This article is from the source 'washpo' and was first published or seen on . It last changed over 40 days ago and won't be checked again for changes.
You can find the current article at its original source at https://www.washingtonpost.com/sports/nationals/chris-speiers-baseball-journey-comes-full-circle-in-washington/2016/04/08/000e071c-fd94-11e5-886f-a037dba38301_story.html
The article has changed 6 times. There is an RSS feed of changes available.
| Version 2 | Version 3 |
|---|---|
| Senators drafted Chris Speier at 18; Dusty Baker brought him to Washington at 65 | Senators drafted Chris Speier at 18; Dusty Baker brought him to Washington at 65 |
| (35 minutes later) | |
| Last fall, after two years out of baseball looked all but certain to grow to three, Chris Speier accepted that his time had passed. Old connections weren’t returning his calls and texts. No one had a place for a veteran of 19 seasons as a player and nearly that many as a coach. Speier told his wife he was done, and made peace with it. | |
| Not 24 hours later, the phone rang. | |
| “Hey, dude,” he remembers Dusty Baker saying. Baseball finally called back. | “Hey, dude,” he remembers Dusty Baker saying. Baseball finally called back. |
| Speier served on Baker’s staffs in Chicago and Cincinnati, a third base coach with the Cubs, his bench coach with the Reds. They won 97 games one season, but never a playoff series. Baker asked Speier whether he’d come along for one more try. | |
| “I said, ‘Let’s go do this thing,’ ” Speier remembered. | |
| Speier already has a World Series on his coaching résumé. As third base coach for the 2001 Arizona Diamondbacks (whose scouting director was Mike Rizzo), he waved home Jay Bell with the winning run in Game 7, with Matt Williams was waiting on deck. | |
| After three decades in baseball with nearly a dozen organizations, connections such as his are more inevitable than serendipitous. But don’t rule the latter out of Speier’s journey back to the big leagues, because something about his path to Washington — which nearly began there but wound through Montreal, 11 organizations and a K-12 school principal’s office — feels intentional, somehow. | |
| [Nationals know it’s time to play the field] | [Nationals know it’s time to play the field] |
| Speier grew up in Alameda, a California kid through and through, down to the flowing blonde hair. The budding shortstop snuck into the Coliseum in Oakland — maybe 40 games a year — with one main purpose. | |
| “I watched shortstops,” Speier said. | “I watched shortstops,” Speier said. |
| He became a good one, so good that the Washington Senators drafted him at age 18. Speier might have ended up in D.C. decades sooner, but he chose to play at the University of California Santa Barbara rather than go pro. Still, by age 21, he was starting at shortstop for the star-studded San Francisco Giants. | |
| “I got veteran, veteran, veteran — Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Tito Fuentes, Juan Marichal, Gaylord Perry on the mound,” Speier said. “The manager said, ‘You’re the guy.’ I called all the coverages. I called the steals. I called whatever. I got blessed by having to do that. I had to be that guy.” | “I got veteran, veteran, veteran — Willie Mays, Willie McCovey, Tito Fuentes, Juan Marichal, Gaylord Perry on the mound,” Speier said. “The manager said, ‘You’re the guy.’ I called all the coverages. I called the steals. I called whatever. I got blessed by having to do that. I had to be that guy.” |
| Speier earned a reputation as a precocious young player, as outspoken as he was talented. He hit between Bobby Bonds and Mays at times during his rookie season and made three straight all-star teams from 1972 to 1974. His oldest son, Justin, who pitched parts of 12 big league seasons, was born during that time. But as Speier struggled through the 1977 season, the Giants traded the hometown kid to the Montreal Expos for Tim Foli, a shortstop-for-shortstop swap. | |
| “Literally got traded to, to me, it was like getting traded to Europe,” Speier remembered. “Woo. Way over there.” | “Literally got traded to, to me, it was like getting traded to Europe,” Speier remembered. “Woo. Way over there.” |
| He did not speak French and had spent most of his life in California, but he found comfort in Montreal. He moved his family there, had two kids there, all the while living in a resort town north of the city called Sainte-Adele. He lived so close to a ski slope that his kids could ski through the back yard and onto a lift in the winter, so close to a lake they could spend their summers there. | |
| “It was like I was on vacation for six years,” said Speier, who played 863 games at shortstop for the Expos, second only to Ian Desmond’s 913 in franchise history. | “It was like I was on vacation for six years,” said Speier, who played 863 games at shortstop for the Expos, second only to Ian Desmond’s 913 in franchise history. |
