Going to plate for charity

NASHUA -- He had not played organized baseball since he was a 14-year-old third baseman/catcher on his Babe Ruth squad in Littleton, N.H. But last night World Cup ski champion Bode Miller, 28, didn't seem to miss a beat -- at least while patrolling left field, anyway -- when he signed a one-game contract to play for the Nashua Pride in last night's Can-Am League contest against the Brockton Rox.

Before a sellout crowd of 2,929, the Pride's celebrity left fielder did not disappoint on Bode Miller Night at Historic Holman Stadium, where the Pride snapped a six-game losing streak with a rousing 12-2 victory that took all of 2 hours 29 minutes.

Miller, a native of Franconia, N.H., who was penciled in as the No. 2 hitter in manager Butch Hobson's lineup, struggled at the plate by fanning in his only two at-bats against Brockton righthander Joey Baker. But he more than made up for it with his defense, including a highlight-reel catch to end the second inning.

``I would have to say, in all fairness to him, yeah, that catch was pretty special," said Hobson, whose team pounded out 18 hits, including a solo homer by Bryan Duplissie in the second and a three-run shot by Andy Dillard in the third. ``Maybe him being here brought us some luck. The guys seemed to enjoy being around him."

Miller came into this charitable promotion -- which helped the Pride draw their third sellout of the season and raise $5,000 for Miller's Turtle Ridge Foundation, the entire proceeds earmarked for the Lance Armstrong Foundation -- with few expectations. Little did Miller know he'd wind up making an acrobatic catch worthy of ESPN's ``Web Gems."

After settling underneath Mike Torres's towering shot to record his first putout in the second inning, Miller made a diving grab when he backpedaled and laid out backward to rob Mike Scanzano at the warning track.

``It came off the bat and had a little bit of backspin so it fluttered on me a little bit," Miller said. ``When I first started backpedaling, I thought I had it no problem, but then I turned and it took off.

``It wasn't a high fly, but it had some heat on it. I didn't want to take my eye off it for a second to see where the wall was because it was tracking pretty low in the sky and it was hard to see. So I just kept my eye on it and kept backpedaling and I knew I was going to have to go up for it."

Miller landed on his back and rolled over a couple of times, but came up with the ball.

``That's the one thing that skiing teaches you," said Miller. ``It's that you've got to maintain focus in the middle of whether you're crashing or when you're doing anything, there's always a lot of stuff going on. Once I got it in my hand, I wasn't going to let go of it."

The crowd, which cheered Miller when he struck out swinging in his first at-bat, went nuts. The last to trot off the field, Miller was mobbed by his teammates, who came streaming out of the Pride dugout.

``That was sweet," Miller said. ``That was cool. Those are the things you hope for when you come in like I did."

Miller tried to prepare himself for live pitching, first soaking up some instruction from Hobson in a private batting practice session 3 1/2 hours before the game. Miller showed he was a quick study by ripping the ball to all fields, even homering four times over the left-field fence.

But that was with Hobson making underhand tosses.

That was not the case against Baker. ``You don't know what he's going to throw and I hadn't seen him at all, so I saw 10 pitches that he threw at me," Miller said. ``He varied every single pitch. He only threw three fastballs and the rest were splitters, a changeup, and two curves. I mean, for me, I would've needed to have at least a few batting practices before I stepped into that box with any expectations of hitting the ball."

When he led off the third inning, Miller took two questionable strikes, low and away. Miller stuck his bat out across the plate in a not-so-subtle protest of umpire Lou Acello's calls. ``Yeah," Miller said. ``Both of those were outside. I mean, they were setting up outside, too, so he was throwing where he wanted to but he was just off the edge of the plate."

Did he complain to Acello when he fanned for strike three? ``No, but I was thinking about kicking some dirt on him a little bit," Miller joked. ``I don't know how to do that whole scene. I've seen it on TV, but I didn't know exactly what to do, otherwise I probably would've gone for it."