Whole New Ballgame for Them : Three Learn to Play the American Way in Angel Organization

MESA, Ariz. â€”  What you notice first about Ilya Bogatyrev are the sunglasses. They definitely make a fashion statement, even when he’s fielding ground balls.

Although the sight of a baseball player wearing trendy sunglasses during practice is not unusual, the idea of a Russian citizen sporting $140 shades is a little out of the ordinary. After all, back home a fraction of that amount would be considered a decent monthly wage.

But there was Bogatyrev, one of three Russian players in the Angels’ organization, going through his workout, sunglasses firmly in place, just like many of his Mesa teammates.

“I kid him all the time about that,� Mesa Manager Bill Lachemann said. “I asked him, ‘Last year you were out here busting your butt and you didn’t need sunglasses, what’s going on?’ He told me, ‘It’s American baseball.’ �

Bogatyrev has learned it, all right, right down to the latest in glare-wear.

A year ago, he and countrymen Yevgeny Puchkov and Rudolf Razhigaev ere a novelty. They were the first Russians to play professional baseball in the United States. Some put it down as a publicity stunt. The Angels called it a long-term project.

But for Bogatyrev, Puchkov and Razhigaev it was an opportunity of a lifetime and they have made the most of it. They’ve absorbed everything, from bunts to banter. Nothing has been overlooked.

“Baseball was born here,� said Razhigaev, a pitcher. “You’ve played it for over 100 years. It’s your culture. Every detail has been perfected. So to get the chance to come here and learn this game was beyond my dreams.�

Razhigaev, in fact, had to pinch himself right up to the moment he stepped on the airplane in June of 1992.

“It finally hit me, ‘Wow, this is really happening,’ � he said. “I could never imagine Americans being interested in Russian baseball players.�

Russian music blared from a tape deck in Bogatyrev’s room at the Rodeway Inn in Mesa. On the wall is an enlarged baseball card of Razhigaev, Puchkov and himself in Angel uniforms, a photo taken last year in Mesa.

Bogatyrev nervously cleaned those sunglasses while struggling to communicate in English, a language he has learned in the last year.

“I began playing baseball five years ago,� Bogatyrev said. “I read an ad in a newspaper announcing tryouts in Moscow. I didn’t know what baseball was, but it sounded interesting. I got there and they started telling us, ‘This is a ball, this is a glove, this is a bat.’ Our first practice was very bad. It wasn’t organized. It wasn’t baseball. I can’t believe how much I’ve learned since then.�

Bogatyrev, a 24-year old shortstop, is hitting .276 for Mesa, the Angels’ rookie league team. He has no home runs and only six runs batted in.

Puchkov, a 24-year-old third baseman, started the season at Mesa, but was moved up to Cedar Rapids, a Class-A team. He is hitting .097 with no home runs and one RBI.

Razhigaev, a 25-year-old left-hander, also opened the season at Mesa, then was moved to Boise, Ida., a Class-A team. He is 0-0 with a 6.35 earned-run average.

The numbers are nothing to write home about. But no one was expecting them to become stars.

“You have to crawl before you can walk,� said Bob Fontaine, the Angels’ director of scouting. “We’re very pleased with the way these guys have approached things and what they’ve learned.�

Fontaine, the man responsible for signing the three Russians, said he doesn’t expect the country to churn out any major league prospects for at least another decade.

This, he said, is the first step and the Angels are in on the ground floor. The three players will eventually return to Russia and become coaches, helping to train the next generation, according to Fontaine.

A nice plan, but Bogatyrev, Puchkov and Razhigaev had other ideas, at least when they arrived in June of 1992.

“They got here with the attitude that they were going to be big league players,� Lachemann said. “There were no ifs, ands or buts about it. Now they’ve seen what kind of competition they are going against. These guys aren’t dumb. They know where they stand.�

Bogatyrev is considerably older than his Mesa teammates, most of whom are 20 and younger. In fact, the Arizona Rookie League rules allow each team only two players older than 20. The Angels received special permission last season to have the three Russian players on the same team.

The three were able to see just how talented young American players are, giving them a gauge on their own abilities.

“American baseball players begin when they are very young,� Bogatyrev said. “They play all the time. They understand the game when they are young. I’m still learning.�

So what if dreams of big league glory were crushed? It didn’t slow their efforts. They came to the United States to polish their baseball skills, and polish them they would.

It wasn’t unusual for the three to work out with their interpreter, Angel scout Bob Protexter, after their teammates had hit the showers. Bogatyrev and Puchkov would field ground balls for a while, then Razhigaev would pitch.

“If there was an empty field or batting cage, they’d be there for hours,� Lachemann said. “We were playing a game one day and I felt a tug on my arm. It was Ilya. He wanted to know if they could go work out on the other field until we needed them.

“That’s the type of intensity they have. They’re willing to do anything to get to a higher level.�

That sort of competitive drive was deeply instilled in them long before they discovered baseball. They learned it from other sports.

Bogatyrev was a kayaker until he broke his arm when he was 16. Puchkov was a tennis player for more than a decade, but gave it up after entering the army. Razhigaev, a former paratrooper, was a distance runner who was dragged off the track.

“I was running one day and these guys were playing this sport I had never seen before,� Razhigaev said. “I’d seen them before with their bats and gloves, but I didn’t know what they were doing.

“I finished running and their coach came over to me and asked me to throw the ball to the catcher. I threw it as hard as I could. He told me to come back the next day for practice. I was on the team.�

Razhigaev has a fastball that has been clocked in the low 80s. He’s not overpowering, but he has learned to work hitters.

He was 0-1 with a 4.91 ERA for Mesa last season. He pitched 7 1/3 innings in only six games. This season, he won two games for Mesa during spring training, impressing Angel officials enough for them to advance him to Boise.

