Jim Tatum saw 5 ML seasons, became mentally strong in Japan

Jim Tatum went to Japan in 1997 and he wasn't expecting what he encountered.

What he encountered with the Yakult Swallows, he told The New York Daily News in 1998, were coaches who made him field 100 balls in warm ups each day, then 100 more fly balls.

"At first I thought, 'These guys are trying to kill me,'" Tatum told The Daily News that spring. "Then I became mentally strong. I thought, 'I'm going to survive.' The practices were tougher than the games. That's what they want. They want it so the games just come naturally."

Already a veteran of parts of four major league seasons, Tatum used his experience in Japan to get a fifth, a 35-game stint as a utility man with the Mets in 1998.

Tatum's professional career began in 1985, taken by the Padres in the third round of the draft out of high school. He played that season at short-season Spokane, hitting just .228.

He played the next two seasons at single-A Charleston, then hit AA Wichita in 1988. Skipping 1989, Tatum signed with the Indians for 1990, playing at AA Canton for two months before being released. He finished out the season in the Brewers system.

Tatum hit AAA Denver in 1992, hitting .329 with 19 home runs. He debuted in the majors that September, going 1-for-8 in five games. Tatum soon switched teams again, selected by the Rockies in the expansion draft.

It was with the Rockies in that expansion season that Tatum saw his most major league playing time - 92 games. He was playing winter ball in Venezuela when he was selected.

That May, Tatum hit his first major league home run, a grand slam off Dan Plesac. The grand slam was not only a first for Tatum, it was a first for the Rockies. He went on to hit .204. That was also his only home run.

After a season back at AAA, Tatum returned to the Rockies in 1995, for 34 games. They didn't start well. The Rockies sent him down in May, having to cut their roster.

But Tatum heard about being sent down from teammates, he told The Daily News in 1998. He then left early and was charged with driving under the influence. Called back up in June, Tatum hit .235 on the year.

For 1996, Tatum got into seven major league games, two with the Red Sox and five with the Padres. Then came Japan. He hit .309 and got seven doubles with Yakult, before signing back with the Mets for 1998.

In late April, Tatum hit major league home run No. 2 against the Astros, it was a game-winning, three-run shot. In May, Tatum got another game-winner, a single. It was an at bat that Mets Manager Bobby Valentine made sure Tatum was ready for.

"He asked me three times, 'Are you going to get this guy?' And each time I said, 'No doubt,' '' Tatum told The New York Times after the game. ''He showed confidence in me by sticking with me in a big situation.''

That spring, The Times noted Tatum's playing history, the teams he'd played for and the positions. At some point, The Times wrote, Tatum had played each position in a game.

''I've just been doing whatever it takes to stay in the big leagues,'' Tatum told The Times.

In his 35 games for the Mets in 1998, Tatum hit a second home run, posting a batting average of just .180.

Tatum played two more seasons in the minors, including a 10-game stint in Mexico in 2000, ending his career.

• Chicago Tribune, May 5, 1993: Rockies Tip Cubs In Runfest
• New York Daily News, March 12, 1998: Tatum tries to catch on
• New York Times, March 28, 1998: A Nerve-Racking Time For Mets on the Bubble
• New York Daily News, May 2, 1998: Tatum rains on Baylor's Rockie parade
• New York Times, May 7, 1998: Mets Come From Behind With a Vengeance

More: The 1990 Canton-Akron Indians

1990 CMC Tally
Cards Featured: 404/880 - 45.9%
Players/Coaches Featured: 411 
Made the Majors: 276 - 67%-X
Never Made the Majors:135-33%
5+ Seasons in the Majors: 114
10+ Seasons in the Minors: 103

Mike Basso felt good at Spokane, saw 9 pro seasons, made AAA

Spokane Indians catcher Mike Basso did almost everything for the short-season team that night in late August.

Basso knocked in both Spokane runs, according to The Spokane Chronicle. He also completed a play that helped save the game. That was on top of going 3-for-3.

"It felt good doing that," Basso told The Chronicle afterward.

While it felt good leading his Spokane team to victory that night, Basso would never experience that feeling in the majors. He got as high as AAA, but no higher.

Basso has, however, gone on to a long career in baseball after his playing career, serving as a manager, coordinator and scout.

Basso was completing his first professional season that year, taken by the Padres in the 18th round of the 1986 draft out of the University of Houston.

That first season in the minors, Basso hit .298 with two home runs. He moved up to single-A Charleston for 1987, hitting his seventh home run in a late July game. He then hit AA Wichita and AAA Las Vegas in 1988.

Basso spent 1989 at AA Wichita, getting into just 66 games. In 1990, he moved back up to Las Vegas, getting into just 50 games there. His 1990 season was shortened by a broken hand.
His 1991 season was again shortened, this time by arthroscopic knee surgery.

In three more seasons of work, Basso didn't get into more than 34 games. In 1994, his last as a player, he played in 14 games for high-A Rancho Cucamonga.

From there, Basso became a coach at AAA Las Vegas for 1995, then manager at Idaho Falls and elsewhere. Three of his managerial seasons, from 1996-1998, were spent back at Rancho Cucamonga, the affiliate of the Padres.

That year, Basso also served as Padres catching instructor in spring training and go to go to the World Series. He counted that trip among his greatest baseball memories in an interview later with his alma-mater.

In 2010, Basso served as a scout for the Pirates. His most recent year managing was in 2000, back at AAA Las Vegas.

As a manager, Basso told The Las Vegas Review-Journal, he tried to keep a good atmosphere, giving his players a chance to succeed.

