clarinews@clarinet.com (FREDERICK WATERMAN, UPI Sports Writer) (01/19/90)
_U_P_I_ _S_p_o_r_t_s_F_e_a_t_u_r_e --- WEST PALM BEACH, FLA. (UPI) -- For baseball fans, a seniors league boxscore reads like a combined Hall of Fame ballot and waiver-wire listing. For the players, every roster contains old friends and memories. The inaugural season of the professional over-35 league has been a success with the players, if not at the gate. Attendance for the eight-team league has averaged less than 1,000 per game during the three-month season, which ends the first week of February. The players, back in the world they trained for, lived in and left, are on the field again with old adversaries and teammates. ``I guess you could call it a reunion,'' said former San Diego and Cleveland pitcher Juan Eichelberger, now 36 and a member of the West Palm Beach Tropics. When an athlete is cut for the last time, he loses the recognition which in the United States accompanies the professional athlete. For these former major-leaguers, Senior Professional Baseball has restored, temporarily, some of that lost aura. ``I get a personal pleasure just by coming out the clubhouse door and seeing the people there, waiting for us,'' said pitcher Ray Burris, 39, who played for seven major-league teams. ``One day I'll be too old to come to a ballpark, but now people still know the name on the back of my uniform. They'll say: `I remember you,' and it touches me. There's not one player who doesn't enjoy that. The recognition is nice.'' In the minors, every young player is looking for the chance to reach the big time. In the seniors, there are scattered hopes of returning to the big leagues once more. Outfielder Lee Lacy had a career batting average of .286 during his 16 years in the majors. Now 41, he is hitting over .310 in the seniors league and still believes he has major-league ability. ``They shouldn't run a guy out if he can still play,'' said Lacy, cut by Baltimore in the spring of 1988. ``Most of the players down here were forced out of the game. Fifty percent of the guys here could still play in the major leagues, but if an owner says you can't play, that's it. Guys here are still throwing 95 to 97 miles an hour. ``Playing here is so gratifying, there's a lot of self-satisfaction in showing that you can still play,'' said Lacy, who owns and operates a telephone answering service in Calabasas, Calif. ``This is great therapy.'' Asked why the older players were forced out, Lacy quickly responded: ``Because of our salaries. We went on strike and we fought for free agency. We made the owners negotiate at a fair level and there's still bitterness on their part. That was shown in the Collusion One ruling.'' Teammate Tito Landrum, 35 and an unabashed fan of his sport, said, ``Nobody wants that uniform to be taken off him.'' Despite playing 10 years in the majors, Landrum has been collecting the autographs of his seniors teammates and opponents. ``I've had Rollie Fingers, Mickey Rivers and all the other guys I really admire sign programs for me and balls and a bat,'' said Landrum, showing no embarrassment. ``These guys were great baseball players.'' Each team has a salary cap of $550,000 for the season and no player can make more than $15,000 per month. The minimum is $2,000 a month. Michelle Jaminet, a vice-president of the Tropics, said, ``The players' attitude seems to be: `Nobody's going to get rich, so let's just play ball and have a good time.'' While the salary is paltry by today's standards in baseball, some players need the money desperately. Fingers, who made millions, lost it all in bad investments and admittedly foolish businesses. The man who once spent $225,000 on Egyptian Arabian horses filed for bankruptcy in 1989. ``I'm starting over again,'' said Fingers, 43, who is playing in the seniors league to pay the rent on his home in California. And, despite having a 3.47 ERA in his first 23 innings here, he thinks about the long-shot possibility that a major-league team might ``take a chance'' on baseball's all-time leader in saves. The future of the seniors league is uncertain, but attendance has risen 20 percent in January. Jaminet says that with the growing involvement of corporate sponsors, there will ``definitely'' be a second season, although a few of the eight teams will switch to new cities and teams may be formed in Arizona.. Landrum said, ``We hoped it would be as successful as the seniors golf tour. The level of play and talent has proved this isn't like a beer league. It's more like double-A or triple-A baseball.'' ``But for me it's been great. I still have butterflies before every game and baseball's still so special to me -- that's why I play.'' _a_d_v_._ _f_o_r_ _w_e_e_k_e_n_d_ _r_e_l_e_a_s_e_ _J_a_n_._ _2_0_-_2_1