There?s a certain cachet that comes with having played professional baseball. Whether it?s the more difficult skill set required to play baseball over the other team sports, or the image of a Kevin Costner in a film like “Bull Durham,” having played the game for a paycheck, on any level, sets you apart from the regular crowd.
This is likely the reason why so many people lie about it.
Over the years, I?ve run into dozens of people who claimed a stint in pro ball. After a few minutes of conversation, I could usually pick out the fabricators. Some, in fact, had indeed played the game, only to see their careers end over an injury or an inability to hit the curveball.
I?ve run into guys who claimed they?d played in the majors. Inasmuch as every decent bookstore at the mall has a baseball encyclopedia on the shelf, these claims are incredibly easy to shoot down, though I?ve heard these same guys sputter, “Book?s wrong,” as if the official record of the game somehow deleted their numbers. Sorry, pal.
This topic came up recently in a discussion I was having at the ballpark with Comcast baseball analyst and former Orioles? pitcher Dave Johnson. Between bites of a Nutty Buddy, Dave mentioned that he knew a couple of guys who claimed professional backgrounds in order to swell their résumés as coaches/instructors. He wondered if there was a way to check out their claim, since there?s no complete minor league encyclopedia available to the general public. I assured him that there is a way.
My friends in the research department at the Hall of Fame in Cooperstown maintain a file of index cards of every player who signs a professionalcontract. Additionally, every minor league publishes an annual record of their statistics. All we had to do was submit the names in question and wait for the results.
After pouring through the index cards and digests of every minor league between 1970 and 1989, researchers could find no record of either man. Zero. Zip. Nada. Neither had played anywhere within organized baseball.
Dave?s not sure what he?ll do with the information ? likely nothing, unless there?s a reason. Perhaps these gentlemen will read this and stop embellishing their backgrounds. It?s completely unnecessary.
I would love to be able to say I had played pro baseball, but I could never hack it past my mid-teens. I didn?t love the game any less. If anything, it gave me that much more respect for the guys who could do it. That I?ve been able to make a living in a baseball-related industry has been a real bonus.
There are many in this town ? and country ? that love the game, understand the fundamentals and can teach it on a number of levels. They don?t have to lie about some imagined pro career.
Enthusiasm and genuine knowledge count a lot more than that.
Phil Wood has covered sports in the Washington-Baltimore market for more than 30 years. You can reach Phil at [email protected].
