A Baseball Life…Andy Etchebarren

The 2011 season with the York Revolution marks Andy Etchebarren’s 50^th year in professional baseball.  There have been many stops along the way to this point for the Revs wildly popular manager.  A long Major League playing career as a catcher, predominantly with the Orioles and then the Angels and Brewers to finish up, led to an even longer career in coaching and managing.  “Etch,” as he is affectionately known throughout baseball, went on to the Major League coaching staff of the Milwaukee Brewers following his playing days, before returning to his roots with the Baltimore Orioles as both a Major League coach and minor league manager.  Prior to taking the reins in York, Etch managed at every level in the O’s system, from Rookie Ball to Triple-A and was a part of the coaching staff for the most recent playoff teams in Baltimore.   He recently sat down with radio play-by-play announcer Darrell Henry, to share just a few of many experiences (and of course opinions) about his time in the game.

DH:  Growing up in California, when did you start playing baseball?

Etch: Well, at a very young age, I can’t really remember but probably six or seven years old in little league.  I stayed in little league until I was 12. 

DH:  Did you grow up with anybody out there that went on to the big leagues like you did?

Etch: No, not really.  I’m from a small town in California called La Puente.  In Spanish that stands for "the bridge." 

DH: Is there a bridge there?

Etch: No there’s not.

DH: What’s the town like, tell me what life was like back then.

Etch: Well I grew up on a 20 acre orange farm, so I can remember my Mom and Dad waking us up at two or three o’clock in the morning and getting coal we had to go out and turn the smudge pots on and stuff like that to save the fruit.  It was a fun time in my life. 

DH: Did they both work in the farm business at home?

Etch: No, they were really in the restaurant business but that’s just where we lived so we had to take care of that also.

DH: Do you think that kind of shaped your toughness from an early age?  You strike me as a hard working guy and I’m sure that’s how you were as a player.

Etch: Well, I would guess that’s what happened.  My Mom and Dad worked awfully hard too so you helped out as much as you could and we were very fortunate we had a good upbringing. 

DH: Do you have brothers and sisters?

Etch: I had two brothers, one is gone now.

DH: What were some of your other interests besides baseball growing up?

Etch: Well I didn’t really have many other interests besides football and baseball.  That’s about all I did so those were really the only two things I did growing up.

DH: Did you play football in high school?

Etch: Yes, I did.

DH: What position?

Etch: Offensively I was a fullback and defensively I was a middle linebacker.

DH: Did you consider pursuing football or were you a baseball guy all the way?

Etch: Well I had some scholarships for football, none for baseball.  I could’ve went to the Naval Academy.  I could’ve went to USC or UCLA.  I had scholarships there but I just decided I really wanted to play baseball, and I was engaged my senior year in high school so as soon as I knew I could sign for a little bit of money I could get married real quick so that’s what I did. 

DH: What kind of student were you?

Etch: Pretty good, I had my own private tutor so that made it easier. 

DH: Who did you root for growing up?  Were you a fan of any of the Southern California teams?

Etch: In football I’ve always been a USC fan, but the Dodgers once they moved from New York to the Coliseum.  My Dad used to take me to watch them play in the Coliseum. 

DH: When you signed with the Orioles, what do you remember about signing day?  How did it come to happen?

Etch: At that time when I signed there was no draft so I had four or five teams that wanted to sign me.  For some reason I liked the Orioles and I liked the scout that scouted me, Jim Wilson was his name.  He’s not here anymore but then Paul Richards was also the manager of the Baltimore team when I signed.  Harry Dalton flew out to California to sign me, he was the farm director at that time and I just thought it was the right thing to do and it did work out.  It worked out really well for me.

DH: So where did you first have to go and what was it like being away from home for the first time on your own?

Etch: I signed out of June in high school and I went to Aberdeen, South Dakota and then from there I went to winter ball in Clearwater, Florida.  Then I made the Elmira team in my first full year in the Eastern League which would be Double-A now, and then from that year I went to the big leagues for a month and that was the first time I went to the big leagues.

DH: Did you have to grow up pretty fast considering you were still a teenager at the time?

Etch: Yeah but I never felt overwhelmed.  I never felt overwhelmed because I knew I could catch and throw.  I got some hits when I needed to get some hits but I never felt overwhelmed because I knew I could do certain things. 

DH: Even making your big league debut at 19?

Etch: Yes, I got my first hit the first game.  The first game I ever caught is still the shortest game in Baltimore history.  Dave McNally and I were roommates in Elmira that year and we both got called up the last month.  He started against Kansas City one game and I caught him and he threw a two-hit shutout in an hour and thirty-two minutes. 

DH: Being a young guy, how much charge would you take in a game or would you let him run the show in that case?

Etch: Well that game I knew McNally because I caught him all year so I knew what he wanted to do.  I got a report and went over all of the hitters with the manager and the pitching coach before the game, so he threw the ball pretty much where he wanted to throw it all night with a pretty good breaking ball.  It’s still the shortest game in Baltimore history.

