FAIRFIELD — The guy couldn't hit a lick. That was the label and it stuck right to Jim Leyland. He could field his position, had a decent arm and could call a pretty good game, but hit? Forget it. That no-hit label had kept him stuck in the low minors for the past six seasons and now, it was bringing him closer and closer to the end of his playing career.

Like Bryan Adams sang ... "It was the summer of '69." Leyland was slowly going down the minor league ladder and a kid named Dave Bike was slowly on his way up. Or at least, going sideways. Bike, in his own words, had been "a prospect, a reject and then a suspect." He was trying to climb back up that minor league ladder and one of the rungs had stopped him in Lakeland, Fla. The Lakeland Tigers of the Florida State League where the guy who couldn't hit a lick, Leyland, met up with the "suspect," Bike.

"I had come back from Batavia pretty strong, so that's when they sent me to Lakeland and that's when they were breaking Leyland into being a player-coach," Bike said the other day while sitting in his basketball office at Sacred Heart University. "And this guy ... you know everything you read about how these guys love to play for him? It doesn't surprise me. He was pretty special as a baseball guy."

On the move

Bike had been selected in the eighth round of the 1965 draft and spent his first season of professional baseball in Duluth, Minn., sleeping in the local YMCA and making $500 a month. The next season,

Advertisement
1966, he moved up the ladder to Class A Daytona Beach and in 1967, was an all-star for Rocky Mount (N.C.) in the Class A Carolina League.

But in 1968, Bike, who was then playing for Montgomery (Ala.) of the Class AA Southern League, soon found himself questioning his own abilities.

"They actually ran me out of town, I was so bad," Bike said. "I was dropping balls and they sent me down to Batavia. It was the first time in my athletic career that I had lost confidence in my catching abilities. I was a big-league catcher, I didn't hit well, but I was a big league catcher. So, I had to start all over again. I went from a prospect to a reject."

The next spring, 1969, Bike was assigned to Lakeland, where Leyland took him under his wing. "He knew what he was talking about. Catching wise, I thought I became a better receiver," Bike said. "Up until '69, I had been playing ball for a long time, I always thought it was an ordeal to warm up the pitcher. Even in high school with Vito ...Vito Montelli was my baseball coach at Notre Dame, we'd practice in the winter in the gym and I used to hate it. We'd finished practice and afterwards, it would be, 'OK, pitchers, throw for 15 minutes' and we'd have to catch them. Practice wasn't over for us. It was an ordeal. But with Leyland, I learned to receive better, it became more like catching practice."

Bike didn't join Lakeland until after graduating from Sacred Heart in early June and despite that, still managed to hit nine home runs.

"After being a prospect and a reject, now I was a suspect. Hitting wise, I had a pretty good year in '69. I hit nine home runs in the Florida State League and I missed a month of the season," Bike said. "Now, you say nine isn't a lot but Joe Ferguson (who caught for the Los Angeles Dodgers between 1970-76) led the league that year with 13." And Leyland?

"He was a worse hitter than me," Bike said.

A path to coaching

Leyland signed with the Tigers organization in 1963 and hit just .222 with four career home runs in his six seasons. His highest batting average for a season was .243.

Bike, though, did have some solid seasons at the plate, batting over .300 in 1966 for Daytona Beach and hitting .270 in 1971 for Class AA Montgomery.

"That was a good year. I was named the all-star catcher at the halfway point of the season in the Southern League," Bike said. "The Atlanta Braves played the Southern League all-stars and I batted fourth in the all-star game."

The next year, 1972, Bike was with Class AAA Toledo, just a stone's throw away from the major leagues.

But then, politics got in the way.

"I go to Toledo in '72 and they have Tim Hosley catching. The manager, Johnny Lipon, told me, 'He's the guy they want to get all the at-bats, but I'll use you in doubleheaders, things like that.' At least he was honest with me," Bike said. "But I got disenchanted. I hit a pinch-hit three-run homer in Richmond to win a game, started the next night and hit a grand slam but when I didn't get a hit the next night, I didn't play for two weeks straight. I was ticked off."

A basketball coaching opportunity as an assistant had come up at the University of Seattle, so Bike gave the organization his notice. But at least he went out with a bang.

"We were playing the Tigers in an exhibition game and Hosley didn't want to play," Bike said. "So, I start and hit a home run off Bob Strampe. The second time up I hit another home run. The third time up, I walk and the fans booed. I felt like Babe Ruth. I still remember that."

But he remembers Leyland even more. "Everything you read about that guy is true," Bike said. "He had no enemies. Everyone liked him. He was a fun-loving guy and a good person. He used to call me 'WU Body.'

WU Body?

"Yeah, Wheels Unlimited," Bike said. "I was a catcher, you know."

Contact Chris Elsberry at celsberry@ctpost.com