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Sunday, July 22, 2001

By Robert Dvorchak, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

He had one of the most uncelebrated at bats in the history of the game, something that reads like the career of Archie "Moonlight" Graham in the film "Field of Dreams." But to Pirates coach Jeff Banister, it was his Everest.

Called to the big leagues July 23, 1991, because catcher Don Slaught was injured, Banister was still pinching himself at being around names like Drabek, Bonilla, Bonds and Van Slyke when Manager Jim Leyland called on him to pinch-hit in the eighth inning of that day's game against the Braves.

Hustling down from the bullpen, he grabbed a Cecil Espy bat and strode to the plate, the voice of the public address announcer echoing through Three Rivers Stadium as his name was called. Fighting his jitters, Banister hit a ball from Dan Petry that should have gone through, but shortstop Jeff Blauser caught it and threw toward first.

It takes four seconds or so to cover the 90 feet to the bag, but in that single moment, every ordeal he had gone through flashed back to Banister as he hustled down the line. The doctor's opinion that only the amputation of his right leg could save him from bone cancer. The seven operations and the year in the hospital it took to prove the doctor wrong. A collision at home plate years later when three of his vertebrae were fractured and he was paralyzed for 10 days. The agonizing rehab. The six years he toiled in the minors just to get this one chance. The faces of his father, his mother, his wife.

"I took a lot of people to the plate with me," Banister said. "I was running as fast as I could, but it took forever, like I was running in quicksand. I can still see and feel everything."

His foot hit the bag a a fraction of a second before Blauser's throw. The umpire signaled safe and Banister, shaking the hand of first base coach Tommy Sandt, stood for a fleeting moment on top of the world.

"It was like the weight of the world was lifted from my shoulders. To use parts of my body that had been cut on so many times, that doctors said were unusable, that didn't even work, but they got me there," Banister said.

The way things worked out, he never played in another game and was sent back down to the minors, where he toiled for two more years before he went into coaching. In one of the briefest career summaries in "The Baseball Encyclopedia," it lists Jeff Banister, one major league appearance, one at bat, one hit, career batting average of 1.000. And nobody can take it away from him.

"It doesn't mean anything to anybody else. But it was my time. I got to share it with my family. I lived a dream. And I never take a single day for granted," Banister said. "The only reason I made it through so much was that I loved baseball so much, and I still get to put this uniform on every day. I wouldn't give it up for anything."

Pitching is the key

A peek at the standings proves that teams can make dramatic turnarounds in a year. Witness the Twins, Phillies and Cubs, who finished below the Pirates last year. But how?

"Pitching. It's no secret. You go as far as pitching takes you," Manager Lloyd McClendon said.

And then there are the teams that are atop the standings year in and year out.

"I'd certainly rather be in the Yankees shoes," McClendon said. "We can compete, but we don't have the depth and the resources to spend seven or eight million [dollars] to go get another pitcher. If we had [Kris] Benson, [Jason] Schmidt and [Francisco] Cordova healthy coming out of spring training, with Todd Ritchie and Jimmy Anderson in there normal spots, we could compete. The question is how do you replace them.

The Pirates did not use the injuries an excuse this year because they are part of the game, but McClendon last week hinted at how daunting it has been going into battle with a rookie-laden lineup.

"If I sit here and say [injuries] didn't affect us, I'd be lying. It's devastating," McClendon said. "Not to have those guys, I think, left a lot of doubt in those players' minds in the locker room. We had to fight a lot of the mental aspects. A lot of times in the first half, we were just trying to figure out how to get through the first three innings. I say that jokingly, but I believe we're in a position now with our pitchers that they're going to keep us in a lot of ballgames."

With Schmidt back and rookies Dave Williams and Joe Beimel in the rotation, McClendon says there's a much different air about his team.

"If you got in that locker room right now, my players expect to go out and compete and to win on that particular night. They don't sit here and say, 'How are we going to lose this game?' Those days are over. Those guys expect to complete and have success, and that's good to see," he said.

A new month

In early June, after being blown out of both games of a doubleheader by the Braves, McClendon scheduled a workout on a day off before the Pirates began a road trip to Florida, Minnesota and Detroit.

A lot of things were going on around the time -- Bronson Arroyo was demoted to the minors and replaced by Beimel in the rotation, Dave Williams replaced Omar Olivares, McClendon chewed out his team for losing a 6-2 lead and a game to the Twins, Cam Bonifay was fired -- but that workout surely had its impact. Since June 10, the Pirates have played winning baseball.

"We certainly played better," McClendon said. "You could start to see things turn a little bit. Guys started to pick it up, both mentally and physically. Since then, we're playing pretty decent baseball. If you want to say that was a turning point, fine.

"We're serious about what we're trying to accomplish. And if we don't get it done, we're going to be out there more often," the manager said. "I think they like their days off. I know I do."