US coach teaches French baseballers not to kick ball
June 17, 2004 - AFP
PARIS (AFP) - A country where soccer reigns supreme is tough territory for a baseball coach, especially one who doesn’t speak the language.
“They have no games in France where you throw things,” says California native and French national baseball team pitching coach, Andrew Sallee.
“I have a friend with a baby and the first thing he does when you put a ball in his hands is drop it on the ground and kick it.”
For his interview, Sallee proposes meeting in a neighborhood cafe in Paris’ 11th arrondissement. He’s as at home there, reading a book of Hunter S. Thompson letters called “The Proud Highway,” as he is on the baseball diamond.
The 35-year-old coach claims baseball “has an element of toughness that most sports here don’t.” Indeed, at a weekend baseball tournament in the outskirts of the French city of Orleans, a well-built player takes a pitch on the arm and soon after asks to be taken out of the game. Sallee is not happy.
Sallee’s official role with the French baseball organization, the FFBSC (where the American pastime is lumped in with cricket), is a little fuzzy.
Technically, he is the pitching director for the national team, but a day after the interview he is hitting ground balls to the shortstop before a game. It turns out to be the rough equivalent of a pickup game with players as old as 28 (a national team player) to a 15-year old newbie in right field. Sallee wears a Cuban game jersey that he got in a 4 a.m. swap at a tournament. “I traded a pair of tennis shoes for it with a guy from their team,” he said.
Once the game starts, Sallee puts on a glove and pitches a few innings before switching over to shortstop. When his team is at bat, he plays third base coach.
He explains his work, and for a moment, between the different levels of leagues and players he deals with, it seems like he has about eight different jobs, but he sums it up by saying, “Basically, I’m just a baseball coach.”
In Orleans, Sallee met the new coach for the Montpellier Barracudas, Katy, TX, native Eddie Welling. In France for only three weeks, Welling is enjoying the transition to French life; “I love the passionate European lifestyle—it’s an incredibly friendly atmosphere.” He also echoes Sallee’s description on the variety of his job; “You don’t know what to expect when you get here!”
Sallee’s route to France was a mix of luck and timing. He grew up in Sonoma, California, played ball at Claremont McKenna College in Claremont, also in California, where he received both his undergraduate and later his graduate degree in teaching.
He played minor league ball for the Philadelphia Phillies (news) between 1991 and 1993 and was invited to play for other minor league teams in 1994, but, as he says, “Three years was probably enough.”
While studying for his graduate degree, he coached ball for McKenna’s athletic director, Normandy veteran and international baseball proponent, Bill Acre.
Thanks to Acre’s contacts, Sallee found a job in France in 2001 where “I wrote my own job description and they approved it.”
Now, he seems to have the best of both sides of the Pond.
Though he’s not doing cartwheels about his pay, he’s traveled with French teams across the country, across the Continent and even across the Atlantic to Cuba.
“I spoke no French when I got here,” he said and nearly three years later, play on the field takes place in a mix of French, English, a bit of Spanish (thanks to a Cuban coach) and a lot of body language.
“Last year he’d give his speeches in French, but this year he seems to be regressing,” joked one player.
One thing does remain the same no matter which side of the Atlantic you’re on: when an ump calls a strike, it’s as unintelligible in French as it is in English.
Along with his work on French baseball diamonds, Sallee has been crisscrossing the Pond this spring to watch one of his French players now on a team in Bellevue, Washington State, as well as working in places like Montana and Arizona to set up other trips to the United States for young French players.
Despite the international travel and Parisian cafes, Sallee’s life isn’t always perfect.
“I get frustrated with the bureaucratic headaches,” he says, referring to the paperwork that France is infamous for, “but then I think, ‘Hey c’mon! I live in Paris!’”
