Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, July 17, 1994 TAG: 9408100024
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ray Cox
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
When the time came for Hodges to tell key figures in the Albany-Colonie Yankees' organization what was on his mind, he went straight to the top.
He went to the clubhouse guy.
Mike Begley freaked.
``What do you mean, you're going to retire?'' Begley asked the 24-year-old right-hander .
Begley was having a hard time getting a handle on the concept of a guy who was having the best year of his Class AA career walking away from it.
``I'm doing it,'' said Hodges, who threw his first pitch as a youngster back on the red dirt sandlots of Rocky Mount. ``Tonight is my last start. I want you to take some pictures so I'll have something to remember it by.''
Begley, a professional photographer on the side, took the pictures. He also spilled the beans.
Hodges made his start and pitched well, holding the opposition to seven hits and two walks while striking out four in 62/3 innings. He and the Yanks were 2-1 winners.
The next morning, he went to see his mentor, pitching coach Dave Schuler.
``Schu, I've got something to tell you,'' he said. ``Can we go in your office?''
``I think I know what you're going to say,'' said the pitching coach, who had talked to Begley.
Schuler told Hodges he still believed Hodges could pitch in the big leagues, but that he would support any decision Hodges made.
Hodges' manager, Bill Evers, had a different reaction when Hodges met with him
``He was pretty shocked,'' Hodges said. ``He told me to make sure the decision was all mine and not to do anything that I was going to regret later.''
The numbers for Hodge's final season were a 5-1 record and a 3.62 earned run average.
It's a month later and Hodges is living in Woodbridge, working in property management with the same firm that employs his wife, Dolly. He has few regrets.
``I miss some of the guys, but I don't miss walking out on the field,'' he said. ``Five years was long enough.''
Hodges considered himself an overachiever, when he was pitching for coach Abe Naff at Ferrum College and in the pros. The crux of the matter was Hodges had lost his desire to achieve.
``I just don't want to play baseball anymore, whether it be in the big leagues or anywhere else,'' he said.
Hodges had thought about quitting during the winter after going 10-10 with a 4.72 record for Albany-Colonie. Dolly talked him out of it. He had a good spring camp, making it even more disheartening when he wasn't assigned to Class AAA Columbus.
But he stuck with it until the thought of pitching just one more game stuck in his craw.
``The drive just wasn't there,'' he said. ``I was cheating myself.''
Perhaps if he'd been in a different organization, things would have been different.
``If everybody quit who was frustrated with the Yankees, then they wouldn't have enough to field one team,'' he said.
Which was not to say his experience with the organization was total misery.
``The Yankees have the classiest organization in baseball in one sense,'' he said. ``They do more for their players than anybody. We stayed in the best hotels. We had the best equipment. ...
``But they're always talking about loyalty to the organization, then they do something like go out and sign [pitcher] Greg Harris out of another organization, and then they send a guy like Sam Militello, who has been in this organization, back to Triple-A.''
Hodges was trapped. Not being a top prospect, he wasn't going to be traded. But he pitched too well to be released.
``It won't do you any good to request to be released; they won't do it,'' he said of Yankees officials. ``Guys go in there every spring training and beg to be released.''
The reaction back home has been supportive. Naff's view has been typical.
``He told me that he didn't like me because I was pitching in pro ball, he liked me because I'm Darren Hodges,'' the former Panther said.
Those who don't understand how Hodges could walk away from every kid's dream probably never will.
``They've never taken a nine-hour bus ride, either,'' he said.
That's something else Hodges won't miss.
``Baseball will get along without me,'' he said.
PROMOTED: Another local pitcher, Patrick County's Brad Clontz, has been summoned from Class AA Greenville to Class AAA Richmond and was in uniform Friday. The former Virginia Tech standout was 1-2 with a 1.20 ERA and 27 saves in 29 opportunities with Greenville, S.C. Clontz had 49 strikeouts in 45 innings and hadn't walked a batter since May 17.
by CNB