| Speier stayed in Montreal until 1984, and stayed in the majors until 1989, when he finished his playing career back with the Giants. His family grew roots in Scottsdale, Ariz., where he and his then-wife, both Catholics, decided they wanted their children to get a different kind of education than the one they were receiving in the schools there. They encountered several other families in the community that felt similarly, intrigued by the kind of small Catholic schools popping up around the country. Speier and others visited some of those schools, and the group decided to start one. | Speier stayed in Montreal until 1984, and stayed in the majors until 1989, when he finished his playing career back with the Giants. His family grew roots in Scottsdale, Ariz., where he and his then-wife, both Catholics, decided they wanted their children to get a different kind of education than the one they were receiving in the schools there. They encountered several other families in the community that felt similarly, intrigued by the kind of small Catholic schools popping up around the country. Speier and others visited some of those schools, and the group decided to start one. |
| “No facility. No teachers. No curriculum. No books. No desks. No nothing. We did it,” Speier said. “We started it. We opened up K through 9. Kindergarten, then we had three grades together — seven, eight, nine together. Added a year the next year, sophomore year. Added junior year, then added a senior year. I did that for four years. I was the principal.” | “No facility. No teachers. No curriculum. No books. No desks. No nothing. We did it,” Speier said. “We started it. We opened up K through 9. Kindergarten, then we had three grades together — seven, eight, nine together. Added a year the next year, sophomore year. Added junior year, then added a senior year. I did that for four years. I was the principal.” |
| One of Speier’s four sons graduated from the school, and his grandchildren go there now. But baseball reeled him back in by 1995. In 1996, he became the first minor league manager hired by the expansion Diamondbacks. In 2000, he headed to Milwaukee to be the third base coach for a first-time manager named Davey Lopes. But when the Diamondbacks named Speier’s former teammate Bob Brenly manager. Speier headed back to become their third base coach. They won the World Series that year. | |
| By the winter of 2004, Dusty Baker was managing the Cubs, who had just parted ways with their third base coach, Wendell Kim. Baker needed someone to work with his infielders and coach third base, and his friend Gary Matthews — a 16-year veteran of five major league teams — recommended Speier. Baker brought him on. | |
| They lived in the same building during their two seasons together. Speier’s niece married Baker’s nephew. Baker took him to Cincinnati to serve as his bench coach. As Baker came under fire from Reds management in 2013, Speier stuck by him. | They lived in the same building during their two seasons together. Speier’s niece married Baker’s nephew. Baker took him to Cincinnati to serve as his bench coach. As Baker came under fire from Reds management in 2013, Speier stuck by him. |
| Baker and his staff got fired, but the Reds kept Speier on as a special assistant to Reds General Manager Walt Jocketty — a title that came with very few duties, Speier joked this past winter. Baker knew Speier wanted back into the game. | |
| “We’re uncles-in-law, and he’s very loyal,” Baker said. “He couldn’t get a job after he backed me in Cincinnati. He couldn’t get a job. When you cover my back, I cover yours big-time.” | |
| [Ryan Zimmerman, Jayson Werth trending in opposite directions] | [Ryan Zimmerman, Jayson Werth trending in opposite directions] |
| So a day or so after he was hired to manage the Nationals, Baker called. He asked Speier, now 65, to join his staff, to help him try to win a World Series with what Baker has said will be his last team. Maybe as a third base coach, maybe as a bench coach, but back in the dugout either way. He accepted. | So a day or so after he was hired to manage the Nationals, Baker called. He asked Speier, now 65, to join his staff, to help him try to win a World Series with what Baker has said will be his last team. Maybe as a third base coach, maybe as a bench coach, but back in the dugout either way. He accepted. |
| Speier harps on communication and aggressiveness in the infield. He hit infield drills himself throughout spring training, pausing to instruct, tweaking details all the while. During batting practice before the Nationals’ opener in Atlanta, Speier hit fungo after fungo at Danny Espinosa, hollering and pumping his fist toward the dirt to signal outs after particularly impressive plays. | Speier harps on communication and aggressiveness in the infield. He hit infield drills himself throughout spring training, pausing to instruct, tweaking details all the while. During batting practice before the Nationals’ opener in Atlanta, Speier hit fungo after fungo at Danny Espinosa, hollering and pumping his fist toward the dirt to signal outs after particularly impressive plays. |
| He, like Lopes and the rest of Baker’s carefully constructed coaching staff, seems energized — as if, perhaps in some of their cases at least, treasuring the opportunity for one more run. Nearly 50 years after the Washington Senators drafted Speier, 40 years after he anchored the Expos’ infield, and a few months after he thought he may be out of the game for good, baseball called him back — back to D.C., back to Baker, back at it once again. | He, like Lopes and the rest of Baker’s carefully constructed coaching staff, seems energized — as if, perhaps in some of their cases at least, treasuring the opportunity for one more run. Nearly 50 years after the Washington Senators drafted Speier, 40 years after he anchored the Expos’ infield, and a few months after he thought he may be out of the game for good, baseball called him back — back to D.C., back to Baker, back at it once again. |