Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: FRIDAY, March 1, 1991 TAG: 9103010068
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: B4 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: By TIM KEOWN SAN FRANCISCO CHRONICLE
DATELINE: SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ. LENGTH: Medium
The pockets have been emptied, the soul bared. If the annual tribal rite of spring is renewal, then here is its poster child.
"Every morning when I wake up," Leach says, "I thank my lucky stars."
Leach is back with the Giants after a 1990 season that saw the high point of his baseball career run headlong into the low point of his life.
He became the Giants' starting right fielder and hit better than .300 through most of the summer, finishing at .293. But success was stripped of its significance on Aug. 6, when Leach was suspended for 60 days for testing positive for cocaine. There are still three regular-season days to serve on the suspension.
"It was like somebody stuck a knife in my heart," he said after Sunday's workout at Scottsdale Stadium. "The only way I can explain it is that I was just completely numb."
Leach said his problems with substance abuse began at the end of his college career at Michigan, where he was a star quarterback. There were also two incidents involving marijuana use, one when Leach was with the Toronto Blue Jays and another when he was with the Texas Rangers. Still, there had been no comprehensive treatment.
"This was what they call a relapse," he said. "It was just a short, brief period where I let my guard down."
The Giants faded down the stretch, finishing 27-28 after Leach's departure. He spent 28 days of that time in a rehabilitation clinic in the Bay Area, where he learned that the world wasn't as small as he thought.
"When you see what other people have gone through, in a lot of ways I'm very, very fortunate," Leach said. "Some people hit rock-bottom where they lose everything - job, family, home.
"I told my parents and my wife that even though I played four years of college football [at Michigan], I've never been through as much pain as I was during that 28-day period. But for all the sorrow and disappointment that comes with letting a lot of people down, . . . you have to be able to deal with it and put it behind you."
As time passed, Leach said, baseball became a secondary concern for the first time. He came to the realization that the addiction was always there, waiting to turn temptation into self-destruction.
"No matter how you cut the cake, I created the situation," he said. "Something can always happen, and now I have to deal with it.
"I don't look at it as a bad situation. I look at it as a good situation because either way, baseball's not going to go on forever. There are other things I want to accomplish in life. I hadn't thought that way before."
There was doubt in Leach's mind as to whether he would be allowed to return to the Giants this spring. After meetings with general manager Al Rosen, assistant general manager Ralph Nelson and manager Roger Craig, the Giants decided to give him another chance.
Said Craig: "It's like a kid; when they get in trouble, you always worry that they'll do it again. But he had never had any treatment before. Right now he looks great; I just hope he can stay with it."
"A lot of people went to bat for me in the organization, from the top to the bottom," he said. "The only way I know how to pay them back is by being an outstanding person both on the field and off the field.
by CNB