DeCinces Showing He Can Catch On on His Own Merit

There have been 139 father-son combinations to play in the major leagues. And every offspring--from Jack Doscher, a pitcher with the Cubs in 1903 who was the first son of a former player to reach the majors, to Ken Griffey Jr.--has to face the inevitable question: How do you measure up to your dad’s career?

Tim DeCinces probably won’t have to worry about that for another couple of years.

DeCinces, the former Corona del Mar High and UCLA catcher, is in his second year (and first full season) of pro ball. He plays for the Class-A Delmarva (Md.) Shorebirds, a Baltimore Orioles’ affiliate in its second year of operation in the South Atlantic League. Baltimore is where his father, Doug, spent nine of his 15 major league seasons.

Doug DeCinces, who had a career average of .259 and hit 237 homers from 1973-87, also played for the Angels before finishing up in St. Louis.

Tim DeCinces’ career is off to a promising start. After hitting .297 in 39 games last year with the Rookie League Bluefield Orioles (despite missing three weeks because he reported late) DeCinces this year is batting .265 in 99 games for the Shorebirds, including nine home runs and 56 runs batted in.

But even with a new team in a new town, DeCinces, 23, has discovered his surname is instantly recognizable.

‘Oh yeah, I’ve had people come up to me saying they saw my father play,” DeCinces said. “Ever since I started playing ball I’ve heard that. It’s just something you get used to.”

What helps reduce the comparisons are the differences: DeCinces is a catcher; his father was a third baseman. Tim bats left-handed; Doug hit right-handed.

“I’ve always wanted to catch,” DeCinces said. “What attracted me to catching was the cerebral part. I love the intricacies of baseball--calling pitches and positioning the defense. The biggest thrill you can have as a catcher is when your pitcher throws a good game, in part because you have the ability to call the right pitch at the right time.

“One of the reasons I went to UCLA was because I could call pitches. Many colleges coaches call them all game, but Coach [Gary] Adams let us call the game until we proved otherwise. I spent four years calling games, and I think that gave me an edge on other guys who still have to learn how to do it.”

If Doug, now a real estate developer and sports agent, was concerned about the Orioles drafting Tim--which they did in the 17th round last year--the team laid those concerns to rest.

“The class the Orioles have,” Doug said, “they called before the draft to say they were interested in Tim but did not want him to feel pressured about having to follow me. They did not want him thinking he had to fill my shoes.

“I told them he grew up in an Orioles uniform, and that they would be his first choice. He has always had to live up to being his father’s son; but it has made him a better player.”

DeCinces is enduring other growing pains, however, including bone-wearying travel by bus, facing better competition and trying to find ways to stand out to the Orioles’ front office.

But he believes his father, who, because of his career, wasn’t always there to see him grow up, did everything he could to prepare him for his present journey.

“I haven’t been disillusioned,” DeCinces said. “My strength is having been around the game most of my life. I soaked up a lot. I have an understanding of how to play.

“And I do have a good relationship with my dad. He took the time to be with me whenever he was there, and I understood when he wasn’t there. I appreciate what he’s done for me.”

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Dann Howitt finds himself on the opposite end of the baseball spectrum from Tim DeCinces.

Howitt, a former Cal State Fullerton standout, signed his first professional contract with Oakland in 1986 at 22. He has spent the past 11 seasons trying to catch on permanently with a major league team, getting opportunities with Oakland, Seattle and the Chicago White Sox.

Howitt would like to be more than the answer to a baseball trivia question. He was the last player to get a hit off Nolan Ryan, belting a grand slam on Sept. 22, 1993, while playing for the Mariners.

But the majority of Howitt’s highlights have come in places such as Modesto, Tacoma, Nashville, Buffalo, Louisville and Colorado Springs, where he presently toils for the Sky Sox, the Rockies’ triple-A affiliate, after signing a free-agent contract in January.

It has been a good year for the 6-foot-6, 215-pound Howitt. He’s batting .338, with 14 home runs and 61 RBIs. He’s played at first base and in all three outfield positions.

Yet, at 33, even Howitt acknowledges he’s beyond the “prospect” stage of his career and has no guarantees he’ll ever get another shot in the majors.

So what keeps his dream alive?

