The Times - Serving Waitsburg, Dayton and the Touchet Valley

WALLA WALLA - Now that the baseball season is over for the Tigers and Bulldogs, Touchet Valley fans of the sport can turn their attention to a professional season full of games and events.

Locally, it starts this week with the appearance in Walla Walla of Marvin Benard, the retired major league outfielder who now lives in Kennewick, where he teaches batting and supports youth baseball activities.

The former San Francisco Giant will speak at the 29th annual Walla Walla Valley Youth Baseball Softball Association fundraiser 5:30 - 9 p.m., Saturday, May 21, at the Walla Walla Fairgrounds Community Building.

The dinner and auction is the organization's sole fundraiser and has supported the youth of this region for nearly 30 years. The live and silent auctions feature local art work, gourmet destination dinner parties, professionally autographed athletic gear, golf exercusions, vacation packages, local wines and much more.

Last year, event organizers auctioned off 150 gift packages to 500 guests and raised almost $40,000 for youth activities. Tickets are $30 each, which covers dinner and two drinks. Call 509-525-5525 for reservations.

That event is followed two weeks later by the Sweets' season opener at the expanded Borleske Stadium on June 3. A season preview will be the second installment in this Times series on baseball, followed by weekly coverage of the team's games.

This week, the focus is on Benard's rise to the majors, his gradual exit and his ultimate reconciliation with the sport he has loved since his days growing up in a tough LA neighborhood.

The son of a soap opera actor, Benard was born on January 20, 1970, in Bluefields, Nicaragua. He moved to LA with his parents at age 12. Following a stellar prep career at Bell High School, he attended LA Harbor Junior College in Wilmington, Calif., the Lewis-Clark State College in Lewiston.

Benard played with the San Francisco Giants from 1995 to 2003 and he was a starter with the team from 1999 - 2001, playing for most of the season. In 1999, he won the Willie Mac Award for his spirit and leadership.

A notorious first-pitch hitter prone to striking out, Benard had good bat speed and could steal bases, according to a biography about him on Wikipedia. He played all three outfield positions, mostly as center fielder.

During his career, he hit .271 with 54 home runs, 260 RBI, 441 runs, 138 doubles, 21 triples and 105 stolen bases in 891 games.

After becoming a free agent following the 2003 season, Benard agreed to a minor league contract with the Chicago White Sox but was released before the season and signed with the Toronto Blue Jays. He was released after one season with the Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs, hitting .211 with four homers and 18 RBI in 33 games.

Benard doesn't mind discussing what he now calls the "mistake" of using performance enhancing drugs during the 2002 season in which the Giants reached the World Series, something he admitted a year ago. But he doesn't dwell on it.

"I walk with my head held high," he said in a recent telephone interview. "I made a mistake. Everybody makes mistakes. It was what it was."

In an interview with the San Francisco Chronicle, Benard said the toughest part was telling his son, but the elder Benard encouraged the young boy to learn from his father's mistake and not take shortcuts.

In his interview with the Times, Benard said it took him a while to heal from his "amputation" from the major leagues, which sent him into a period of depression. The former pro recalls how for almost half a year, he didn't feel like getting up in the morning or watching a baseball game on television.

I was a personal crash for him to fall out of the rhythm and lifestyle of a glamorous World Series ball player, but eventually he picked himself up from the downward spiral and embraced the sport again as a coach of his young son's little league team, the Richland A's.

He pulled away from coaching for a while because he felt as his son progressed, he was better off being taught by some other than his own dad. But he never lost his passion for hanging out with kids who wanted to learn baseball as much as he did when he was a youngster, so began offering batting lessons to anyone who needed and wanted them.

"I got into the big leagues because people gave me a hand here and there," he said. "I'm into giving back as much as I can."

At least 50 students ranging in age from 9 to 32 now take instruction from with some having since made into the minor leagues for teams as well known as the St. Louis Cardinals, LA Dodgers, Chicago Cubs and Minnesota Twins.

Although a fairly average batter himself, Benard seems to have the natural ability to bring out the best in his students.

" I always understood more than I could do, if you see what I mean," he said. "I seem to be able to explain it to someone with ability."

Recognizing and reinforcing that ability in young players is as important as guiding it. Benard recalls coaching a second team his son was on when he was older, the Tri Cities Vipers.

While his own team was performing well, some of the teams they played seemed to simply give up, including a Walla Walla team called the Black Socks, whose coach he knew.

After one of the games the Vipers played against the Black Socks, Benard wandered over to the opposing team's dugout and talked some spirit into them.

"If you always struggle you think you're no good at what you do," he said. "But with the right instruction, you build that confidence step by step. I told them you can't just hang your head. You have to dig deeper and bring it out or you'll never know what you're capable of."

Hearing that from a former pro must have been the cure for the baseball blues.

"I guess I shouldn't have gone over there (to talk to the Black Socks)," he said. "We couldn't beat them after that."

It wouldn't be the last instance Benard's teaching ability would come back to "haunt" him, he smiles.

Benard in his major league days with the San Francisco Giants. He's now passing along what he learned about batting to youngsters in the Tri Cities area.

The mother of a baseball player once came to him asking if he could give her son some batting lessons only to discover she couldn't really afford it as a single mom. Benard asked the woman to bring her son anyway and he'd give him a handful of lessons for free.

The same player on a team that came up against the Vipers hit three home runs in a game than ended the home team's season. Does Benard regret that?

"She (the mother) came over after the game to apologize for her son beating our team," he recalls. "But I told her not to felt bad and that her kid was more important than the dumb game."

It's the same reason Benard donates his time to speak at this week's fundraiser for youth ball sports activities.

"You never know if you're going to touch some kid somewhere somehow," he said. "It's a big deal for me. Growing up in SE LA, if I didn't have sports back then I don't know what I'd be doing now."

Former SF Giant Marv Benard

Speaks At WWVYBSA Event

Saturday, May 21 5:30 - 9 p.m.

WW Fairgrounds Community Bld.