Van Slyke has new view on baseball
Originally published March 18, 2001

By ALAN ROBINSON
The Associated Press

BRADENTON, Fla. — Andy Van Slyke hasn’t lost anything off his fastball in his seven years away from the Pittsburgh Pirates.

A five-time Gold Glove outfielder, he was as quick with the quip as he was making in a catch. When Van Slyke talked, the one-liners flew as fast as line drives.

But while being out of baseball since 1997 hasn’t affected his sense of humor, it has altered his perspective. No longer does Van Slyke look askance at those who don’t closely follow the game, to those who might ask a question he once would have deemed naive or nonsensical.

The New Hartford native, back in the Pirates’ camp this week as an outfield instructor, said being out of the self-contained sphere of baseball made him realize the world doesn’t revolve around it.

“I met someone the other night who had no idea who Derek Jeter is,” Van Slyke said. “If I was 30, and a baseball player, I would have thought the lady was an idiot. I would have had a condescending attitude toward her.

“Now, I think it’s great. I love it.”

Van Slyke spent one season as an ESPN baseball analyst after his hometown St. Louis Cardinals didn’t keep him following a spring-training comeback in 1997, but he didn’t like the travel.

Now 40, he lives a semiretired life in St. Louis, the part-owner of an all-sports radio station, a celebrity golfer, weekly talk-show host and junior high basketball coach who is building a new house.

He also watches his athletic sons: A.J., 17, is a football and baseball star who wants to attend West Point; Scott, 14, already is 6-foot-3, taller than his dad, and can dunk a basketball.

He thinks of returning to the game as a manager or coach, but that would require relocating his family, something he doesn’t really want to do.

That doesn’t mean that Van Slyke, who probably isn’t a pound over his playing weight of 185, doesn’t miss baseball.

“I came down here with a stubborn attitude that I didn’t miss this game, but as soon as I put the Pirates uniform on and walked on the field, I said, ‘I miss this game,’ ” said Van Slyke, who was invited to camp by former teammate Lloyd McClendon, the new Pirates manager. “There’s just something about the game, something you don’t get rid of. It stays with you.

“But being away from the game has given me a healthier perspective on life. If I do get back in the game, being away from it will be very beneficial to me. If you’re always in it and always in it and you never get out of it as a coach or manager, you’ve never taken the uniform off, I’m not saying you can’t be a great manager. But your relationships will benefit.”

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