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Sunday, May 28, 1995 Page: 8C
Dykstra’s break the break Tom Marsh needed
A long time ago, Tom Marsh learned to thrive off opportunityThat’s why he’s
wound up as the career RBI leader for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre Red Barons.
It also may be how he stayed in the game of baseball.
If not for an odd set of circumstances at the start of the 1992 season,
Marsh may have never made it to Lackawanna County Stadium.
He was scheduled to be a backup outfielder at Class AA Reading that year,
when Phillies outfielder Lenny Dykstra suffered a broken wrist in
Philadelphia’s 1992 season opener. The next day, the Phillies promoted Julio
Peguero — who was supposed to open that year in center field for the Red
Barons — to replace Dykstra.
Now, nobody in the Phillies organization really cared who the Red Barons
received to replace Peguero.
Except the man that counted.
Lee Elia, who happened to manage the Red Barons that season and who had
managed Clearwater the previous two years, knew of Marsh from past spring
trainings. And when Elia needed a guy to fill a roster spot with his new Class
AAA team, he wanted a guy who would run through a brick wall to snag a fly
ball. He wanted a guy who didn’t know the meaning of the word quit.
He wanted Tom Marsh.
Without any one of those circumstances, Marsh may have been left to play a
year or two more in Class AA, then move on with his life. For if Dykstra
wasn’t on the disabled list, there would have been no need for Peguero to
leave the Red Barons. If the Phillies had decided to sign a free agent to
replace Dykstra, Marsh probably wouldn’t have found his way to the Red Barons
that year.
And if anyone other than Elia had been managing that 1992 team, again,
fortune may not have smiled upon Marsh.
“It’s crossed my mind, how Lenny got hurt, how Peguero was called up,”
Marsh said. “I’ve thought about it. If it weren’t for that, I would never have
had that opportunity.”
And without a chance, Friday night’s announcement that Tom Marsh had just
set a Red Barons record with his 160th RBI would never have come.
“Who knows, I might be selling tires,” Marsh said.
Instead, the 29-year-old outfielder is still trying to sell the Phillies,
or any other major league team that might have interest, that it might be
worth taking a shot on a guy who has built a pretty good career with hustle
and hard work.
He is not blessed with blinding speed, a powerful build or an arm that
produces lasers from the outfield.
Yet, Marsh currently holds Red Baron career records with 66 doubles, 17
triples, 34 home runs and 117 extra-base hits. He is also 10 short of Greg
Legg’s career record of 506 total bases.
That might not mean a lot to a player at the Class AAA level, but Marsh
earned every base, every hit and every RBI. So to a guy from Toledo, Ohio who
has never been anything but a gamer to the Red Barons, they’re all meaningful.
“Any record you get is something you take personal pride in,” said Marsh,
now in his fourth season with the Red Barons. “It’s an honor. You’ve got to be
proud of it if you do it. I’m proud that I’ve done well over the years.”
He’s done well enough to earn a couple of shots with the parent Phillies.
About midway through the 1992 season, Marsh was promoted to Philadelphia,
where he hit .200 with two homers, two triples and three doubles in 42 games.
Last season, he made the Phillies out of spring training for the first time in
his eight-year professional career, where he played in eight games and hit
.278.
But he’s never really gotten an opportunity for an everyday job in the
major leagues. If that chance does come, rest assured, the guy they call
“Masher” will be very prepared.
“I’d rather be playing ball in the big leagues somewhere,” said Marsh, who
would like nothing more than for someone to put the bat in his hands 500 times
during a season to prove his major league worth. “I just want to have the best
season I can, and play in the big leagues.”
That’s not to say Marsh takes his troubles to the artificial surface of
Lackawanna County Stadium. To the contrary, he entered Saturday leading the
Red Barons with a .346 batting average, tied with Gene Schall for the team
lead with five homers and tied with Schall and David Tokheim for the team lead
with 19 RBI.
But that’s Marsh, playing the game the only way he knows how — full steam
ahead.
“I can hit, I can run, I can throw, I can field,” Marsh said. “If the
Phillies don’t see the potential I do have, somebody else will.”
He could find out if that’s true next year.
This is the last year the Phillies are allowed to option Marsh back to
Class AAA, meaning that if they don’t keep him in the major leagues next year,
they’ll risk losing him on waivers.
In the meantime, he’ll keep bopping to the plate, with his head bouncing to
the sounds of Billy Idol’s “Rebel Yell,” on his way to drive home another Red
Barons run.
“Must mean I’m enjoying myself,” said Marsh, who didn’t realize his little
dance routine to one of his favorite songs. “That’s all I can do, do the best
I can. As for anything else, this game’s too funny.”
Going from a relative no-name to career RBI leader in Red Baron history,
Tom Marsh knows that better than anyone.
* * *
COMING SOON, TO A STADIUM NEAR YOU?: Back when both were with Reading in
the 1980s, Kim Batiste and Rod Robertson kind of had their own act going.
Batiste, known for his hitting prowess, earned the nickname “Batman.”
Mainly because of his name, Robertson became know as Robbie.
Well, the “Batman and Robbie” show may be playing on reruns in Rochester.
After the Phillies released him from the Red Barons roster earlier this
month, Batiste signed a minor league contract with the Baltimore Orioles and
reported to Class AA Bowie. If he is promoted another level, he’ll join
Robertson, who has been with Class AAA Rochester from the beginning of the
season.
And if that happens during the next month, Batman and Robbie could team up
as a dynamic duo against their old organization, as Rochester visits
Lackawanna County Stadium July 3-6 and then hosts the Red Barons July 7-8.
* * *
NO FEAR: When the parent Phillies came to town to play their bi-annual
exhibition game against the Red Barons Monday, catcher Dutch Daulton greeted
his old batterymate Jeff Juden with a tremendous shot to right field that
easily had home run distance but curled foul.
Now, Juden is pitching for the Red Barons, and trying to prove to the
Phillies he’s sufficiently recovered from last year’s surgery to remove two
large bone spurs from his pitching elbow.
And the last thing he needs is to be taken deep, even by an accomplished
All-Star such as Daulton, with Phillies manager Jim Fregosi and general
manager Lee Thomas watching first-hand.
The long foul didn’t rattle Juden, though.
The 6-foot-8 right-hander eventually retired Daulton on a fly to center, on
his way to seven shutout innings.
“It was a foul ball,” the big guy shrugged. “Didn’t scare me.”
* * *
JUST PART OF THE GAME: On Saturday night, Blaise Ilsley ripped a single to
right field.
He took a big turn around first base, hesitated a little, and then roared
into second base for a surprise double.
Now, if Marsh or Shawn Gilbert or one of the Red Barons regulars had done
it, it would probably have been termed a heads-up play.
But considering Ilsley’s a pitcher, the move was simply astounding.
That kind of aggressive baserunning just isn’t seen by pitchers of this era
anymore.
“I thought he took his time getting to the ball,” Ilsley said of Ottawa
right fielder Yamil Benitez. “And he lobbed the throw. I just took off. When I
hit, I try to get on base. When I get on base, I want to score.”
Sometimes, the guy sounds more like a hitter than a pitcher who doesn’t
swing the bat that often. Then again, he knows how to do both.
Ilsley has a career .346 batting average, having played for National League
organizations St. Louis, Chicago and now Philadelphia.