Al Leyva, the new head coach of the North Adams SteepleCats, stands in the dugout after his team's first practice of the season last weekend. Leyva might be new to North Adams, but he is no stranger to the NECBL, previously coaching at two other stops in the league. Photo: Ryan Hutton/North Adams Transcript

Tuesday, June 26
Al Leyva may be a new face for Steeplecats fans, but he is well known in NECBL circles.

North Adams is the third NECBL stop for Leyva, who previously coached for the Manchester Silkworms and the now-defunct Middletown Giants. And even though his "regular job" is 3,000 miles away, Leyva jumped at the chance to come back to New England.

"This is my fourth year with this league, and I really enjoy going out there," Leyva said last month from home in California. "Really, the only thing they have in this area is the Alaskan League, which is a little closer, I suppose. But I enjoy the country out there, and they treat me really well.

"And the baseball's awesome."

Awesome enough that Leyva, who coached in the Chicago White Sox minor league organization last summer, stopped pursuing a return engagement with the ChiSox when the Steeplecats came calling in January.

During the school year, Leyva is an assistant coach and head recruiter at University of La Verne, a Division 3 school about 30 miles west of Los Angeles. He talked about his career while heading south to watch a weekend series in San Diego pitting the Padres against Milwaukee, where his brother Nick, a former big league manager, is the third base coach.

It was Al Leyva's ability at that position that caught the eye of Steeplecats general manager Sean McGrath.

"Watching the games, I pay close attention to the third base coach,"

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McGrath said. "(Leyva) has a great presence on the field. He's always calm. He's not going through the roof emotionally. ... All of us have held him in very high regard."

Leyva's other boss, La Verne head coach Scott Winterburn, also commented on the 42-year-old's temperament.

"Al Leyva is an experienced coach, who has been in charge of all facets of a baseball operation," Winterburn wrote in an e-mail last month. "He is extremely knowledgeable and passionate about using the game to teach life skills. Perhaps Al's greatest strength is his ability to communicate with players, coaches and others in a calm, easy demeanor that makes people desire to go the extra mile."

Figuring out what makes each player tick is a major aspect of a coach's job, Leyva said.

"Learning all the personalities is a big part of it," he said. "We only have these players for two months to try to help make them better ballplayers. Everyone wants playing time, and that's the tough part, too. What I've learned is when you're given an opportunity, you better do something with it."

Leyva's coaching résumé includes stops at California's Citrus Junior College and Ontario and Claremont high schools. At Claremont, he coached, among others, Chad Tracy, the son of Pittsburgh Pirates manager Jim Tracy.

"Unfortunately, none of my (former) players have gone to the Major Leagues yet," Leyva said. "But I was fortunate to coach Jim Tracy's boys. His middle son, Chad, went to Pepperdine. I think he is a kid who eventually will make it to the big leagues."

Chad Tracy ended May hitting .288 as an outfielder for the Clinton LumberKings, a Single-A affiliate of the Texas Rangers, who drafted him in the third round last year.

In American Legion ball, Leyva coached Jeff Verplancke, an 11th-round pick of the San Francisco Giants who went as far as Triple-A and played in four different organizations. Verplancke is joining Leyva as an assistant coach this summer in North Adams.

McGrath said part of his job is to ensure that 'Cats coaches have the tools to help the team's players get to the next level.

"My philosophy is first and foremost that we're bringing in players from the best college programs in America, and I'm going to provide them with a professional coaching staff who understands the game, the athletes and summer league ball," McGrath said.

That means that sometimes the coaches themselves will move on. Last year's coach, Laz Gutierrez, is now an amateur scout in Florida for the Boston Red Sox. His predecessor, Marc Pavao, led Florida's Barry University to a 32-23-1 record this spring as its head coach.

"We've gone through two coaches in three seasons," McGrath said. "Different teams have different philosophies. Torrington, I think, has had the same coach since they came into the league in 1996.

"If the right person presented himself who could stay here for 10 years, that's icing on the cake. But I wouldn't settle for someone just for the convenience factor of not having to go through a candidate search every year," McGrath said.

Likewise, Leyva is not coming back to New England for his third NECBL stint because it is convenient. He is coming back because he appreciates the reputation the league has built.

"Everybody who talks to me about (the league) knows about it," Leyva said. "What I tell people is, the Cape (Cod) League is No. 1 and rightly so. We're definitely in the top three (summer leagues) behind the Cape and Alaska. In the worst case scenario, we're in the top four, behind Northwoods. Plus, we get to play Team USA. Not a lot of leagues can do that. It could be geography, but I don't think so. They're not going somewhere just to play some substandard league. I think our reputation speaks for itself.

"Some people get us mixed up with the Cape League," he said, adding with a laugh, "That can't hurt."