up, it happened.”

When the Dodgers traded Paul Lo Duca and failed to trade for Charles Johnson, they grabbed Mayne as a catching partner for David Ross. Mayne is too grateful to be here to be upset at being the Dodgers’ second choice, far too grounded to worry about much beyond good waves, good deeds and good times with friends and family.

When one of his old surfing buddies invited him to Nicaragua in December, asking him to lead a few baseball clinics, Mayne said yes and brought along some gear to donate too. Some major leaguers would not set foot outside a five-star resort on vacation, but Mayne relished the chance to explore a country that remains largely undiscovered -- some might say unspoiled -- by tourists.

“It’s phenomenal,” he said. “I’ve been to Costa Rica a couple times, but I liked this place better. The beaches are unbelievable.”

In two weeks in Nicaragua, he taught baseball some mornings and surfed every afternoon. He said he enjoyed working with youth in a country where baseball is a passion, four-time All-Star Dennis Martinez is a national hero and the kids all root for countryman Vicente Padilla of the Philadelphia Phillies.

“Baseball is huge down there,” Mayne said. “There are stadiums in every single town -- not huge like we know them, but kind of like Blair Field in Long Beach.”

Mayne, 36, played in those kinds of stadiums for Orange Coast College -- coached by his father, Mike -- and for Cal State Fullerton, en route to the 1988 College World Series. The Kansas City Royals selected him in the first round of the 1989 draft.

He jumped from double-A to the majors and played five years in Kansas City, then hopped to the New York Mets, Oakland Athletics, San Francisco Giants, Colorado Rockies and back to the Royals.

Before he left for Nicaragua, he visited Angel Stadium on a job interview.

Agents call all the time, Angel General Manager Bill Stoneman said, but players seldom call and even more seldom drop by in person.

“It’s pretty rare,” Stoneman said. “He’s a guy you can sit down and enjoy talking to. As a player, I’m sure you’d love to be a teammate of Brent Mayne.”

Stoneman said he discussed a minor league contract with Mayne, which guarantees nothing -- terms later accepted by Josh Paul, who has spent the season in the majors. The Diamondbacks subsequently offered Mayne a major league contract.

The Dodgers rescued him from the horrible Arizona season, asking him to help Ross handle the pitching staff and advising him not to worry about filling the .300-hitting shoes of the old catcher.

“To expect either of those guys to perform offensively like Paul Lo Duca, shame on us,” Dodger Manager Jim Tracy said.

“But are they capable of performing defensively like Paul Lo Duca? Yes, they are.”

Mayne has played in 1,236 games without a postseason appearance. Two weeks ago, he was playing out the string for a team with the worst record in the majors, mentally preparing himself to call it a career without a playoff game on his resume.

“I thought this would be my last year, but I didn’t plan on being here,” Mayne said. “Winning is something. Playing around home is something. Those are two things that could make me want to play next year.”