MINOR LEAGUE NOTEBOOK / JIM LINDGREN : Pitcher Dan Boone Gets Second Chance

By JIM LINDGREN

July 23, 1991 12 AM PT

Having been out of professional baseball for 5 1/2 years and at an age when most former players get into coaching or some other line of work, former Padre pitcher and San Diego resident Dan Boone managed to get back on the mound.

Boone, 37, is pitching for the Texas Rangers’ triple-A affiliate in Oklahoma City after spending most of last season with the Baltimore Orioles’ triple-A club in Rochester, N.Y.

Boone’s revived career came courtesy of the now-defunct Senior League. His biography, which appears in the 1991 Orioles’ media guide, is one of the strangest in baseball.

He has been featured in both Sports Illustrated and The Wall Street Journal, and a reputable baseball card company inadvertently made a card listing him as a 1991 rookie prospect. Boone lost his rookie status in 1981.

Out of professional baseball since 1984, Boone hooked on with Daytona Beach, Fla., in the Senior League in 1989 and pitched well enough that Baltimore signed him in February 1990, and assigned him to Rochester.

There, he was 11-5 last year with a 2.60 ERA (second in the International League) and had Rochester’s first no-hitter in 17 years.

In September, he was called up to Baltimore and had a 2.79 ERA in 9 2/3 innings. His first pitch ended a span of 2,907 days (nearly eight years) between major league appearances, the longest hiatus since Jim Bouton went eight years, 42 days between appearances in the 1970s.

Now for the weird stuff.

In Baltimore’s media guide--he was released after the publishing deadline and signed by Texas--it states:

* “(During his eight-year hiatus, Boone) pitched in something called the Adult Diamond Amateur Baseball Assn. (in San Diego), requiring a $35 entry fee plus umpires’ fees.” (It’s actually the American Diamond Adult Baseball Assn.)

* “Spent his free time hanging drywall.”

* “(Boone) is the seventh-generation nephew of the famous frontiersman by the same name.”

* “We believe that at 139 pounds, Boone and Bobby Shantz (1949-64) . . . are the lightest to pitch in the majors since 126-pound Nick Carter, who pitched in 14 games for the Philadelphia Athletics in 1908.”

Said Dick Pryor, director of public relations for Oklahoma City: “It’s kind of funny. When he’s down there warming up in the bullpen, you have to look twice to make sure it’s not one of the batboys goofing off. Every one of them is bigger than him.”

Relatively Good Job: San Diego native Jim Nettles is known more as the brother of Graig Nettles than for his own accomplishments during six major league seasons. So it should not surprise many to learn that Jim is quietly enjoying his best year as a manager, leading the Seattle Mariners’ double-A affiliate in Jacksonville, Fla.

Among those playing for Nettles are Tim Stargell (Willie’s nephew), Bret Boone (Bob’s son) and Jim Campanis (Jim’s son and Al’s grandson).

Additionally, the Suns have Jeff Nelson, whose uncle, Cole Nelson, played for the Washington Senators, and Frank C. Bolick, whose father, Frank J. Bolick, also played for the Senators.

And the name that appears at the top of Nettles’ lineup card is Ted Williams, but he’s no relation to the Ted Williams.

In eight previous seasons as a manager, Nettles has had only one winning team, but the Suns are 54-45 this season.

Some Like It Hot: Steve Phoenix, a 1986 Valhalla High graduate, was born in Phoenix and studied wildlife management at Grand Canyon College before transferring to Grossmont College and eventually signing with the Oakland A’s organization last summer. Phoenix is 4-1 with single-A Modesto.

Didn’t We Just Face This Guy? Former U.S. International pitcher Mike Whisonant follows Matt Whisenant in the rotation for Batavia, Philadelphia’s single-A entrant in the New York-Penn League.

Independent Man: After being fired last fall as the director of minor league operations for the Padres, Tom Romenesko was hired as a consultant for the five independent teams in the minor leagues. Romenesko’s job is to stock those teams with players. He could wind up working himself out of the job.

Quoted in Baseball America in June, Romenesko said: “This little project I have, I have to do it well enough so I eliminate my job.”