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Sunday, May 21, 2000 By Shelly Anderson, Post-Gazette Sports Writer
The first in a series on minor-league teams within an easy drive of Pittsburgh, places where the price of tickets, parking and concessions - as well as players' salaries - run low and old-time baseball enthusiasm runs high.
ERIE Two hours before game time, two men face each other on the edge of the turf between the batting cage and the backstop at Jerry Uht Park. It's a daily ritual.
They rotate their legs in big arcs, then squat and thrust out one leg at a time while balancing on the ball of the opposite foot. If they weren't in baseball uniforms, it would look like some sort of martial arts demonstration.
But this is Class AA ball, a place to learn and dream.
Dan Wakamatsu, manager of the Erie SeaWolves and a former pro catcher, is teaching Shawn Wooten to be a catcher.
The SeaWolves are a farm club for the Anaheim Angels. Wooten is not one of the franchise's young hot shots with fresh memories of his high school prom.
He is 27 and was Erie's third baseman last year. He had the chance to move to Class AAA this season, but he feared that might be as far as he would go at that position.
The Angels have an everyday third baseman, 23-year-old Troy Glaus, who could be there for a long time.
"I had a pretty good year here last year, and they didn't show much interest in me, so that told me something," said Wooten, who batted .292 with 19 home runs and 88 RBIs in 1999.
"They don't need another third baseman. As much as I would like to maybe have a chance to play in the big leagues this year if Tony Glaus were to get hurt or something, I decided to stay here and prove that I can catch along with the way I swing the bat. Teams always need two catchers."
Wooten was invited to the Angels' major-league spring training camp earlier this year.
"The major-league staff was really impressed in the spring with his ability to catch and throw," said Tony Reagins, manager of baseball operations for the Angels.
"He moves very well. He has an average to above-average arm. He's adjusting."
There are no guarantees, of course.
"There's a definite risk," Reagins said, "but since the major-league staff was impressed, he's got a shot."
That's all Wooten wants. So far, so good, he said, even though his only previous experience at the position was helping out some in the bullpen over the years.
He is learning his pitchers' tendencies. Wakamatsu's drills are helping. Through 35 games, Wooten,is batting .279 with four home runs and 17 RBIs. He has been charged with six errors.
The SeaWolves were 81-61 last year and won the Southern Division of the Eastern League. Several of the top players got promoted, though, and Erie has been struggling this season.
The SeaWolves entered the weekend 13-22, last in the six-team Southern Division. Their average attendance is 2,249, 10th among the 12 league teams and down from 3,299 a game last year.
Wooten has no regrets.
"At this time in my career, I thought it was a good decision," he said of the position switch. "I don't look back."
He said he will remember his days with the SeaWolves, though.
Wooten was drafted by Detroit in the 18th round in 1993 and has since been with 11 minor-league teams. He feels at home in Erie.
"There's nothing better than to come to a nice ballpark and play a game -- and this is a nice ballpark," Wooten said of Uht, which is nestled next to the city's Civic Center beyond left field and across the street from a residential area beyond right.
"The community is great to us," Wooten said. "The team is great. It's like a family here. We have to look out for each other."
That sense of family kicked in one day early this season when Wooten was the last player in the locker room. He got to talking to bat boy Askiah Lindsey, who told Wooten he was having a hard time because his bicycle had been stolen. That made it hard for Lindsey to get to school and to the ballpark.
"He had it locked, but he said he's had two bikes stolen in the last year," Wooten said. "And he just had a birthday. And he didn't have a way of getting around. He had to walk everywhere. I felt bad for him."
Wooten organized a drive among the players -- most of whom make less than $2,000 a month -- and raised enough money to buy Lindsey a new bike.
"We got him a new lock, too," Wooten said, smiling.
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