"One thing managers anywhere have to understand is it's not about them, it's about the players," Basso told The Review-Journal. "The players do the work. You have to give them the opportunity to get better."

• Spokane Chronicle, Aug. 28, 1986: Indians close out home season in style
• Las Vegas Review-Journal, July 19, 2009: Basso's patience paying off as 51s continue to improve

More: The 1990 Las Vegas Stars

1990 CMC Tally
Cards Featured: 403/880 - 45.8%
Players/Coaches Featured: 410
Made the Majors: 275 - 67%
Never Made the Majors:135-33%-X
5+ Seasons in the Majors: 114
10+ Seasons in the Minors: 103

G21D Interview Part 4: Lived It

Rick Lancellotti at his baseball school, talking to a coach who just arrived.

Part 1: Christmas Morning | Part 2: Moving Up
Part 3: Stunned | Part 4: Lived It | Postscript: How Cool It Was

Rick Lancellotti saw the writing on the wall. After speaking with Giants brass, they couldn't guarantee him a chance to prove himself in 1987. So he took the offer, from Japan.

He did well for the Hiroshima Toyo Carp. But it wasn't where he wanted to be.

"I was so pissed off," Lancellotti recalled to The Greatest 21 Days in a recent sit-down interview at his Buffalo baseball school. "I was like miserable. I sold myself out. I cheated my dream. I was, really, I was not a happy guy.

"I led the league my first year in home runs over there and it didn't mean shit to me," Lancellotti said. "I was like 'whatever.'"

He stayed in Japan for two years, returning to the United States empty. He knew he should have kept going and continued his effort to stick in the major leagues.

But he also felt he was still in good shape and he felt great. He also had one major league stint still ahead of him.

Lancellotti grew up in New England, by buy his return, he was settled in Buffalo with his wife Debbie. Looking for a job, he waited until the Pawtucket Red Sox and Manager Ed Nottle came to town to play his old team the Bisons.

Lancellotti had known Nottle for years and Lancellotti paid a visit to the visiting manager. Pawtucket had gotten off to a bad start, 5-25, Lancellotti recalled.

Lancellotti offered his services, Nottle made some calls and the next day, Lancellotti was in uniform for the AAA affiliate of the Boston Red Sox. "I owe him a lot," Lancellotti recalled of Nottle, "he never should have taken me."

But, along with the signing, came a time limit. At Lancellotti's age, he would have 100 at-bats to prove himself. After that, Nottle couldn't promise anything.

He hit 100 at bats there in 1989, and he was hitting poorly, at .150, Lancellotti recalled. But Nottle kept him on, the young kids on the team needed a veteran around. "He goes, 'nah, there's more to it than .150. Just go out there and play.'"

That next game, Lancellotti recalled, he hit two home runs. He hit 17 on the year.

If Nottle was the one who gave him the chance to play, Lancellotti's next manager at Pawtucket, Johnny Pesky, gave him the change to play in the majors. By July 1990, Nottle was out and Pesky was in as manager.

It was Pesky who recommended Lancellotti get called back up. That also came about the time of Bob Ryan's Boston Globe article on Lancellotti. From Aug. 10 to Aug. 18, 1990, Lancellotti got into his final four major league games. He went 0 for 8.

A 1991 photo of Lancellotti with Pawtucket, on display at his baseball school. The caption reads "Don't look at the swing + miss. Note how the bat bends - bat speed is generated by keeping hands in."

Lancellotti played one more year in the minors, in 1991, then went to Italy and played there for 1992, his final professional season.

His playing days over, Lancellotti opened up Rick Lancellotti's Buffalo School of Baseball in 1993, modeled after a friend's school in Las Vegas.

But, by 1995, Lancellotti was playing again, as a replacement player with the Marlins. He also did what he always did. A bat marking his final professional home run is among the bats on display at his baseball school.

The reason he went that spring, Lancellotti said, was to speak out for minor leaguer's benefits.

The major league players told the minor leaguers not to play. But they made no effort to help the minor leaguers out, through an organized pension.

Lancellotti believed there was enough money to spread at least some of it to to the minors, to allow the minor league players to get paid a decent amount for playing a professional sport.

A million dollars, spread over 100 minor league players would be $10,000 extra per player, Lancellotti argued.

"You didn't think about it," Lancellotti said, "I didn't care. I wouldn't trade what I did for nothing. I had a blast, and I loved every minute of it. But, you know what? If they would have treated us right, I would have never gone. But I went because I finally get my chance to say something. And I went down there and blasted them."

Lancellotti's efforts were recorded in articles from the time, including one from The South Florida Sun-Sentinel.

Lancellotti recalled a meeting with major league players, with the major leaguers urging the minor leaguers not to play as replacements, and warning of consequences if they did play.

"I go 'You help us and we'll quit,'" Lancellotti recalled telling the union players. "But, you know what? You won't do it.'"

They wouldn't, Lancellotti recalled telling them, because they were too greedy.

Having his say, Lancellotti stuck around until the strike ended and he returned to Buffalo and his baseball school. Just to go to spring training, he'd had to find someone else to run it while he was gone. With that going, he didn't feel he had to try and stay.

The hallway leading to Lancellotti's baseball school.

In the years since, Lancellotti has continued with his baseball school, located on Broadway in Depew, NY. The indoor facility is located just south of an Amtrak station and near the Buffalo airport.

Among his students have been his two children Joe and Katie. Joe, 24, played baseball in high school and now works in engineering in Brooklyn. His daughter, Katie, 20, is a junior at Canisius, there on a softball scholarship. He still gets calls from her for advice, especially after a bad game.

