BY MARK DEROWITSCH Lincoln Journal Star

He carved out a reputation for himself as a setup man for the "Wild Thing" in Wrigley Field nearly 12 years ago, and would love one more taste of the major-league experience.

Yet at the same time Les Lancaster realizes he has a better chance making a lasting impression on the Lincoln baseball scene than he does finishing his career in the big leagues.

So what if the Lincoln Saltdogs are cold hot dogs compared to the major league's succulent prime rib? Lancaster's happy to be part of Lincoln's first professional baseball team in 40 years, even if it's in the independent Northern League, far away from the awesome pristine chapels that are today's major-league stadiums.
And if it so happens that Lancaster spends his entire summer in Nebraska, he's OK with that.

"It's just good to be able to put on a uniform every day," he said. "That's the main thing - keep it going."

Lancaster will button up the Saltdogs' home jersey for the first time today, then will trot out to the mound to christen Lincoln's new baseball stadium, Haymarket Park. Lancaster is the starting pitcher for the Saltdogs in their home opener today against Sioux City, and he's scheduled to throw out the first real pitch at 7:05 p.m., marking the return of pro baseball to the capital city since the end of the 1961 season.
Last February, when Saltdogs Manager Kash Beauchamp convinced Lancaster to give up his job as manager of the Adirondack Lumberjacks of the Northern League East to pitch full time in Lincoln, Lancaster agreed partly because he had a more lofty goal in mind.

Lincoln is part of Lancaster's baseball odyssey because he still thinks he has something to offer a big league organization.

"If I didn't think I'd have a chance I wouldn't pitch," he said. "You never know, somebody could be in the stands and it just happens they had a breakdown in their organization and they need somebody. I'm hoping to get that opportunity."

It was 1987 when the Chicago Cubs gave Lancaster his first chance, but it wasn't until 1989 when the right-hander fully took advantage of it. After opening the year in Class AAA Iowa, Lancaster went on to have a season most pitchers dream about. Used primarily as a set-up man for closer Mitch Williams, Lancaster went 5-2 with a 1.36 earned-run average. He also saved eight games and began his Cubs stint with 30 2/3 innings without giving up an earned run.

Better yet, Chicago won the National League East title and earned a spot in the League Championship Series, eventually won by San Francisco. He pitched in one playoff game and at the end of the season was named to the NL All-Star team.
He lasted four more seasons in the majors and finished with a career record of 41-28. Lancaster then pitched in the minor leagues, in Taiwan and Italy before landing in the Northern League.

Lancaster admits his odds of catching on even with a team desperate for pitching are not great. He's 39 years old and the final year he spent in the majors came with St. Louis in 1993.

"It's going to be harder on me than anyone else, but hopefully my experience helps me get somebody interested," said Lancaster, who pitched collegiately at Dallas Baptist and the University of Arkansas.

Saltdogs pitching coach Tommy Greene doesn't buy it. He saw Lancaster get younger hitters out consistently last year - when he went 1-2 with a 2.45 ERA late in the season with the Lumberjacks - and believes he can do it at the highest level.
If he gets a chance.

"I don't care if you're over 40 or what. If you get people out, they'll notice," Greene said.
"I don't see why he can't make it. He's going to come out here and physically be able to do it. He's proved that. He loves to throw and he can throw every friggin' day."
The Saltdogs have only seen Lancaster throw one time when it counted. A groin injury suffered during spring training forced Lancaster to miss a scheduled start last weekend in Sioux City. He did appear in Lincoln's second game - a 12-2 win that was the first in team history - and struck out two of the four batters he faced and didn't give up a hit in one inning.

Beauchamp can't wait to see what Lancaster can do today.

"The way Les was throwing before he got hurt, watch out," he said. "He was looking really good - the best on the staff."

Lancaster also is set apart from the other Saltdogs in the clubhouse. Beauchamp considers Lancaster a player-coach, so he gets ready for games in the manager's office along with Greene and coach Andy Schroeder. Before the Saltdogs' opener at Sioux City last weekend, Lancaster sat back in his chair and offered up some advice to Beauchamp.

The rest of the team knows all about Lancaster's experience, both as a major-leaguer and as a manager that won the Northern League championship last season.
"They joke about me being old and such," he said. "And I guess I am old - I'm older than the manager. I can keep up with these young kids probably a little bit better than they anticipated."

He can't wait to prove it today, too.

