Dante Bichette, the pitcher

September 8, 200422 yr

Dante Bichette spread out in his flat-footed stance for the final time with the Boston Red Sox in 2001, then stowed his bats in the rack and came to grips with reality. He was 37 years old, with 274 career homers and a terminally creaky ACL, and it was time to head off to Florida to work on his tan.

Maybe a dozen Dante Bichettes make the transition from the big leagues to retirement each year. Many of them open hitting schools, take up broadcasting or play golf until their hands cramp. Bichette played competitive tennis, dabbled in real estate and helped coach his two young sons, Dante and Bo, who have enough talent on the baseball field to allow their father to dream.

Boring and predictable went together like hand and batting glove until this summer, when Bichette did something to make his friends wonder if he was: a) having a mid-life crisis; or b) suffering from terminal light-headedness after all those long games at Coors Field.

Dante Bichette carried a big stick in his 14 major-league seasons, hitting 274 career homers.

In August, Bichette packed up the family and left Florida for the independent Atlantic League -- home of Rickey Henderson, reasonably-priced concessions and Prime Time the Moose mascot -- and signed on with the Nashua Pride. As a pitcher.

Actually, that's not quite accurate. Since arriving in New Hampshire, Bichette has played several positions -- including first base and center field -- and he's hitting .340 with 15 home runs in 153 at-bats. But that's just a compromise so manager Butch Hobson and pitching coach Rick Wise would allow him to take the mound. It's sort of like working as a roadie one night so you can play lead guitar the next.

"I knew they weren't just going to say, 'You can pitch,'" Bichette said. "They wanted some offense. So I had to negotiate, and that was my only negotiating tool -- 'I'll hit for you, too.'"

Big-name players earn a maximum of $3,000 a month in the Atlantic League, but Bichette is pulling in a mere $1,200. He's become something of a mentor to Nashua catcher Brad King, and he's planning to throw a party for his teammates once they clinch a playoff spot. They're just not aware of it yet.

"This is a small-market team, and I'm going to be here for 40-something games,'' Bichette said. "I told them, 'Dudes, don't waste your money on me. I don't need it. Get some other good players in here.'"

While Henderson, Henry Rodriguez, Mel Rojas and Chris Widger are among the recognizable names to have passed through the Atlantic League this summer, the league generated its biggest news two weeks ago, when two Atlantic City Surf employees got in trouble for making jokes about New Jersey Gov. Jim McGreevey's sexual orientation. They managed to retain their jobs thanks to a gubernatorial pardon.

Dante's Big Adventure hasn't received a lot of national play, but it's created a buzz among his former teammates, who are getting a huge kick out of the slugger reinventing himself at 40.

Reds first baseman Sean Casey left a message on Bichette's cell phone last week, consisting mostly of laughter, and Boston's Ellis Burks did a double-take when informed of Bichette's new career path.

"Dante did what?" Burks said.

Don Baylor, Bichette's former Colorado manager and now hitting coach with the Mets, wasn't as surprised. "My wife talks to Dante's wife all the time,'' Baylor said. "When I heard he wanted to pitch, I thought, 'He hasn't gotten it out of his blood yet.'"

For those who think Bichette is trying to make people forget Brooks Kieschnick -- or Babe Ruth -- he's actually just a proud father who aims to please. He decided to return largely at the request of his little boy Bo, who's six years old and was only three when Bichette retired in 2001.

Bichette, who last pitched as a high school senior in Jupiter, Fla., possessed one of baseball's strongest outfield arms with California in the late 1980s and Milwaukee in the early '90s, and he loved to show it off. Then he blew out his knee, and his throws lost all semblance of zing.

Bichette made his pitching debut in Nashua with four promising innings out of the bullpen. Then it all unraveled in a 16-3 loss to Newark on Saturday. He lasted two innings as a starter, was victimized by some bad defense (really), and allowed eight earned runs. His ERA ballooned from 0.00 to 12.00 in the process, and things would have been worse if Rickey Henderson had accompanied the Bears on the trip.

A professional scout who watched the game clocked Bichette's fastball at a legitimate 90 mph, and said his split-finger pitch "wasn't bad.'' But Bichette's fastball is so straight you can hang clothes on it, and the splitter is useless when he's always behind 2-0 in the count.

"He didn't look like a pitcher," the scout said. "He looked like a position player trying to pitch. But I give him credit -- he has more arm strength than most guys."

Not to mention a better sense of humor. With Nashua in a pennant race, Bichette plans to refrain from pitching again until a playoff spot is assured. Then he'll appeal to Hobson and Wise for another crack at it, just to erase the memory of Saturday's blowout.

"I hope people don't think I'm trying to get back to the big leagues as a pitcher,'' Bichette. "That's a joke. I'm almost 41 years old, and I'm just trying to have some fun."

Mission accomplished. The day after his 16-3 mound debacle, Bichette singled in two runs and picked up stolen base No. 7. He's done more cavorting than Prime Time the Nashua moose.

"I told these guys, 'I lost one with my arm. Now I'll win two with my bat,'" he said.

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