As the interview began on this recent Sunday, the baseball school was silent. As it ended, a group of young players had arrived, along with them the sounds of bats hitting balls.

"The biggest thing I bring is the things that I went through," Lancellotti said of teaching his many students over the years. "When you can tell somebody how hard something is, how much dedication you need, ... all the little stuff that is kind of fun to relay back because you lived it.

"It's not something that I've thought about, or thought 'this is how it goes,' " Lancellotti said. "But I actually lived it.

"When you can pass stuff on like that to people, I think it can only help."

Part 1: Christmas Morning | Part 2: Moving Up
Part 3: Stunned | Part 4: Lived It | Postscript: How Cool It Was

Further Reading:
Reading Eagle, Aug. 2, 1979: Buffalo Visit; Three Losses
Gettysburg Times, Associated Press, July 23, 1980: Lancellotti Sparks Buffalo
New York Times, April 7, 1992: Life in the Minors: No Fame or Fortune, Only Diamonds in 7 Countries
South Florida Sun-Sentinel, Feb. 25, 1995: Marlins' Lancellotti Rips Union
Remembering Japanese Baseball: An Oral history of the game, Robert K. Fitts: Rick Lancellotti

Chris Beasley preferred basketball, made majors in baseball

Chris Beasley attended Arizona State on a joint baseball-basketball scholarship. But he preferred basketball, according to The Los Angeles Times.

And when he was passed over in the NBA draft, he reluctantly turned to baseball. He also quickly exceeded expectations, Beasley's manager at single-A Waterloo told The Times in July 1985.

"What's even better," Swisher told The Times, "is that he has developed a good approach to pitching. He has a good sense of what it takes to beat a batter, and that's something some pitchers never learn. He's been pitching for only a couple of years and has it already, and that's why I think he'll make it to the big leagues."

Beasley did make the majors, six years later. His major league career would end that same year, after pitching in a total of 22 games.

At Arizona State, he'd won first-team Pac 10 Conference All Star honors in basketball. With the baseball team, Beasley pitched well enough to be selected by the Indians in the ninth round of the 1984 baseball draft.

Sent to short-season Batavia, Beasley went 6-5, with a 4.01 ERA. At Waterloo in 1985, Beasley's ERA improved to 3.30, earning a promotion to AA Waterbury. He returned to Waterbury for 1986, going 8-9, with a 3.82 ERA. In May 1986, Beasley pitched seven innings of two-hit ball.

That August, Beasley took a three-hit shutout into the ninth against Albany, according to The Schenectady Gazette. "He pitched an outstanding game," Waterbury Manager Orlando Gomez told The Gazette.

Beasley, however, fell off in 1987. Remaining in AA, Beasley went 2-6, with his ERA topping 6. The Indians released him in June. He finished out the season with the Mariners system and isn't recorded as playing in 1988.

For 1989 though, Beasley signed on with the Angels, the team that would bring him to the majors. He split that year between single-A Palm Springs and AA Midland. He moved up to AAA Edmonton for 1990, returning there in 1991.

He made his debut with California July 20, 1991. He got into 22 games in relief, posting a 3.38 ERA. He got his only loss Aug. 12, giving up a home run to Kent Hrbek.

Beasley returned for one more season, 1992. He also lasted late into spring training, before being sent back to AAA. He pitched in 25 games at Edmonton, going 2-1 and posting a 4.05 ERA, ending his career.

• Los Angeles Times, July 4, 1985: Beasley Moves From One Dream To Another
• Schenectady Gazette, Aug. 28, 1986: A-C Yankees Lose, Playoff Hopes Fade

More: The 1990 Edmonton Trappers

1990 CMC Tally
Cards Featured: 402/880 - 45.7%
Players/Coaches Featured: 409
Made the Majors: 275 - 67%
Never Made the Majors:134-33%
5+ Seasons in the Majors: 114
10+ Seasons in the Minors: 103

G21D Interview Part 3: Stunned

Rick Lancellotti gestures to a photo from his first major league hit at his baseball school outside Buffalo. That hit came two weeks before a game-saving catch and subsequent dressing-down by his Hall of Fame manager.

Part 1: Christmas Morning | Part 2: Moving Up
Part 3: Stunned | Part 4: Lived It | Postscript: How Cool It Was

Rick Lancellotti took off running. Ron Oester had just hit one to the wall. Lancellotti needed to catch it.

It was the bottom of the sixth, two outs, two Reds were on and the Padres were up by three.

"I would have gone through the wall to catch that ball," Lancellotti recalled recently to The Greatest 21 Days, "I got to catch the ball. Because I'm a rookie, I got to do things. I can't just back off."

This was Sept. 8, Lancellotti's eighth major league start, ninth big league appearance overall. He'd been brought up from the minors for the first time.

It was also his latest chance to impress the Padres Hall of Fame Manager Dick Williams.

Lancellotti dove, slamming into the wall. Stunned and injured, Lancellotti stayed down. It wasn't until the umpire came out, demanding to see the ball, Lancellotti recalled, that he realized he had, in fact, caught it. Inning over.

It was a catch The Los Angeles Times called "one of the defensive plays of the season." It was also one The Times quoted the gruff manager as calling "a game saver." The Padres went on to win the game.

Williams was a manager players knew was tough going in, Lancellotti recalled. Praise was rare. Players also knew to simply keep their distance.

But with the praise from his Williams, also came instructions. Lancellotti badly injured his shoulder on the play. The instructions: Make sure to be there the next day for treatment.