DH: Who was your favorite pitcher to catch, can you name one out of that group?

Etch: Well they were all pretty good pitchers.  People ask me all the time who’s the best pitcher I ever caught well I caught Nolan Ryan in California, I caught Jimmy Palmer who was a great pitcher.  Jimmy Palmer and Nolan Ryan should’ve been good pitchers with the stuff they had but I would think Dave McNally is the best pitcher I’ve ever caught.  I think he won 20 games four times and I think he won 180 games or something like that in the big leagues.  He wasn’t overpowering, but he just knew how to pitch. 

DH: You hear Jim Palmer on TV and he seems like a very analytical guy and has a very analytical approach to the game.  What was he like as a pitcher, did you ever have to get in to his head as a catcher?

Etch: I got into more than his head.  Jimmy is Jimmy so you have to let him know right off the bat that he’s not in control all the time so once we got that understood we were fine.

DH: Catching Nolan Ryan what was it like catching his stuff?  Did your hand ever hurt?

Etch: No, he had a solid fastball.  He threw 100 but it wasn’t a heavy fastball.  It wasn’t a 2-seam sinker, those are the ones that really get you.  Palmer was very light too when I talk about the four seam guys.  Ryan had a great curveball and a great change-up.  He was overpowering when he had his good stuff and you couldn’t beat him when he did.  I caught him in a game in Toronto where he struck out 19 guys and they didn’t have a chance. 

DH: How big was the curveball from your view behind the plate?

Etch: Well it wasn’t a big curveball but it was a hard curveball and he commanded it pretty good. 

DH: Lets go back to the minor league days tell me about the events that transpired the night of the trash can incident?

Etch: Well why would you want to know about that?  That happened in York, PA when I was 19 years old I can’t remember that far back how’s that. 

DH: Are you choosing to not remember?

Etch: I’m choosing not to remember, yes.

DH: How about the season in Triple-A where you caught 140 games out of how many?

Etch: 142, and I also broke my thumb that year and missed two games. 

DH: Is that why you had the two games off?

Etch: Yes, that’s why I had the two off. 

DH: When in the season did you break it?

Etch: I think it was the second half.

DH: But there was a substantial amount of games left when you came back with a broken thumb?

Etch: Yes.

DH: How did you feel when the season was over?

Etch: I was a little tired but when you signed that’s what you did.  1966 was my first full season in Baltimore and we’re talking about how hot it is right now, and I remember catching a doubleheader in Washington against the Senators and the old ballpark where it was down in a hole like with the weather like it is right now.  I caught the first game of the doubleheader which we won and I was drenched and a little worn out but when I came in (Hank) Bowers said I better go take a cold shower because you’re catching the second game too.  I caught 18 innings that day and I’ll never forget this, I started the day at 205 pounds and lost 18 pounds during that doubleheader. 

DH: What were the expectations for a catcher back then?  Was it a defensive position whereas today you have some guys who can hit a little bit?

Etch: I think it was more of a defensive position back then.  I think it started to change with Johnny Bench and Thurman Munson and a couple guys like that, where it started to change just like shortstop was.  There’s a lot of shortstops, Mark Belanger was one of the greatest shortstops to ever play but he is a very defensive shortstop and you have to be on the right team when that happens, because if you have enough hitters to protect your defensive players you become a really solid ballclub.

DH: How would you have described yourself, how were you known as a player?

Etch: I think Hank Bowers explained it one time that I’d run through a wall.  I played as hard as I could and it upsets me today when I see players flipping bats and not running hard and not playing hard.  It bothers me very much.

DH: If that ever happened back then was the game such that somebody would be getting drilled the next time they came up?

Etch: Absolutely, with the things that go on today with the hitters hitting home runs and flipping bats and standing at home plate you wouldn’t do that too many times if you were facing guys like Bob Gibson and many others.  If you did that to them they felt like you were showing them up.  You hit a home run and get around the bases, that’s your job, but when you start showing them up they’re going to come after you the next time up. 

DH: Who was the toughest pitcher you faced?

Etch: The toughest pitcher for me to hit was Gene Chance when he was in Minnesota. 

DH: As far as Koufax and Gibson, did you get to stand in against them, I’m sure Koufax in the World Series?

Etch: Well I’m the last person to ever face Sandy Koufax before he retired and I hit into a double play (in the 1966 World Series).  Davey Johnson who hit in front of me was the last person to ever get a hit off of him.  We swept them four straight that year but that’s the only time I’ve faced him.

DH: Now in the World Series it’s all the glitz, the TV, and the night games so what was the atmosphere like back then in the World Series?

Etch: It’s probably about the same as it is now with just a little less glamour.  There was no divisional play, the winners of the American and National League would play each other so the two best teams went at it right off the bat. 

DH: You were part of that "Oriole Way," what does that mean to you, those two words?

Etch: Playing hard and having enough good players to win.  The Oriole Way was great because we had so many good players.  They taught you in the minor leagues how they wanted you to play when you got to the big leagues.  I don’t know if that’s happening today, I really don’t.

