CHICAGO – As a kid, Al Leiter dreamed of being a baseball player. As a baseball player, Leiter dreams of being a United States senator.
Sen. Alois T. Leiter, Republican from New Jersey.
He has the charisma, he has the celebrity status, he has the intelligence and he already has a good track record for raising money. So it would only be natural that when he retires from baseball Leiter would consider making a run for public office.
“It’s something I’ve been thinking about,” he said. “I don’t know if it’s possible. I’d have to work my way up through local government. But look at Bill Bradley. He was a local jock who went on to become a senator. It’s possible. I guess the big difference is that he was a Rhodes Scholar from Princeton. I didn’t even finish community college.”
In fact the only thing Leiter lacks, he believes, is a full bachelor’s degree, but he is more than halfway to reaching that particular goal.
Leiter’s ultimate goal of becoming a senator is really very attainable. He has enough name recognition to get a few thousand votes already, he’s as much of a people person as anyone who has ever kissed a baby, he raises money for a charity organization called Leiter’s Landing, he’s not afraid to speak out on the issues (see accompanying box), and he watches C-SPAN the way most players watch SportsCenter.
“The senate is the greatest elected body in this country,” Leiter said. “There are only 100 of them and it’s the highest office you can attain besides president, and I would never want to do that. That would scare the hell out of me. But the senate is an august body.”
Speaking of august bodies, in order for Leiter to reach Washington, he may have to face off against one of his current teammates, Mike Piazza, who has also expressed a desire to pursue politics after he retires from baseball. Leiter is natural conservative, but not as much as his ultra-conservative batterymate.
“I would smear him,” Piazza said. “I would leave no stone unturned to come up with dirt on him. You think baseball is hardball? Wait ’til we get in the political ring.”
As for what state he should run in, it would have to be from his home state of New Jersey, although Leiter has lived in Florida since he became a professional ballplayer.
“I’m a Jersey guy,” he said. “It would have to be Jersey. I grew up there and I know the issues there more, I know about the high car insurance rates and the Boss [(Bruce Springsteen].”
Although Leiter has legitimate claims to residency in both states, he wasn’t willing to criticize Hillary Clinton for running for the senate from in New York, even though she has never lived there.
“I don’t care,” he said. “To me, if you think that’s a big issue, then just don’t vote for her.”
As for party affiliation, Leiter is a Republican but is wary of the party’s social platform. He considers himself much more liberal on social issues, but he doesn’t believe in big government or handouts to the poor because he thinks that inhibits human potential. He said if the reform party shows little more success in the next few years, he might consider joining Jesse Ventura’s party.
Leiter – who is the Mets’ union representative – first got a taste for politics when he was active in the Players’ Association’s campaign to have Major League Baseball’s antitrust exemption lifted in the winter of 1994-95. He and a handful of players went to Washington to lobby congressmen and he enjoyed the process of moving and shaking. Right about that time he started to watch C-SPAN a lot and has been a regular viewer ever since, which makes his lawyer wife, Lori, a little amused.
“I used to watch C-SPAN all the time during the strike,” Leiter said. “I still watch it a lot to see what the debate is and what’s going on. Lori will walk by and say, ‘You’re watching that again.”
He figures that before he can even consider elected office he will need that college degree, something which he was working towards for most of the first half of this decade. Leiter was close to enrolling at the University of Florida in 1984, but the Yankees enticed him away with a $100,000 signing bonus.
“They bought me,” he says, laughing.
But seven years later, while rehabbing from a shoulder injury in Syracuse, Al was encouraged by Lori to start working on his degree again. He had already earned about 27 credits at Ocean County Community College while he was in the minor leagues with the Yankees, and now he would begin working on a two-year correspondence degree through Penn State.
It required a great deal of work, and a great deal of ribbing from his closed-minded teammates in the clubhouse, but Leiter got that PSU diploma in the spring of 1995, which he proudly hangs in his home office along with trophies commemorating his no-hitter and three World Series championships.
“They all thought I was Mr. Smarty-pants reading in the clubhouse,” Leiter recalls. “Why not play cards like everyone else? It was just ignorance nd insecurity. I felt like my career wasn’t going anywhere and was looking to the future.”
During the strike Leiter resumed taking classes, attending Florida Atlantic University until the issue was settled and he had to get back to pitching. As soon as he finishes playing Leiter intends to back to school to earn the bachelor’s degree, and then on to the campaign trail.
“I know it won’t be easy and I don’t expect anything to be given to me,” he said. “But I think it’s a worthwhile endeavor. If I get elected, maybe I can throw out the first pitch at the Yankees’ new stadium in Newark.”