Lancellotti was there. But he was late.

Staying with his wife, they got into the car at the hotel an hour before the appointment for what was supposed to be a 20-minute drive. Lancellotti knew Williams didn't tollerate players being late. Construction, however, turned that short drive into over an hour.

They didn't make it to the treatment session until 2:15 p.m. The appointment was at 2.

Williams was there waiting. He also wouldn't accept Lancellotti's explanation. As far as Williams was concerned, Lancellotti recalled, the only way Lancellotti should have been late was if he were dead.

Lancellotti was stunned.

Again.

"I'm like 'do you think I would do this on purpose?'" Lancellotti recalled. "'I've been here three weeks, you know, I wouldn't even dream of doing this on purpose. I got stuck in traffic.'"

By the time the managerial dressing down was done, it was clear: Lancellotti no longer had a future with the Padres, as long as Williams was manager.

"You talk about the life just going right out of you," Lancellotti recalled.

Despite his game-saving catch, Lancellotti didn't start for the Padres again. Williams still used him in pinch-hitting roles, with Lancellotti ending up with 39 at bats and just seven hits.

But, days after the season concluded, the newly-minted first baseman who'd debuted just a month after Tony Gwynn, was sent to the Expos.

His stay with the Expos was brief in 1983. After another brief stint in the Rangers, Lancellotti was back with the Padres. But he was at AAA.

In 1984, the year the Padres went on to the World Series, Lancellotti hit .287 with 29 home runs. He also didn't get called back up.

Lancellotti split 1985 between the Mets and the Giants systems, both at AAA. But was the Giants who would call Lancellotti back to the majors, in 1986. He got one at bat in June, then came back in September.

A photo from the wall of Lancellotti's baseball school, Lancellotti in 1986 as a San Francisco Giant.

It was in September that Lancellotti got his only two major league home runs, Sept. 21 and Sept. 23. The bat he used to hit his first home run is among those on display at his baseball school.

By that time, Japan was after him, wanting him to sign there, and wanting to pay him good money to do so.

But Lancellotti turned them down, multiple times.

"I want to play in the big leagues. That's what I was born to do," Lancellotti said of his decision then. "I wasn't born to go to Japan. I was born to hopefuly some day play in the big leagues. And here I am, and now you want me to go to Japan?"

By the end of the year, though, he was confused. He didn't care about the money. But he also wanted at least some assurances about 1987.

Speaking to Giants Manager Roger Craig, Craig told Lancellotti he believed he could hit and Craig needed a power guy. Then came the "but." But, Lancellotti needed to talk to the team president, Al Rosen. Craig had his opinion, but it wasn't his decision.

Rosen believed Lancellotti might hit 40 home runs, if left alone for a year. Lancellotti responded by guarenteeing 25. If he didn't, he'd play for a dollar. "That's how confident I am in what I do, because it's all I do," Lancellotti recalled, lowering his voice, "it's all I've ever done."

Rosen responded with the uncertainties of baseball in October: there are trades, there's free agency, there's the winter between then and the spring. There were no guarantees. He couldn't.

That deal in Japan, Lancellotti recalled Rosen saying, wasn't that bad.

"As soon as he said that, I'm like, aw, man, he's telling me to go to Japan," Lancellotti said. "There it is, without saying 'go,' he's telling me to go."

Lancellotti went, signing with the Hiroshima Toyo Carp. He would continue hitting home runs, taking the league crown in 1987 with 39. A bat commemorating that fete is also at his baseball school.

But, his decision to go to Japan, was a decision he would come to regret.

Part 1: Christmas Morning | Part 2: Moving Up
Part 3: Stunned | Part 4: Lived It | Postscript: How Cool It Was

Bob Zupcic, Good Opportunity - 880

Recruited by his old hitting instructor Roger LaFrancois, Bob Zupcic first turned down, then accepted the job as player/coach for the independent Bangor Blue Ox in May 1997, according to The Bangor Daily News.

"This is a good opportunity for me. We love the New England area. I still love the game," Zupcic told The Daily News. "I still feel I can play (in the major leagues). I want to help the team win, keep my foot in the door, and see what happens."

Zupcic was entering his 11th season as a player in a career where he spent parts of four of those seasons in the majors. His last time there came in 1994. He didn't get back.

Zupcic's career began in 1987, selected by the Red Sox in the first round of the draft out of Oral Roberts. He played that year at short-season Elmira, hitting .303.

He made AA New Britain in 1989 and AAA Pawtucket that same year. He got two hits and four RBIs in an August game at New Britain.

Zupcic debuted in Boston in September 1991, getting into 18 games and hitting .160. He hit his first home run in a late September contest, and was promptly met by a fan on the base paths.

"He was there," Zupcic told The New York Times after the game, "so I gave him a high-five."

In 1992, Zupcic became a regular, getting into 124 games and hitting .276. That May, Zupcic made a diving catch The Hartford Courant called sensational, helping the Red Sox preserve a 6-5.

"I had a good jump and thought I could get it without diving," Zupcic told The Courant. "But the ball was hit so hard that I had to leave my feet. It was a reaction play. I didn't have time to think."

He it his first major league grand slam in late June, against Detroit, to win the game. In September, Zupcic was winning a game in the 15th inning with a squeeze bunt.

"Sure, it's nice to be a hero with a base hit or the home run, but Butch knows I can bunt real well," Zupcic told The Associated Press, referring to Red Sox Manager Butch Hobson.

In 1993, Zupcic got into even more games, 141 games, hitting .241. In late May, it was a Zupcic double that helped Boston to a win in the 10th inning.

