HUMAN nature being what it is, time and time again this scenario plays itself out: Guy has a career year, gets the big money, goes soft.
There isn’t a flabbier touch in New York than Al Leiter, who, having signed a 4-year, $32 million contract with the Mets is greasing more palms than Gaylord Perry.
OK, so he wants to make people happy, that’s his business. But there’s also this business about a hard case with a hard fastball and even harder head changing his career by learning to trust his changeup. Delighted with the results from a 17-6, 2.47 season, Leiter next plans to take the feather out of his cap and throw it at 2-2.
No more Mr. Tough Guy for Al Leiter, a marshmallow of a man who never met a fan he didn’t like, partly for the following reason:
“My oldest brother John went to a Yankee game when he was 12 years old, waited at the barriers by the player entrance for a glimpse of Mickey Mantle,” said Leiter. “When Mick finally came out, he had two towels stuffed into his collar up to his eyes so he didn’t have to see either left or right. He kept his head down the whole way.
“My brother wasn’t even expecting an autograph, would have been happy with a wave. He went back to the car with my Dad and said ‘He didn’t even look at me.’
“When I feel I’ve had it up to here, I think of stuff like that. Because somebody can throw the ball 90 miles an hour and has a great curveball, so what? Because the media is always there finding fault, a lot of players think you can’t have a relationship with you guys, but I don’t agree. Some media persons I like better than others, sure. But in twelve years I haven’t had a problem.
“The average fan sees you in a restaurant or bar and he just wants to give you a ‘hey, way to go man!’ So give him a couple minutes, what’s the big deal? My father passed away suddenly at age 61. Cardiac arrest, hadn’t been sick at all and it reminded me how quickly this can disappear. I’m around people who are talented, good looking, idolized and manage to make every day a long root canal. I hate it, I hate it, really do.”
Last year, Leiter turned most every at-bat into one long root canal. He loved that, loved it, really did.
“Al has been as good a pitcher I have ever had pitch for me,” says Bobby Valentine. “I’ve had Nolan Ryan and Kevin Brown and never seen that kind of consistent quality.”
Leiter was third in the National League in winning percentage, second in batting average against (.216), seventh in strikeouts, (174). He was denied likely 20-win status by a 21-day stint on the DL with a torn patella knee tendon and by Valentine’s use of 6-man rotation, but still managed to win $32 million, some of which he may even keep for himself after he gives away his pledged minimum of $250,000 a year.
“It’s not going to affect me,” he said. “After I signed with the Marlins I thought that was more money that I or my kids will ever spend. I haven’t changed my lifestyle.
“I want to help people in need. My feeling is that if everybody did something to help, change things for a single child, the world would be a lot different.
“That child might have grown up to be somebody lost, mentally deranged, a threat to a society, a sportswriter. People in need see you care about them, it goes further than money. I can’t tell you how many times I go to a speaking engagement and people say 10 years ago ‘you told me something that stuck in my mind.’ That’s a good feeling growing out of one minute of a day you didn’t ignore a 12 year-old.”
With all the angst over keeping Mike Piazza, Leiter enjoyed the quietist, most dominating walk year anyone has ever had in the history of greed.
“It puts a smile on my face to see myself with the Browns, Smoltzes, Glavines,” Leiter said. “It’s an honor and it drives me. Obviously my career numbers are never going to be like theirs. I’ve wondered to myself about what might have been if I had figured it out sooner and not gotten hurt, but I wouldn’t be the same person.
“I never had the vision I have now. I can look at a batter’s feet and know what he’s looking for. I can work both sides of the plate and spent the spring working on pitching away even more. If a guy misses a curveball, I’ll throw another one.
“It sounds so simple that you should have figured it out sooner, But confidence is false unless you actually succeed at something. You do and it’s like ‘you mean, I can get them out with that?’ We’re taught to be aggressive, aggressive, aggressive. What you don’t realize is that throwing a changeup at 3-2 is aggressive.”
See, guy finally makes it big at age 33, turns to mush. Happy, sappy Al Leiter finally has the world in his pocket and the world is welcome to take whatever it wants.
