FanHouse AndyVanSlyke

One of the things I'm still not used to seeing this spring is the first and third base coaches all paying their respect to John Olerud this season by wearing those batting practice helmets while out in the field this season. It's a new rule baseball passed after the death of Mike Coolbaugh, who died after being hit in the head by a line drive while coaching first base.

Obviously, there are going to be some coaches who don't like wearing the helmet, as Larry Bowa showed earlier this spring when he refused to wear one in the Dodgers spring opener. After receiving a stern talking to, Bowa wore one in the Dodgers next game. While Tigers first base coach, Andy Van Slyke, has been wearing his helmet during games, he's not exactly happy about it.

"I don't ever have headaches," he said, "but because of the heat, I've had a headache after every game I've had to wear it. But I guess some of the new general managers, the Ivy League ones, believe it solves something.

"I've had Randy Johnson, in his first start in the big leagues, not knowing where the ball was going, coming so close to me that I felt the wind under my chin. So I think I have a pretty good idea about how to get out of the way of a baseball. The rule is eyewash.

"I'm not going to break the rule, but some coach is going to have a heart attack this year because of how hot he gets with a helmet on. It's going to be brutal.

"I don't people are thinking the rule through."

I don't know how things work in other cities, but whenever a managerial or coaching or front office job opens up with any of the major or collegiate sports teams in Pittsburgh, immediately the names of Pittsburghers and ex-players for the teams get mentioned in the local media. Sometimes they get the job and succeed (Bill Cowher, Chuck Tanner), sometimes they don't get the job (Russ Grimm), and sometimes they get the job and fail spectacularly (Dave Wannastedt). So it's not surprise to see names like ex-Bucco and current Tigers' first base coach Andy Van Slyke getting tossed around in conjunction with the Pirates' open managerial job. Would Van Slyke be interested? He says yes, but with a qualifier:

Van Slyke, who made three All-Star teams during his eight seasons with the Pittsburgh Pirates, said he would be interested in talking with the Pirates about their managerial vacancy.

"I would love to manage for the Pirates, but only if they were committed to winning, like they were when I played for them," he said.

With a dig like that, I'm sure he'll never get even a first look from the Pirates who, despite all of the front office turnover, still have basically the same ownership holding the reins to the team. I admit, as much as I like the guy, he's got quite a reputation as a goofball and a loose cannon (which he doesn't help by taking shots at teams like he did in that interview, even if he's right) and I'd be kind of surprised to see him managing in the near future.

Anyone that's familiar with Andy Van Slyke's playing or coaching career knows that the Tigers first base coach is not a terribly serious guy about much of anything. And so no one should be surprised that Van Slyke's reaction to having trouble with his subway tickets in New York City over the weekend was to just jump the gate. Unfortunately for him (and his wife, who jumped with him), he was easily spotted and fined $60. Also unsurprisingly, Van Slyke was unphased:

"They had us standing there, and people were walking by pointing at us, and yelling, 'Jumpers! Jumpers!' '' Van Slyke said Sunday morning. "It's great. It's New York City. A guy walked by and said, 'Andy, I don't think I can get an autograph now, can I?' ''

This is coming from the guy who supposedly wanted to be a TV weatherman when he was growing up. (He did a guest spot once on one of the Pittsburgh news channels as the weather guy and it was included on the Pittsburgh Pirates' 1991 highlight VHS, which I incidentally still have.) I suppose he settled for "all-star outfielder and eventual first-base coach," but he'd probably still tell you this was only his second choice.

Remember way back in February when MLB introduced a few new and exciting rules to the game? Well, one of them was pitchers were only allowed 12 seconds between pitches on the mound with no runners on base.

Rafael Betancourt got called for it twice Tuesday night.

A ball was added to the count of Carlos Guillen's at-bat in the eighth inning and Brandon Inge's at-bat in the ninth, which made it 3-and-2. Betancourt retired both batters.

The question is, after three months and 82 games, why did the umpires wait until now to flag Betancourt, whose slow pace dates to his time in the minor leagues?

At first, manager Eric Wedge assumed that someone from the Detroit Tigers -- possibly manager Jim Leyland -- asked the umpires to keep an eye on Betancourt. By Wednesday, the manager had revised his thinking.

``Jim didn't have anything to do with it,'' Wedge said. ``But somebody gave them a heads up. Why last night?''

Tigers first-base coach Andy Van Slyke denied that any coach was responsible, and third baseman Brandon Inge said it wasn't a player.

Betancourt had never been flagged for violating the rule before, but he had been prodded to speed up.

Count me among the fans of Curtis Granderson's blog on ESPN.com, especially when he hits the mailbag. From today's post:

Q: I've noticed that Andy Van Slyke is a really close talker. Does he ever creep you out?
-- Jerry (Farmington, Mich.)

No, he isn't creepy. The main reason he is close is to relay information to me so I can completely hear it and not misunderstand it or to just joke around a little bit. Remember, sometimes there are 30,000-40,000 people in the stands and they can be very loud.

Sounds like a reasonable explanation ... but what's Granderson supposed to say? He can't exactly call out one of his coaches on a website that millions of people read, can he? If you're a fan of the Tigers or Granderson, it's worth your time to check out the whole post, though sadly that's the only Seinfeld reference.