He played four more games for the Red Sox in early 1994, before being taken off waivers by the White Sox. He made it to Chicago by mid-May.

"I think I have the capability of driving the ball," Zupcic told The Chicago Tribune after getting called up to the White Sox. "I haven't really proven it in the big leagues."

Zupcic, however, got just 32 games to show that. He hit one home run, bringing his career total in 319 games to seven.

Zupcic then returned to the minors, playing in four different systems before signing with Bangor in 1997. He played just 25 games that year with the independent Blue Ox. By July, he retired.

"The last two years have been a struggle as far as trying to get consistent with my play," Zupcic told The Daily News after his decision. Back problems helped him decide to end it. "With my back this year, I couldn't even hit 75 mile-an-hour fastballs."

• New York Times, Sept. 22, 1991: Yank Play Dead for Red Sox
• Hartford Courant, May 21, 1992: Burks Finishes Mariners With Grand Slam
• Toledo Blade, Associated Press, July 1, 1992: Rookie slams Henneman in the bottom of ninth, Part 2
• Dubuque Telegraph-Herald, Associated Press, Sept. 17, 1992: Brewers fall in 15th, 2-1
• Chicago Tribune, May 16, 1994: Latest Callup Zupcic A Big Man, Though Stats Aren't
• Bangor Daily News, May 13, 1997: Zupcic to join Blue Ox, Part 2
• Bangor Daily News, July 21, 1997: Zupcic content to hang up glove

1990 CMC Tally
Cards Featured: 401/880 - 45.6%
Players/Coaches Featured: 408
Made the Majors: 274 - 67%
Never Made the Majors:134-33%
5+ Seasons in the Majors: 114
10+ Seasons in the Minors: 103

G21D Interview Part 2: Moving Up

Rick Lancellotti laughs as he tells a story from his playing days at his Buffalo School of Baseball.

Part 1: Christmas Morning | Part 2: Moving Up
Part 3: Stunned | Part 4: Lived It | Postscript: How Cool It Was

Drafted by the Pirates in the 11th round of the 1977 draft, it wasn't until 1979 that Lancellotti started showing exactly what he could do.

He played his first two seasons at single-A Charleston and Single-A Salem, hitting 24 home runs between them.

But, in 1979 at AA Buffalo, Lancellotti hit a staggering 41, batted .287 and won the league MVP. Part of the jump was attributed to Buffalo's old War Memorial Stadium.

Despite his success, though, Lancellotti stayed there, in Buffalo, as the big-league Pirates went on to win the World Series.

And Lancellotti was fine with that. As long as he was making progress.

"I felt that I was moving up the ladder," Lancellotti recalled to The Greatest 21 Days recently in a sit-down interview. "What you're trying to do in pro ball is just go one step at a time. If you jump steps, that's great. As long as you can move up the ladder.

"Did I wish I was in AAA? Yeah. But you know what? I was fine, I was OK. I was doing my thing. I was having a good year. Life was good for that year."

Also, he noted, with Willie Stargell, Dave Parker, Bill Madlock, and Omar Moreno, Rick Lancellotti, along with anyone else, isn't going anywhere.

He did move up. He hit AAA Portland in 1980. Then, after a trade, hit the majors with San Diego in August 1982.

That year in Buffalo was also important for Lancellotti for another reason. That was the year he met his wife, Debbie. He kept coming back to Buffalo, then finally made his home in his wife's hometown, running Rick Lancellotti's Buffalo School of Baseball outside the city since 1993. They have two grown children, Joe, 24, and Katie, 20.

Born in Rhode Island, Lancellotti and his family moved around New England growing up, as his father moved up in the insurance industry. The Lancellottis lived in Vermont, then New Hampshire. For college, the destination was New Jersey and Glassboro State, now Rowan University.
Photo of Lancellotti with AAA Portland in 1980 on display at Lancellotti's baseball school. The caption reads "1980 Portland, Or., Broken Nose"

It was out of Glassboro that the Pittsburgh Pirates selected Lancellotti the draft. After his breakout year in 1979, Lancellotti moved to AAA Portland for 1980. But he hit just .221 with 7 home runs in 61 games and was shipped back to Buffalo.

In 30 games back there, Lancellotti did better, hitting .262 with 10 home runs. The Pirates then traded him, to the Padres. He finished out the season at AA Amarillo, hitting .380.

Hawaii Islanders pennant from 1981 above the door at Rick Lancellotti's Buffalo School of Baseball

He spent 1981 completely at AAA Hawaii, then Hawaii again for 1982. It wasn't until August 1982 that he finally made the majors.

"It's amazing with baseball," Lancellotti said when asked if he was frustrated by how long it took to make the majors, "it's such a great game, it's so much fun to play when you're little ... and then, as you get older and you start getting into the pro ranks, you realize it's not so fun, it's not so great. It becomes a very cold-blooded game.

"If you don't do good, you're out. They have no problem canning you. You can't afford to do bad."

The frustration level, he said, does mount. Friends get traded, they get released, sent home.

"Your team becomes very, very close, because it's like you guys against the world," Lancellotti said. "You're not making any money and you're all after the same thing and your battling."

"It's so hard to go to that next level and you know that that whole team is not going to go up," Lancellotti continued later. "You not only feel bad for yourself, you feel bad for them. And you're fighting demons like left and right, you're fighting them off and you've got to keep plugging away."

"You can't afford to have a bad week," Lancellotti said. "You can have a bad game once in a while, but don't you have a bad week. Then all of a sudden your name starts coming up in trade rumors, release rumors. And it starts to wear on you pretty good."

