Persistence starting to pay off for 51s catcher

Nick Christensen

Thursday, Aug. 12, 2004 | 9:09 a.m.

"He's the luckiest guy in the world."

So said Las Vegas 51s manager Terry Kennedy, once an all-star catcher himself, of the diminutive Eric Langill, a backup catcher who got a few breaks to get where he is today.

That destination being a backup catcher in Triple-A.

Langill doesn't look like a ballplayer. He's a stocky 5-foot-7 with a mop of dirty blonde hair. He doesn't play like a normal catcher, shifting his legs and feet like a hockey goalie behind the plate. 51s broadcaster Russ Langer once likened him to the team mascot.

In fact, Langill wasn't even in the team's 2004 media guide. By contrast, there are 16 players in the media guide who never suited up in a 51s uniform this year.

Langill basically wasn't supposed to be here.

"They said coming here, I'd be the third guy," Langill explained. "It was this or Vero."

As in Class A Vero Beach, where Langill hit .246 last year in 27 games. It was the highest batting average of his career. It was also the most games he played in one season in his career, save for his last year in the Montreal organization, when he hit .201 in 2001 for Class A Clinton.

So Langill chose to be the third man in Las Vegas, behind catching prospect Koyie Hill and his backup, Ryan Kellner. Langill knew that this was still his best chance. There was speculation that Dodgers catcher Paul Lo Duca could go to left field. There was talk that Hill could be traded.

"I kept at it, working on my hits, throwing," he said. "Everything but playing."

Last month, Langill got his chance. Lo Duca got traded, as did Hill. With a month left in the season and the 51s struggling to stay out of last place in the Pacific Coast League, the team stuck with Kellner -- and Langill would sub.

"Koyie's a good friend of mine . ... It's good to see him in the majors," Langill said. "I'm happy, because it gave me the opportunity to play. I guess it's lucky, as long as I make good use of the opportunity."

Langill grew up in Montreal and always loved to play sports. His name was on rosters with a "C" next to it for position -- center, not catcher; and on the ice, not the diamond. Baseball was for three short months in the summer, when he played shortstop and pitcher. The rest of the year was reserved for hockey.

"You start later, because most of the time you're just playing hockey," he said. "We don't do much with baseball, except maybe throwing snowballs."

He played with Tampa Bay Lightning center Vincent Lecavalier, and still jokes about wanting to try out for the Las Vegas Wranglers. He watched Eric Gagne, just a little older, play junior elite hockey.

But there was still time for baseball, especially watching the Expos.

"I was a big Expos fan. My friends and I would sneak in pretending we were working in the restaurant," Langill said.

He decided to go to college in Iowa, at a school in Des Moines that only had one team -- because, he said, some schools have two teams and he didn't want to be relegated to the second one -- and attracted the attention of the same team he would sneak in to watch, the Expos. They picked him in the 34th round of the 1999 draft.

He was at his third spring training with the Expos, in 2002, when he got the call to head to the front offices.

"They said they were going to let me go; it was a numbers thing," he said. "But they said within a few minutes, the Dodgers would be giving me a call."

He didn't hesitate.

"The opportunity was there," he said. "As long as I have a jersey, I'll keep playing."

And so, he sweated it out with three teams in 2002, then as a reserve catcher with Vero Beach last year. This year, he put on all his gear, went out to the bullpen before every game, and prepared as if he were going to start that day.

So when the call came for a backup catcher, Kennedy didn't hesitate. Much.

"He wasn't supposed to sniff any action this year. He was here to help out," Kennedy said. "Behind the plate, I'm really confident in him. His offense is his Achilles' heel, but he calls a good game, and he's tough as nails, being a hockey player."

Above Langill's brow is a fresh, inch-long, scab, and bat boys, ushers and security guards on the field before Wednesday's game asked him where it came from.

"At first, I thought it was somebody's finger," he said, referring to two collisions at home plate he experienced in the second game of Tuesday's doubleheader. "It was (the front of) his helmet."

Langill lost both collisions, staying in place like a brick wall as the ball bounced out of his glove from the force of the crash.

When he's not facing oncoming traffic at home plate, Langill is shifting his legs, arms, and torso in various positions that are, at best, unusual for a catcher.

That, too, Langill credits to hockey.

"I'm anxious when I get out there," he said. "I'm bored, I'm jumpy in everything I do. When I play hockey, I'm always into the game. I play baseball the same way. I get anxious, because I'm excited to play."

All that nervous energy has translated into a start about once a series, something that will likely continue through the remaining 25 games of the season, and perhapst through the rest of his year-to-year contract.

"They treat me well here. Montreal's my home team and all, but these guys treat me a lot better," he said. "Hopefully I'll be able to stay as a Dodger."