Howitt likes to think his time has not yet arrived, rather than believe his time has passed.

“It has been a dream of mine to go to Japan,” he said. “The way I see it, there will be [opportunities] across both leagues with expansion. And the new leagues overseas will open things up. With the time I’ve put in and my experience, I can make a little money.”

Ever since seeing his first game at Tiger Stadium while growing up in Michigan, baseball is all Howitt has wanted to do. “And that’s not easy when your family is Canadian and hockey is the national game there,” said Howitt, chuckling.

In his brief major league trials, Howitt has been teammates with some of baseball’s best, including Reggie Jackson, Griffey Jr., Harold Baines (“the best left-handed hitter I’ve played with,” he says) and Frank Thomas.

Yet, despite flashing some impressive power credentials--in 1989, with double-A Huntsville, Ala., he slugged 26 homers and drove in 111 runs, and in 1993 he had 21 homers and 77 RBIs for triple-A Calgary--Howitt has never been able to last more than 32 games on a major league team.

“If you love what you are doing, the motivation will be there,” said Howitt. “When it stops being fun, I’ll stop playing.”

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This week in minor league history:

Aug. 5, 1939--At a Celebration of Baseball Day at the Golden Gate Exposition, Joe Sprinz, veteran catcher for the San Francisco Seals of the Pacific Coast League, suffered a compound jaw fracture, the loss of eight teeth and cuts to both lips when he attempted to catch a ball dropped 800 feet from a blimp.

Aug. 5, 1966--Reggie Jackson, playing for Modesto in the California League, hit three home runs in a game against Reno.

Aug. 7, 1956--The then-largest crowd in minor league history, 57,713, saw 50-year-old Satchel Paige of Miami, Fla., of the International League, beat Columbus (Ohio) in a game played in the Orange Bowl in Miami.

Aug. 11, 1940--Pitcher Stan Musial of Daytona Beach in the Florida State League landed on his left shoulder when making a shoestring catch in center, which he played when he wasn’t pitching. The injury ended the 19-year-old’s pitching career, but he became a Hall of Fame outfielder with the St. Louis Cardinals.

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DOWN on the FARM

A team-by-team look at the Angels’ minor league affiliates:

Boise Hawks

Boise, Ida.

Location: Boise, the largest city in Idaho

Club established: 1975

Angel affiliation: Short Class-A team in the Northwest League

Ownership: William L. Pereira, Jr. is the principal owner of Diamond Sports, which owns the Hawks. Diamond Sports also owns Sioux City in the Northern League, El Paso in the Texas League, Idaho Sneakers of World Team Tennis and the Idaho Steelheads of the West Coast Hockey League.

Manager: Tom Kotchman has led Boise to five division titles and four Northwest League championships and was league’s manager of the year in 1992. He has been a manager in the Angels’ organization since 1984, at Redwood, Palm Springs and Edmonton. Kotchman was the California League’s manager of the year in 1984 and ’86. He also has managed in the Detroit Tiger and Boston Red Sox organizations. Kotchman attended Georgia Southern and played in the Cincinnati Reds’ organization. He was named a Northwest League All-Star in 1977, along with Ozzie Smith.

Top current prospects: Ryan Cummings, P, Georgia Southern University; Matt Wise, P, Cal State Fullerton

Most famous alumni: Rickey Henderson, who hit .336 and stole 29 bases 1976, his first professional season, when the Hawks were affiliated with the Oakland A’s

Home stadium: Hawks Memorial Stadium, built in 1989, seats 4,800. The Hawks are one of the few minor league teams that owns its stadium.

Boise baseball history: Professional baseball, in various forms, goes back to 1939. The Braves had a farm team there in the 1940s and a weak-hitting catcher, Bob Uecker, played for the Boise team. More recently, the Boise A’s were founded in 1975 as a Class-A team for the Oakland A’s. The Boise Buckskins were an independent team in 1978 and then folded. Diamond Sports bought the Tri-City (Wash.) team in 1987 and moved it to Boise. The Hawks were an independent team until becoming an Angel affiliate in 1990.

Boise is famous for: J.R. Simplot Company, which supplies most of the potatoes for McDonald’s french fries.

Source: Boise Hawks