"That's only after three or four years," Lancellotti said, "after 15..."

After 15 years, Lancellotti had gone through 15 seasons, played in Japan and played in 36 major league games.

In the end, it was his work in the minors that got him noticed, by Bob Ryan, of the Boston Globe. Lancellotti had continued hitting homers, though not at the pace of that 1979 campaign. And he kept hitting home runs.

By the time he was done in 1991, he was credited with 276, then cited by Ryan as the career record for minor leaguers. Lancellotti recalled Ryan likening Lancellotti to the fictional Crash Davis of Bull Durham.*

A sampling of newspaper articles on display at Lancellotti's baseball school

That was in June 1990. And, all of a sudden, news outlets all over were calling him. When The Today Show called, he recalled. At first he didn't believe it was really them. But it was.

"People would say 'Rick, you've got 200 home runs,' and I'm like, 'yeah, great, they're all in the minor leagues. What the hell good are they?'"

Lancellotti knew nothing about the minor league home run mark, until then. He didn't even think about it.

That wasn't the goal.

"Every home run in the minor leagues, to me, at some point was one more to get out of it," Lancellotti said. "That's how I looked at it. You know, maybe that's the one to get me out of here. Maybe somebody finally says, 'you know what? enough of this shit. Let's get this guy up in the big leagues and see if he can hit them up there."

Helping keep Lancellotti in the minors to hit those home runs, Lancellotti credited a construction-slowed drive to Cincinnati's Riverfront Stadium during his first stint in the majors in September 1982 - and the life-draining dressing down by his Hall of Fame manager Dick Williams.

Part 1: Christmas Morning | Part 2: Moving Up
Part 3: Stunned | Part 4: Lived It | Postscript: How Cool It Was

*Correction August 2015: Rick Lancellotti was cited as the minor league home run record holder by Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan, however, he did not hold the actual record. The actual minor league record was held by Buzz Artlett, who hit 432 in a career that ended in 1937.

Austin Manahan, Struggled A Bit - 850

Read the October 2014 interview: Austin Manahan, His Shot

Austin Manahan's first professional season hadn't gone as planned. He'd hit just .181 at rookie league Princeton, striking out 102 times. He also had 32 errors, according to The Pittsburgh Press.

But the first-round pick also came to the Pirates straight out of high school and Pirates minor league hitting instructor Hal McRae told The Press Manahan had started higher than he should have.

"If you're in over your head," McRae told The Press in spring 1989, "it doesn't matter. You're sort of in a free fall. You have to just throw that out. Once you start trying to catch up you're not the same hitter any more. It's another guy up there with your number on his back. The party's over."

Taken by the Pirates as the 13th overall pick in the 1988 draft with the highest of hopes, Manahan never did get out of that free fall. He went on to a professional career that spanned eight seasons, but he never made it above AA.

The Pirates, though, still believed in that spring of 1989 that Manahan could pull out of it and become the player they projected he'd be at the 1988 draft table.

By their calculations, Manahan was the fifth best player available in the draft, according to The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette. They got him at 13, taking him out of Horizon High in Arizona. Others, however, had him in the second round.

"We were going Manahan all the way," Pirates scouting director Elmer Gray told The Pittsburgh Post-Gazette after the draft, "If he was there."

Sent to rookie league Princeton, Manahan got off to a slow start. He was already talking about that slow start in early July, just over a month after he was selected.

"I knew I'd be playing in a small town, that it would be tough and that I'd struggle," Manahan told The Associated Press. "And I have."

Those struggles continued into 1989, starting at extended spring training, then playing back at Princeton, and moving to short-season Welland. He hit .219 on the year.

That average, however, picked up in 1990, playing at single-A Augusta and high-A Salem, hitting .295 between them and hitting 11 home runs.

At the close of 1990, there was talk that the Pirates would send Manahan to the Phillies to complete an earlier deal. In tamping down the speculation, Pirates GM Larry Doughty called Manahan one of the Pirates' "most prized prospects."

But, returning to high-A Salem for 1991, Manahan's average returned to its previous levels. He hit just .211. He moved up to AA Carolina for 1992, doing little better. He hit .221, his final year with the Pirates system.

After going through the Expos and Padres systems, Manahan landed with the Cubs at AA Orlando in 1994. He hit .289 in 55 games there, returning for 1995.

In his final year as a player, Manahan hit just .212. But, in August, he hit the game-winning home run as Orlando beat Knoxville.

"It's great that he came through," Orlando Manager Bruce Kimm told The Orlando Sentinel of Manahan after the game. "He has struggled a bit this year, but the one thing he hasn't lost is his attitude."

Read the October 2014 interview: Austin Manahan, His Shot

• Pittsburgh Post-Gazette, June 2, 1989: Bucs had top pick high on their most-wanted list
• Junction City Daily Union, Associated Press, July 10, 1989: Pirates' draft pick feels culture shock
• Beaver County Times, wire services, Sept. 14, 1990: Manahan will stay a Buc
• Pittsburgh Press, July 25, 1988: Top draft choice struggles, but Pirates aren't worried
• Pittsburgh Press, March 22, 1989: Pirates' draft choices aren't prime
• Orlando Sentinel, Aug. 12, 1995: Orlando Wins 5th In A Row

1990 CMC Tally
Cards Featured: 401/880 - 45.6%
Players/Coaches Featured: 408
Made the Majors: 274 - 67%
Never Made the Majors:134-33%
5+ Seasons in the Majors: 114
10+ Seasons in the Minors: 103

G21D Interview, Part 1: Christmas Morning

Rick Lancellotti stands next to a row of bats at his baseball academy. Several of the bats mark milestones from his 17-season career

Part 1: Christmas Morning | Part 2: Moving Up
Part 3: Stunned | Part 4: Lived It | Postscript: How Cool It Was

DEPEW, NY - Rick Lancellotti remembers it vividly. It was August 1982 and his AAA manager casually told Lancellotti he wasn't going to make 100 RBIs on the year.

