From the Miners to the Minors to the Majors

CLEVELAND — Doc Edwards has gone from the miner leagues to the minor leagues to the major leagues, leaving behind the mountains of West Virginia and his own volatile temper.

And after one year as manager of the Cleveland Indians, Edwards hopes he has found a home in the big time.

Edwards doesn’t get back to his native West Virginia very much, a place where he says “you can sit on the back porch and spit tobacco, but that doesn’t make for too exciting a week.”

There were days when chewin’ and spittin’ suited him fine. Growing up in Red Jacket, W.Va., Edwards got his real start by playing catcher and first base on a team of coal miners.

“I remember when I was 16 years old playing on one of the coal mining teams--I was playing on the same team with my father,” Edwards said. “We had all the good local players, playing for different teams from the coal mining towns.

“One of my fondest memories was taking over for my dad. I was probably proudest when he turned the reins over to me.”

After the miner leagues came the minor leagues.

And after four years in the minors, Edwards was called up in 1962 for an abbreviated career as a catcher with Cleveland, the Kansas City A’s, New York Yankees and Philadelphia.

One of the biggest impressions made on Edwards was by Bob Tillman of Atlanta, who ran over the then-33-year-old Edwards when the player-coach was starting his fourth game with the Phillies.

“I got down to get the ball and leaned over to block the plate,” Edwards said, crouching over to relive his playing days. “He came in and popped me right on top of the head.

“I walked around like this for a couple of days,” he said, shrugging his shoulders and stalking around. “The next day he came up to me and said, ‘You knew I had to get you.’

“I said, ‘Yeah, I knew. I wouldn’t have respected you otherwise.”

Edwards entered coaching full-time later that year and became a manager in 1973. In his first season, with West Haven, he was named Eastern League manager of the year after a second place finish. He also won managerial honors in 1975 with Midland of the Texas League and 1983 with Charleston, W.Va., of the International League.

The rise up the ladder came with a decline in his temper.

“The first year, I was kicked out 13 times in 140 games, including three days in a row,” he said. “After a warning (from the front office), I only had eight the next year.”

Edwards now averages four to six ejections per year and had just two at the All-Star break--but almost had a third during heated objections a week ago to an Oakland home run that he thought had been a foul ball.

“I had to quit arguing. I was going to put my arms around his neck and choke” him, Edwards said. Instead, he pounded a wall in the dugout and three days later still was nursing a gash across his knuckles.

Edwards was named the Indians’ manager on July 16, 1987, after coaching in the minor leagues for 13 years. Between All-Star breaks, the Indians have had a 75-88 mark.

A record like that won’t win pennants, but Edwards said he believes he has the Indians heading in the right direction -- generally--especially after the Tribe finished last year 61-101.

“I was hoping we would have had 50 wins by the All-Star break. That would be pretty good,” Edwards said. “After losing 101 games, I don’t think anybody could expect you to win 162.”

At the All-Star break this year, the Indians were 45-43.

Edwards has managed only one team to a title--Midland in 1975--and won’t predict when the next one will come. He only said he believes he’s found a new home in the majors.