“When Rudy got here, he was very mechanical in his throwing motion,� Lachemann said. “All three of them were that way. They learned a lot from watching videos, so they were trying to do things step-by-step. We’ve tried to get them to be more fluid.�

Puchkov has relaxed as a player. Lachemann said he’s as good an infielder as his American counterparts, which was one of the reasons he moved on to Cedar Rapids, Iowa.

Bogatyrev has remained in Mesa, mainly because there was no place to put him. There was little room on other Angel farm team rosters and there would be little chance of him playing if he was advanced.

That’s fine with Bogatyrev. He just wants to play and learn.

“I’m here in Arizona to play baseball,� he said. “I get up and go to practice. Afterward, I’m tired. I go eat and then sleep. That’s all I have time for.�

Well, not entirely.

Lachemann found the three on his doorstep one day last season. They asked to borrow his video camera.

“They wanted to take pictures of America, just like any tourist,� Lachemann said.

Maybe not like your average tourist. They did hit all the sights in the Phoenix area, but they also included a trip to the grocery store.

“I have a copy of that video,� Lachemann said. “They just went up and down the aisle, narrating as they went, ‘This is the vegetables, this is the meat . . . .’ �

Said Razhigaev: “In America you have so much, you don’t realize how much. We just wanted to show our families how much wealth there is here.�

Not everyone quite understood that.

“A lady asked me to show her (a permit) that allowed me to film in her store,� Razhigaev said. “I said, ‘No, I’m not a professional. I just want to show the Russian people your country.’ �

Slowly, the three have absorbed culture beyond bats and balls. They have become big fans of American movies and television. Although Bogatyrev clings to his Russian music, he has taken up golf, playing with his teammates in his spare time.

A year ago, such interaction would have been difficult. The three struggled with the language and needed an interpreter to survive. The Angels provided Protexter for one year, providing the three with on-the-job English lessons.

Puchkov and Razhigaev have progressed, but Bogatyrev still struggles. It was hardest on him when the three were separated this season, but he has managed.

Bogatyrev carries two Russian/English dictionaries with him and has a notebook of key phrases for such things as restaurants, shopping and medical emergencies.

Also written in the book is some social chatter. Bogatyrev does get around.

“Oh yeah, he’s discovered that American women are quite nice,� Lachemann said.

Still, Bogatyrev knows when it’s time for fun and games and when it’s time for the game of baseball.

“I no go to bar on game day,� he said. “I go to bar on off-day.�

There is a map of the Phoenix area on the wall in Bogatyrev’s room. Where the motel is located, it reads, ‘U R Here. ‘

It’s a handy directional reference and a daily reminder how far he’s come from the days with the Moscow Red Devils.

“My coach called me in one day and said, ‘How would you like to play professional baseball in America?’ � Bogatyrev said. “I said, ‘Oh my God, no way.’ The next day I signed a contract.�

Fontaine has long thought about gaining a foothold in Russia. Even back when the Soviet Union existed, he viewed it as one of the last great untapped sources for raw talent.

So when the USSR entered the amateur baseball arena in the late 1980s, Fontaine took a great interest. He traveled to the 1990 Goodwill Games to see their progress. Bogatyrev and Puchkov were on that Soviet team.

“I remember they took the field and Puchkov has this big wad of chewing tobacco in his cheek,� Fontaine said. “I looked at that and said, ‘What?’ They obviously had learned a lot about the game.�

Bogatyrev said baseball in the Soviet Union improved greatly after a tour by the Johns Hopkins University baseball team in 1988. They held workouts with the Red Devils and played three games.

“They killed us,� Bogatyrev said. “But it was fun.�

The Johns Hopkins team returned last year and found the situation had changed some.

“The first time we were there, I’d say the Russian team had the skills of a high school junior varsity team,� Johns Hopkins Coach Bob Babb said. “They were struggling to catch fly balls. Now they are probably equal to a Division III team. Not a good one, but their skills had improved rapidly.�

Which is why Fontaine pursued a breakthrough. When the Soviet Union disintegrated into the Commonwealth of Independent States, Fontaine saw his chance.

With the help of Judy Bavasi, the sister-in-law of Angel Minor League Director Bill Bavasi, Fontaine was able to make inroads with the Russia baseball teams. Judy Bavasi, who was teaching in Moscow, even helped wade through the red tape to allow the players to come to the United States.

The money wasn’t great by American standards; each signed for a $1,500 bonus. But it was a small fortune in Russia.

Fontaine chose Bogatyrev, Puchkov and Razhigaev because they were three of the best and because they played different positions.

“We wanted them to take back knowledge of more than one position,� Fontaine said. “These guys will teach the younger players. That’s what we’re looking down the line at.

“There are phenomenal athletes in Russia. They’ve proven that. You look how quickly they learned hockey and basketball and you can see what they can accomplish once they put their minds to it.�

Bogatyrev’s mind is on playing, not coaching. He worked with younger players when he returned to Russia last fall, but he’s not ready to call it quits as a player.

The fate of all three players will be decided after the season, when Bavasi evaluates all the Angels’ minor league players. The big strike against them is their age. All are older than their teammates.

“It’s really a shame we didn’t get these guys when they were 16-17,� Lachemann said. “If they’d had a complete background in baseball, who knows how far they could go.

“My feeling is that if you give me 25 Russian players when they’re 18, I can give you a pretty good ball club in five years.�

And there is living proof how quickly Russian players can develop.

“Five years ago, I thought, ‘What is this baseball,’ � Bogatyrev said. “It was a strange game. The coaches teach us just the basics, like, ‘This is first base, this is second base, this is third base.’ I didn’t know what they were talking about. But today, I am an American baseball player.