From the Lincoln (NE) Journal Star. June 1, 2001

12/17/00

This is where it began, the series of events that Steve Thomas romantically calls ''destiny.''
This is Palmer Park, a complex of ballfields in Madison. In the midst of this off-season, a manicure is needed. The dirt of waterlogged infields has turned a deep copper. The outfield grass would tickle your ankles.
On this gray, late Friday afternoon, Steve Thomas and Les Lancaster are meeting here.
Again.
This is a spot of geographical convenience between Thomas's Huntsville home and the home of Lancaster, the former Chicago Cubs pitcher now living in Athens since his wife, Candice, was transferred to the area.
This is where they first met last April. It was either the 4th or 5th. They can't remember the date exactly. Destiny isn't always the most tidy historian.
Lancaster was the manager of the Adirondack Lumberjacks of the Northern League and was forming his team.
Thomas had seen in the newspaper a tiny mention of a Lumberjacks tryout. ''I never read that little section, but I just happened to go across it and I sat there and toyed with the idea of calling. I thought, 'Why not?' ''
He was 30. He had pitched briefly in the New York Mets system in his early 20s. Bitter over the politics of the game, Thomas quit. He spent a miserable series of years of ''what-ifs.'' Encouraged by family, he began to pitch again. He held a tryout with the Huntsville Stars and got more encouragement, but no offers.
So, as he drove toward Palmer Park last April, he knew well ''this would be my last gasp.''
Lancaster was waiting on one of the diamonds used by the 10-year-olds. He didn't know what to expect, but he has learned to expect little. It's part of the job, to keep your eyes constantly open on the remote chance you see some player who might be a prospect. What is it the woman said? ''Sometimes you've got to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince.''
Soon, a massive 6-foot-5, 240-plus-pound body extricated itself from a white Ford. He was wearing cutoff shorts and an old softball jersey from Decatur Chevron, with the sleeves cut off.
''I was thinking, 'Oh, gosh, what have I gotten myself into?' '' Lancaster says. He had little luck doing any homework on Thomas and was thinking, '' 'This is going to be like some softball type guy coming out.' And when he got out of the car, that's exactly what crossed my mind.''
Thomas began playing catch to warm up. Even then, Lancaster recalls, ''he had a little giddy-up pop.''
When Thomas began pitching for real, Lancaster knew he had found a prince. Or at least a closer. Thomas was flinging it 90 mph-plus. He didn't have a radar gun, ''but you see enough pitching, you have an idea,'' Lancaster says.
Virtually on the spot, Lancaster offered Thomas a job as the Lumberjacks' relief pitcher.
If he hadn't, ''I was getting ready to start looking for my softball buddies and start practicing,'' Thomas says.
Instead, he and a team full of new buddies won the league pennant. The Lumberjacks dedicated the season to Steve's brother, Mike, who died in midseason.

Steve Thomas plans to pitch for Winnipeg of the Northern League next season McCarter Thomas led the league in saves with 23. He may have led the league in abuse from opposing fans, with his ample physique and his agonizing habit of allowing the first baserunner he faced to reach base. But he was the last man standing on the mound when the season ended, closing out the championship game with a perfect ninth inning and a save.
Lancaster, the 38-year-old ex-Cub with a 41-28 major league record in seven seasons, came off the shelf to pitch a half-dozen games. He even pitched a complete game, six-hit shutout in the playoffs.
This is where they are now, at Palmer Park reuniting for a photograph. Thomas fishes a couple of props from his car. A baseball with a number 17 neatly written on it - he kept one from each save - and a huge black glove. ''That softball glove,'' Lancaster says, good-natured deprecation in his voice.
The same big softball glove Thomas wore to the tryout, wore all season with Adirondack . . . or would have worn all season with his softball buddies had destiny not stepped in.
Thomas and Lancaster are reuniting, but they will soon again go their separate ways.
Thomas has been acquired by Winnipeg, one of the high-rent Northern League clubs. He still holds out hope one of the major league clubs will sign him for their organizations.
Lancaster, who last pitched in the majors in 1995, has resigned from the Lumberjacks. He's working a construction job and campaigning to return to active duty as a player. There is no commodity so precious in baseball as talent and experience in a pitcher.
That is the thought that keeps Lancaster going.
Surely somebody has to take a chance on him. It would only be appropriate and a little bit of a payback, wouldn't it? Hasn't he taken a chance on other players? Hasn't he salvaged enough other careers that he can't trick destiny into dancing a little for himself?