DH: Do you have a favorite Earl Weaver story or maybe his best ejection that you witnessed?

Etch: The best I’ve ever witnessed was in the minor leagues.  He started arguing with an umpire at home plate and he threw his hands up in the air and fell to the ground.  I mean he fell hard, he could barely talk and was barely breathing and the medics came out to the field and carried him off on a stretcher.  As soon as he got back he had a beer and he was fine. 

DH: If you played hard for him was he an easy guy to play for?

Etch: Absolutely, all the managers I’ve played for as long as you played hard for them they were easy.  They say Hank Bowers was a tough old Marine and this and that and all he wanted you to do was play hard, but he stepped on the pedal and played his best players and would run you until you ran out of gas. 

DH: Lets get into your coaching days, how did you break in, you were still playing in 1977 so how did you first break in to coaching with the Angels?

Etch: The manager and general manger both called me in during the 1976 season and wanted to know if I would consider being a player-coach so I could start sitting in on some meetings and start to learn about some decisions being made in the front office and stuff like that.  I said yes and that is where it started. 

DH: Did you take a few years off then before getting into the minor leagues?

Etch: I opened a health and racquetball club and that was a bad thing, because that was really work.  You have to be there at five o’clock in the morning and you open up at six when the people want to come and work out in the gym and play racquetball in the morning before they go to work.  You close at 11 o’clock at night so you don’t get out of there until midnight, and I got tired of that after a couple of years since you’re open seven days a week.  That was a tough go but I got rid of it and got back into baseball and it was perfect.

DH: Where was that?

Etch: I went back to work in Milwaukee as roving catching instructor and while I was doing that the manager of the Brewers called me and asked if I would be one of his coaches.  I was with Milwaukee for eight or nine years.

DH: Your first year as a manager in the minors with the Brewers was 1984? 

Etch: I filled in at Stockton one year but I actually wasn’t a manager with the Brewers.  They let the manager go there and I filled in for about a month and a half or something.  I went to the big leagues as a coach with them for eight or nine years, and they changed the staff there so I came back to work for the Orioles the next year in Bluefield and then I was with the Orioles for a long time after that.

DH: What is it like managing in the lower levels?  I’m sure it isn’t glamorous in a place like Bluefield, West Virginia.

Etch: I had a good time managing there.  There were a lot of mountains there and it was beautiful.  I had mostly young kids, high school kids, so you really had to teach there and it was fun.  Teaching under-20 year olds how to play was a lot of fun.  In Triple-A it wasn’t too much fun because you get a lot of guys kicked back from the big leagues and older guys.  You get one guy called up and you get three others mad because they thought they should’ve been called up to the big leagues.  That was a tough job, Triple-A is a tough job. 

DH: Did you have a lot of those meetings in your office having to explain why?

Etch: Yes I did but I don’t think they quite understood. 

DH: So out of all of the places you’ve managed where would you rank York?  How have you enjoyed your time here with the fans and the community and everything?

Etch: There’s no doubt I’ve had a wonderful time here with the fans and the community and the ownership.  I really like the people I work for and the people in Opening Day Partners.  I could probably leave next year and go back to the big leagues if I wanted to but I’m not going to do that.  That does nothing for me and I don’t want to do that anymore.  Those four or five a.m. flights I still remember and I don’t want to do those anymore because they are not a whole lot of fun.

DH: Let me ask you about some of the Hall-of-Famers you coached in the major leagues.  Paul Monitor you had in Milwaukee, what do you remember about the way he went about his job?

Etch: Well I’ll talk about two Hall-of-Famers since you’re talking about him.  Like I’ve told all my players, I was fortunate enough to stay there eight years and not once did I see Paul Monitor or Robin Yount not run out a ball hard, not once. 

DH: How about Cal Ripken Jr. in Baltimore?

Etch: Cal played everyday even hurt when he shouldn’t have been in there.  He might’ve hurt the club doing that but he had the streak going so he wasn’t going to give it up. 

DH: How often do you get to talk to some of your old teammates?

Etch: I talked to Brooks the other day and he’s got a tough road ahead of him but he’s feeling better.  He’s thinking of coming to York shortly.

DH: Since we’re on the topic, I remember seeing you coaching when they ran the game when Eddie Murray hit his 500^th home run, another Hall-of-Famer you spent some time with.

Etch: Yeah I was there when he hit his 500^th home run.  You know I’ve seen a lot of good players and a lot of Hall-of-Famers.  I’m glad some guys got in now like Bly (Bert Blyleven) just got in, he was in a small market for a long time.  To have the numbers that he had as a pitcher and not be in the Hall of Fame I thought was not fair at all. 

DH: Last thing here, the manager you worked with in Baltimore and now in Washington, Davey Johnson, how good were those 1996 and 1997 Oriole teams that you were with?

Etch: They were pretty good teams.  The second year we went wire to wire and we had nine guys hit 20 or more home runs in the lineup, I don’t know if that’s ever happened.  The pitching was ok but Davey Johnson probably handled the pitching staff better than any manager I’ve ever played for.