Already at 95, there was no way Lancellotti wouldn't make 100, Lancellotti responded. Unless there was some intervention by his manager, Doug Rader.

"I go, 'Why, are you going to hold everybody up at third?' " Lancellotti recalled recently. "He goes 'no, I'm gonna send you to the big leagues."

His teammates immediately rushed him, jumping on him and congratulating him. They knew how hard it was to get that call, Lancellotti said.

"It's like the biggest thrill you can imagine," Lancellotti told The Greatest 21 Days in an sit-down interview at his baseball school outside Buffalo. "It's like being 5 years old, coming down the stairs for Christmas, you're head's coming off your body."

Lancellotti was fortunate enough to see time in three major league seasons, his first marked his first major league hit and RBIs, by a game-saving catch, and then then a life-draining dressing-down by his Hall of Fame manager.

Beyond that first big league season, Lancellotti's career would take multiple turns, some he would later regret. Others he would not regret one bit.

Lancellotti recounted many of those turns to The Greatest 21 Days at his Buffalo School of Baseball. He has taught the game there since 1993, the year after his retirement from baseball.

At the school, Lancellotti works with young players, passing along the lessons he learned in his 17 years as a player. Many of the key moments of that career are displayed on the baseball school's walls in the form of bats, photographs and news articles and a map.

The map on the school wall. "Where pro ball took me during 17 years," it reads. Not pictured are Japan, Italy, Mexico, Columbia and Venezuela.

Lancellotti's playing days took him through such varying places as Charleston, S.C., and Salem, Va., to Hawaii, Las Vegas and Pawtucket, where he made it into the 1990 CMC set, his No. 24 bat laying over his left shoulder on the card photo.

It also took him to Japan and Italy, the Japan choice he would come to regret.

Wherever he went, he hit home runs, so many that he was told he got a record, one that he didn't want.*

Then, in spring 1995, Lancellotti used the strike and replacement ball to speak his mind to a major league union he felt didn't care about those like himself who put their time in in the minor leagues and had little to show for it when it was all over.

But in August 1982, Lancellotti was going to the big leagues.

He was told of his call up as the Islanders visited Vancouver, and before the game. The call-up meant Lancellotti wasn't playing that night. Lancellotti wanted to play, but Rader kept him out, guarding against injury to his young hitter.

The next morning, Lancellotti was on his way to San Diego. He had already just flown in to Vancouver from Hawaii. Now, after another series of flights, he was in Southern California.

Getting to the clubhouse, he encountered Padres Manager Dick Williams. His new manager asked how he felt. After the endless flights, Lancellotti kept how he really felt to himself. He felt fine, he told Williams.

That was good enough for Williams, who relayed Lancellotti would play first base that night.

An outfielder by trade, Lancellotti had only played first base sporadically. He believes he wore out two coaches that afternoon, making them hit him ground balls to field.

In the lineup, his first at bat came that night, Aug. 27, 1982. In the on-deck circle, Lancellotti looked out at the major league crowd and tried to compose himself. He also worried, whatever he did, he didn't want to strike out.

It was his first at bat, the one everyone would be asking about. At the plate, facing the Cardinals' Jaoquin Andujar, Lancellotti struck out.

"I was screaming at myself, swearing at myself," Lancellotti said. "My teammates said 'it's only your first at-bat' and I'm like 'That's the problem.'"

He went 0-4 that night. His first hit, though, came two nights later, in his second game.

In the bottom of the third, Luis Salazar walked, loading the bases and bringing Lancellotti up.

After a Cardinal meeting on the mound, Lancellotti expected the ball away. It was what he'd always had trouble with.

But Lancellotti soon sent one to the wall, right between Lonnie Smith and Willie McGee. His first major league hit was a double. It also came with three RBIs.

"It was a rush," Lancellotti said, adding later, "It was so loud, you couldn't even hear yourself think."

The moment was captured in a photo displayed on his baseball school wall.

Lancellotti's helmet flew off rounding first. Padres first base coach Jack Krol picked it up and started to flip it to the bat boy. Then he realized the owner was still on second.

Lancellotti remembered Krol apologizing. Krol was so excited, he explained, he forgot Lancellotti was there.

Lancellotti responded, referencing just getting his first major league hit, "and you're the one who gets excited?" Lancellotti recalled saying. "I can't even breathe right now."

Lancellotti got to that point after six seasons in the minors, hitting 125 home runs in that span. Fourty-one of those came in one season, at AA Buffalo in 1979.

Part 1: Christmas Morning | Part 2: Moving Up
Part 3: Stunned | Part 4: Lived It | Postscript: How Cool It Was

*Correction August 2015: Rick Lancellotti was cited as the minor league home run record holder by Boston Globe columnist Bob Ryan, however, he did not hold the actual record.

Donnie Scott, Switch-Hitter - 137

Read the August 2014 interview: Donnie Scott, Down the Road

Donnie Scott had been preparing for this day since he was a kid, getting instruction from his father.

This was April 29, 1985, and Scott hit two home runs - one from each side of the plate.