(Aug 16, 1997 - 21:46 EDT) - The telephone beep interrupted Les Lancaster as he discussed life in the Big South League with the Tupelo Tornado -- and his hopes for a return to the majors.
"I've put in a number of calls to different organizations and I'm waiting for some phone calls back," the former Cubs, Cardinals and Tigers pitcher said. "In fact, this might be one of them now."
After a few seconds, Lancaster returned.
"Oh, that was one of my players," he said nonchalantly.
Hope would have to wait until the next call for the 35-year-old Lancaster, a pitcher, coach, assistant general manager and sales and marketing director for the Mississippi team.
Lancaster is not alone.
Be it Oil Can Boyd, Lee Guetterman or Bret Barberie, more than 40 former big leaguers are scattered throughout the lowest rung of pro baseball in the independent leagues. They spend much of their time hoping for a call that almost never comes.
"I had never really given serious consideration to what else I would do," said 1985 World Series hero Darryl Motley, in his second season with the Fargo-Moorhead (N.D.) RedHawks of the Northern League.
They grace the fields of leagues like the Big South, Heartland, Western, Texas-Louisiana, Prairie and Northeast.
There are players who made it to the postseason, like Lancaster, Motley, Boyd, Dwight Smith, Juan Berenguer and Charley Kerfeld.
There are one-time up-and-comers such as Barberie and Dave Fleming, and others like Randy Tomlin and Bob Zupcic, who bounced around the majors with moderate success. Some were in the majors as recently as last season, like Guetterman, Esteban Beltre and Jerry Goff.
Though their situations and locations vary, they are linked by the same thought: No matter how slim the chances, they might be back in the majors someday. After all, this is the route Darryl Strawberry took to resurrect his career with the New York Yankees.
And there's added reason for optimism. Fifty more major league jobs will be available next season with the addition of the expansion Tampa Bay Devil Rays and Arizona Diamondbacks.
But even if they don't make it back to the bigs, the players are bonded by the passion they share for the game.
"For me, playing baseball has always been like eating," said former New York Mets infielder Brian Giles, now 37 and playing for the Saskatoon (Saskatchewan) Stallions of the Prairie League.
"There's always going to be another day for it. It's part of my life. It always has been -- for three generations. The love for playing this game is still there for me."
For some, the reality of playing in an independent league, with no connection to a major league team, may be disheartening. To others, baseball is baseball.
"I could see where a player might be embarrassed to be playing in the independent leagues, but at every level, you still have to produce," Giles said.
Generally, the bus rides are long, the hotels are cheap, the salaries are low and the perks are rare.
In Tupelo, a monthly salary of $700 would be high, Lancaster said. That's one of the reasons many of the players on the Tornado save money by living with host families in Mississippi.
"At this level, you're going to find out what players really have in their hearts for this game," Lancaster said. "If they really want to play bad enough, they'll go through all the bus rides. With some teams, you don't even know if you'll get paid from paycheck to paycheck. It's more or less a gut check to see if you really want to play this game.
"But the guys that stick it out -- those are your true baseball players."
Lancaster, who also played in the Toronto and Cleveland organizations and briefly in Mexico before landing in the Big South last year, became interested in coaching. Even so, he yearns for one more shot at the big show.
"I still feel I have what it takes to pitch at that level, especially after watching some of the games," the right-hander said. "Some of the guys they're putting out there on the mound, my worst days are some of their good days."
Motley hit a key home run off John Tudor in Game 7 of the 1985 World Series for the champion Kansas City Royals. Three years later, he had trouble finding a place to play, and wound up with a few other major league organizations, as well as teams in Mexico and Japan.
"At the time it was just a scary thought to be without baseball," the 37-year-old outfielder said. "I told myself that if I got another chance to play, I would play as long as I could."
In 1992, Fleming went 17-10 for the Seattle Mariners and was an American League rookie of the year candidate. Two years later, the left-hander struggled and didn't realize his rotator cuff was slowly tearing.
Fleming was traded to Kansas City in 1995, released the following spring and had surgery. The 27-year-old took to his rehabilitation with a sense of urgency and recently joined the Waterbury (Conn.) Spirit of the Northeast League.
"I was out of the game for a year and missed the little things like shagging fly balls, hanging out with the guys, going to the park and being on the mound every fifth day," Fleming said. "As much as you respect and love the game, I think you probably don't realize how much you love it until you've been out of the game."
Giles has played baseball all over the world, including stops in New York, Chicago, Milwaukee, Seattle, Italy, Mexico and Taiwan. He's currently a player-coach in Saskatoon.
"I think my calling is teaching the game and playing the game," Giles said. "And my playing days are just about over, but it's the love of the game that keeps me going. There's still lots of money to be made playing overseas, but I'm not in it for the money anymore."
The lessons learned at this level of baseball are about heart, hope and dedication.
"You can't take anything for granted," Lancaster said. "If getting back to the major leagues is a dream a player has, well, these independent leagues are a stepping stone. Maybe next year, you'll be at a higher level. The main thing is that you don't ever give up."

