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This guy looked like a walrus last time I saw him: I suppose the exercise couldn't hurt.
]Rocker chases perfect pitch
Thursday, April 13, 2006
BY JAY LUSTIG
Star-Ledger Staff
IN 2000, political newcomer Pat DiNizio, best known as the frontman of the Jersey-based rock band the Smithereens, ran for the U.S. Senate. He ended up in fourth place, about 1.5 million votes behind winner Jon Corzine.
Now he has a goal that will really raise some eyebrows. He wants to be a middle-aged rookie.
Next week, DiNizio, 50, of Scotch Plains, will travel to Lakeland, Fla., to begin spring training with the Somerset Patriots, a minor-league team that plays its home games at the Commerce Bank Ballpark in Bridgewater. He's trying to make the roster as a designated hitter and part-time first baseman; there is no guarantee there will be a spot for him.
"After endless workouts, and hours and hours each day spent in the batting cage, I can actually hit very well," says the ever optimistic singer-songwriter-guitarist, whose hits with the Smithereens include "A Girl Like You," "Only a Memory" and "Too Much Passion." "So I'm hoping for the best, and we'll see what happens after those two weeks in Lakeland."
A film crew will be on hand to shoot footage for a reality special that is scheduled to air on ESPN2 in July. It's tentatively titled "7th Inning Stretch."
"This is really an impossible dream, but he's doing it anyway," says Mark Durand, senior director of development for ESPN Original Entertainment. "I think that there's human interest in that, and it's an unusual story.
"If he even gets one (official) at-bat, he will have really fulfilled something. He swings really well -- he seems to get his bat on anything that's pitched to him -- but running and fielding is another matter."
DiNizio has not given up on music. He still plays with the Smithereens and is planning to release a new solo album in late May. "It'll be just me and a piano player, doing the standards of my generation -- songs like 'California Dreamin' ' and 'Wichita Lineman,'" he says.
He will also present a May 27-28 concert/picnic at his house in Scotch Plains, where he will perform with Smithereens guitarist Jim Babjak, jam with fans, and serve food and drinks. (For ticket information, visit www.patdinizio.com).
For the immediate future, though, baseball will be foremost in his mind. DiNizio says he's trying to fulfill a childhood dream, but that's just part of what this is about.
"I was really sick for about two years," he says. "I had this life-threatening case of hives that put me in and out of emergency rooms, and cut off my breathing, and I had to go on prednisone. That's the powerful steroid that Jerry Lewis is on, which is why he looks like the Michelin Man.
"It ballooned my weight up to 340 pounds. I got to the point where I was starting to lose my ability to walk. I couldn't lift my arms above my waist. I couldn't grip with my right hand. And I said, 'I've got to get hold of myself here.'"
He was watching a lot of televised baseball at the time, he said, and noticed how lackadaisical many pro players seemed.
"I said, 'Man, if I had the chance to do it, I'd go all out,'" he says. "And I had a vision quest in my mind. I said, 'I'm going to get my health back. I just want to play in the adult hardball leagues in New Jersey, and feel that feeling again.'"
DiNizio says that since he formed that vision quest, his health has improved dramatically. Even the hives have gone away, he says, "due to a change in lifestyle -- a lot more exercise, certainly a healthier diet, vitamin supplementation."
"I also found out I have a problem with my thyroid, so I'm on medication for that as well. So we corrected all that stuff, but I think, in the end, it was the vision quest I formed in my mind that helped me get off the prednisone and get back on the right track, toward being healthy again."
Along the way, DiNizio has received tips from former baseball stars like Don Mattingly and Tony Gwynn, taken batting practice with Boston Red Sox pitcher David Wells, and discussed baseball with rock musicians who have an interest in the sport, such as Bruce Springsteen, Joan Jett and George Thorogood. Footage of DiNizio with all these people could wind up in the ESPN2 special.
"Basically, this is about his effort to go on this middle-aged quest and fulfill a dream that we all latently share," says Durand. "And when he meets with his musician friends, they all share the same dream. Even Joan Jett wanted to be a baseball player." |
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