"My dad taught me to switch hit when I was in Little League because he figured coaches would think a switch-hitting catcher was valuable," Scott told UPI after the game. "Coaches love switch-hitting catchers, and I figured learning to hit from both sides would only help me."

Whatever helped him, Scott ended up spending time in four major league seasons, his fourth coming six seasons after his third. He would go on to a long career as a minor league manager and coordinator.

Scott's professional career began in 1979, when the switch-hitting catcher was selected in the second round of the draft by the Rangers. He made AA Tulsa in 1981 and AAA Oklahoma City in 1983.

In September 1982, Scott's manager at Tulsa saw big things in his future, comparing him to Ranger catcher Jim Sundberg, according to The St. Petersburg Evening Independent. Scott heard the message.

"I'm about a year away," Scott told The Evening Independent. "They told me that. The door's starting to open. I can see a little crack of light.

They were right, Scott was a year away. He made Texas the next September, for two games. He returned for 81 more in 1984, including that two-home run game in April. His fete in that game was all the more impressive in that he hit just one more the rest of the year.

At the end of the year, Scott had a hand in a perfect game, on the losing end. Scott's Rangers lost to Mike Witt and the Angels 1-0, as Witt threw a perfect game. The winning run came in on a Scott passed ball.

Scott came back for another 80 games in 1985, but with Seattle. He was traded there for Orlando Mercado. Then came six seasons in the minors.

Scott split time between AA El Paso and AAA Denver, playing 1989 completely at Denver. But he didn't get called back up. For 1990, Scott signed with the Reds, spending the season at AAA Nashville.

In 1991, his final professional season, Scott got 10 more games in the majors, with Cincinnati. In 19 at bats, Scott got three hits.

It was also with the Reds that Scott started his post-playing career, managing at rookie-league Billings. He managed there for five seasons. He stayed with the Reds system each year through 2008 as a manager or a coordinator. In 2001, he signed on with single-A Dayton, managing there for three seasons, then returning in 2007 and 2008.

His time with the Reds system, however, ended in September 2008, when the Reds did not bring him back. That came after the infamous July brawl between Dayton and Peoria, where a Peoria pitcher hurled a ball into the stands, hitting a fan.

"I don't know if that had anything to do with it," Scott told The Hamilton Journal News after he was informed he wouldn't return. "I think they just wanted to make a change."

Read the August 2014 interview: Donnie Scott, Down the Road

• St. Petersburg Evening Independent, Sept. 1, 1982: Scott: Pro door opening for sandlot star
• Prescott Courier, UPI, April 30, 1985: Scott leads Mariners over Brewers
• Hamilton Journal News, Sept. 25, 2008: Scott not coming back to Dragons

1990 CMC Tally
Cards Featured: 401/880 - 45.6%
Players/Coaches Featured: 408
Made the Majors: 274 - 67%
Never Made the Majors:134-33%
5+ Seasons in the Majors: 114
10+ Seasons in the Minors: 103

Interview: Chance Pans Out

From the outside, Rick Lancellotti's Buffalo School of Baseball at New Era Park in Depew, NY

My wife and I went to Buffalo this past weekend. It was for my wife's sister's wedding. And, while I was up for the wedding, I was definitely up for the prospect of what it meant.

This wedding meant there was a chance at my fourth Greatest 21 Days interview. (It also meant congrats to my sister-in-law and her new husband.)

That interview chance panned out.

Former major leaguer Rick Lancellotti was kind enough Sunday to sit down for an interview, covering his 17-season professional career, and his post-playing days as an instructor.

Lancellotti has run his own baseball school, Rick Lancellotti's Buffalo School of Baseball, outside Buffalo since 1993.

I first learned of Lancellotti's existence in July, when the randomizer selected card No. 270. He also ended up being one of the more interesting players I've featured.

He played in Japan. He played in Italy. He once had the minor league home run record and didn't even know it. He also played in replacement ball, taking a stand for career minor leaguers.

He seemed like a really interesting guy, and someone who would have a lot of stories to tell.

I had actually tried to meet up with him back in October, when my wife and I were in Buffalo for a roller derby game. But Lancellotti was out of town. He did say to check back when we were back in town.

That opportunity came with the wedding. It was a tight timetable. The wedding was Saturday, the festivities and merriment taking all day. The weather was awful, too. It was cold and the wind made it tough to even walk outside. (My humor for the day was 'wasn't this supposed to be an outdoor wedding?')

But it was Saturday when Lancellotti and I finally connected. We met up the next day.

Talking to him on the phone, he asked how long I would need. I thought 20 minutes, maybe 30 tops. We ended up talking for an hour, relaying story after story from his playing days.

And the stories were great. My wife, who came in with me even enjoyed them.

Also, full disclosure: Along with the cool stories, I got a free hat out of the deal. Lancellotti had hats and T-shirts with his school logo on them for sale. I've been watching for CMC set member stuff, and I thought a hat would be cool.

When we were done, I asked if I could buy a hat. But he wouldn't hear of it. He wanted to give it to me. I tried to give him a check, but he wouldn't take it. Really cool.

So, with an hour's worth of stuff, cool stuff, I think I'm going to break it up into multiple posts then maybe put it all together later. The first installment should come tomorrow: Lancellotti's first call-up in 1982 and his first major league hit.

For now, you can check out my July feature on Lancellotti, Rick Lancellotti, Worth It

Or any of my three previous interviews:
-Jim Pankovits, 7/19/10
-Roger LaFrancois, 7/5/10
-Dann Bilardello, 7/2/10