IN LEW OF FLOWERS
he sounds of a packed playoff game at old Yankee Stadium were faint. The images of high-end hotels were no longer so vivid. The eff icient and comfortable plane rides could have been confused with fiction.
An increasingly unpredictable career had placed former Twins outfielder Lew Ford on an unreliable bus, stopped in a rural Mexican village on his way to his next game. If only those damn cows would move. “There was a farmers strike, and there weren’t many roads going through there, and at the only road to get to the game, the farmers had let all of their cattle go in the middle of the road, so no cars could pass by,” Ford recalled this week. “We had to stop the bus and sit on the side of the road for hours. … All the time, stuff would happen, where buses would break down, and trips would take 12 hours.
“You think you’ve seen it all, and then something else happens.”
Life on Long Island, where Ford has now spent more seasons with the Ducks (eight), than he did in the majors (six), is a little easier.
Here, the 40-year-old can order his own food, unlike in Japan, where he’d need to call his translator, and hand the phone to a waiter. Here, the Texas native is home, having purchased a house in Central Islip, and becoming engaged to a native Long Islander. Here, the player/coach, who earned an AL MVP vote in 2004, continues to quietly crush opposing pitchers in the heart of the Ducks lineup, stretching team records he’s already set.
Every year, Ford returns to the place he long plotted to escape from.
“It’s tough coming here the first time,” said Ford, who first played in the independent Atlantic League in 2009. “You don’t know what to expect. You don’t know any- thing about the league at all. ... I thought I should be able to hit really well and get out of here pretty quickly, which is probably what most guys think.”
Most guys who find themselves in Suffolk County never sniff their dream again — former All-Star Eric Gagne joined the Ducks this season, calling off his comeback after five appearances — but Ford worked his way back to the majors in 2012 after five years in exile, playing 25 games with the Orioles.
Last year, Ford was named the MVP of the championship series in winter ball in the Dominican Republic, and he has hit .329 in his career with the Ducks, but he surrendered all hope of returning to the big leagues three years ago, coaches and scouts kept telling him that no numbers he compiled would be more important than his age, following two her nia surgeries.
“They were pretty blunt, and said, ‘ We think you can still play, but with your age and injury history, we’re not gonna take the chance,’” Ford said last week at Bethpage Ballpark. “It’s tough to hear, but I appreciated the honesty of it. That’s when I realized maybe I should think a bout also coaching.”
So, Ford became the Ducks’ hitting coach , w h i l e remaining the team’s best hitter. Now, a third-year bench coach, Ford feels more comfortable in his office he shares with the pitching coach than at his locker, surrounded by teammates too young to remember the superstars he used to play with. “I don’t think they even know who Johan [Santana] is,” said Ford, of the two-time Cy Young winner. “I still try to get in the clubhouse and talk to the guys and shoot the bull with them, but I don’t know, the age difference is just getting more and more. I still enjoy it, I still have fun, but every year I become more of a coach and less of a player.” Slotted third in the lineup, and currently hitting .291, Ford looks no less of a player to the millennials continually seeking his advice. “He’s doing both very well, but I think we all see him as a teammate first, and then he’s someone you can get tips from, and bounce ideas off of,” infielder Dan Lyons said. “He knows situations well, and he knows what approaches to take to the plate. I certainly see him having success as a coach wherever he ends up because he does have a lot of k n owl e d ge in this game.” Ford still f its in with the teammates you’ve never heard of — minus former major league pitchers David Aardsma and John Lannan — because his name was never supposed to be known.
Ford arrived at Texas A&M on an academic scholarship, and failed to make the team as a walk-on. He then transferred to three different schools, long believing his studies in computer science and engineering would prove more useful than his bat. Then, after becoming an All-American at Dallas Baptist, Ford was taken in the 12th round of the 1999 draft by the Red Sox, and broke into the majors as a 26-year-old with the Twins in 2003.
With Ford now playing for no reason other than to keep playing, Ducks manager Kevin Baez marvels at how hard his second-in-command still prepares for each game.
“He still has that fire in his belly that he wants to compete,” Baez said. “He could just coach, but he still has those competitive juices that you can’t teach. Guys are still in awe of him, how he’s doing it. He’s still having success. Keep playing until they take the uniform off.”
The end could come after this season. Maybe it will happen next year, instead. Or Ford could keep going and going and going, until the uniform is finally taken from him.
“I’m thinking this may be my last year,” Ford said. “Each year, I think this may be my last year. That’s how I’ve approached it. I want to try and enjoy it like it’s my last year. I don’t know what I’ll be doing. I may get another job, that I got to give it up, or my body might not be able to do this. This year, I did get the itch and I wanted to play, and I’m glad I did.
“I’m happy to be able to play this long, and have a good career. I’m not trying to prove anything to myself at this point. I’m just doing it because I like to do it. I look back with no regrets. I did the best I could and I’m happy with it.”