LINCOLN SALTDOGS BASEBALL: Lancaster takes over Saltdogs

BY MARK DEROWITSCH Lincoln Journal Star

------------------------------------------------------------------------
Les Lancaster's planned return to the dugout was altered just a bit Monday.
Lancaster was handed control of the Lincoln Saltdogs just hours before their game against Fargo-Moorhead. The Saltdogs named Lancaster interim manager when Kash Beauchamp was suspended after he was charged for misdemeanor assault in Lancaster County Court earlier in the day.
Lancaster first was offered the job by Saltdogs President Charlie Meyer and general manager Tim Utrup Monday afternoon after he returned to Lincoln following a week-long stay in Alabama. Lancaster was excused from the team so he could return home and visit his ailing father.
His goal all along was to pitch one more season, then resume his career as a manager. For the past two seasons, Lancaster guided the Adirondack Lumberjacks of the Northern League East.
At least initially, Lancaster is not eager to put his stamp on the Saltdogs. In fact, he'll try to keep everything as normal as possible during his stay in the dugout.
"Right now I'm just going to lay back a little bit and see how the guys react to this, and if we have to make some changes then we'll address them," he said. "I was told that I have full rein and I can just act like I'm managing the whole season."
It may not be an act. Beauchamp was suspended indefinitely, and Meyer said Lancaster would manage the team for at least the next 10 games. Lincoln handed Lancaster a 6-2 win against Fargo-Moorhead in his debut in the opener of a three-game series at Haymarket Park. Following a day off Thursday, the Saltdogs embark on a seven-game road trip to open the second half of the split-season independent league.
When asked if Beauchamp could lose his job over the arrest, Meyer said yes.
"That's one of the things we'll have to evaluate when we talk to Kash," he said.
The Saltdogs are fortunate to have Lancaster on the roster. Lancaster was named the independent league manager of the year by Baseball America after guiding the Lumberjacks to the Northern League championship in 2000. Adirondack also qualified for the Northern League East playoffs in Lancaster's first season with the club.
Adirondack went a combined 91-80 under Lancaster. This year, Lancaster has compiled a 3-1 record and a 3.00 earned run average in six starts.
"I think Les will take over and do a quality job for us," Meyer said.
Lancaster is more than happy to help out, although he said he wishes it were under better circumstances. One of the first moves Beauchamp made when he agreed to take over the expansion Saltdogs was to convince Lancaster to give up his job as a manager and pitch full time one more season.
"I'm very excited," Lancaster said. "I'm very sorry it came about this particular way. Hopefully I can do the job, then when Kash comes back he can pick up where he left off."
About all the Saltdogs can accomplish against Fargo-Moorhead is try to keep the RedHawks from winning the Central South Division title. The RedHawks are a game ahead of Sioux Falls in the division race with the first half ending Wednesday.
When Lincoln travels to first-half North Division champion Winnipeg on Friday, it marks the beginning of the season's second half. Division champions from both halves will qualify for the playoffs.
Beauchamp's absence has noticeably disrupted the Saltdogs. All the players were instructed by management not to talk to the media about the suspension, and Lincoln's clubhouse was closed before and after the game for the first time this season.
"Anytime something like this happens it's so devastating to a team," Lancaster said. "We got a good bunch of people here, and it just upsets the team and the rhythm of the guys.
"It's a sad day not having Kash here. Besides being the manager, Kash is a good friend to all the them. It's something we got to put behind us. We get paid to play baseball and we have to be professional about this."

Page Created: 6/4/01

Last updated: 7/10/01