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By BILL SAVAGE; Times Leader Sports Writer
Tuesday, April 12, 1994 Page: 1C
MOOSIC — Just before Tuesday’s workout session at Lackawanna County
Stadium was about to end, Red Barons coach Dave Cash began gathering up some
bats and other equipment he figured the players wouldn’t have time to collect.
“Quade’s going to make you run anyway,” joked Cash before manager Mike
Quade did, in fact, send the team out for sprints.
One player certainly didn’t need to be told that Quade would be requiring
the sprints.
Infielder Charlie Montoyo played for Quade last year in Ottawa and, better
than any other Red Baron, knows what to expect from the team’s first-year
manager.
And he couldn’t be happier about it.
“I’m happy to be here with Quade, whenever you come to a new team, you like
to be with somebody who knows you,” said Montoyo, acquired this past Friday
from the Montreal organization for a player to be named later.
Montoyo was one of the players who led Ottawa into the International League
playoffs last year and led to Quade’s being named the league’s Manager of the
Year.
The 28-year-old infielder hit .279 in 99 games for the Lynx, playing all
four infield positions during the season. He also played in four games for the
Expos, going 2-for-5.
After going to big league spring training with Montreal as a non-roster
player, Montoyo saw he was caught between the established infielders on the
Expos’ roster and the young prospects coming up from Harrisburg and West Palm
Beach.
So it wasn’t exactly a major blow to his career when he was informed he was
being sent to the Philadelphia organization and assigned to the Red Barons.
“There were a lot of infielders and that’s why I’m glad I got traded,” the
5-foot-11 native of Puerto Rico said. “They had just sent down Randy Ready and
a couple of other guys right before I left.”
Montoyo also was not cutting a career’s worth of ties when he left the
Expos. He had done that the year before when the Milwaukee Brewers, in whose
organization he had played since 1987, traded him to Montreal.
Montoyo had his best year as a pro in 1992, when he hit .324 for Denver.
The year before, he had a career-high 12 home runs to lead the Zephyrs to the
American Association and Triple-A Alliance titles.
Since he has been playing Class AAA baseball steadily since 1991, he didn’t
arrive at Lackawanna County Stadium on Monday in any state of awe.
“This is my fourth year in Triple-A and I know a lot of the people here,”
he said.
In particular, though, he knows Quade, who has tentatively scheduled
Montoyo as the Red Barons’ number two hitter and likely shortstop for
Thursday’s season opener against Columbus.
But Montoyo figures that if Quade took advantage of his versatility last
year in Ottawa, he’s likely to do so this year in Scranton/Wilkes-Barre.
“I think he’s going to do like he did last year in Ottawa,” Montoyo said.
“You play every night but you switch around (positions).”
With Montoyo, Shawn Gilbert and Keith Kimberlin, Quade has three players
who can split time at shortstop. Having Montoyo also frees Gilbert to play in
the outfield and perhaps frees Kevin Jordan to take a day off here and there
at second base and serve as designated hitter.
Montoyo hopes that, given the right circumstances, he could be back in the
National League, at least for a few games, before the year is out.
“You never know what kind of chance you’re going to have,” he said. “You
just have to be at the right place at the right time.”
The Red Barons are scheduled to work out again today, weather permitting,
before their annual “Meet The Red Barons” Dinner tonight in Pittston.
Pitcher Pat Combs was not present at Thursday’s workout and may not be
around today. The left-hander, the only player on the current roster who
played for the original 1989 team, was in Florida getting some extra work in
prior to his first scheduled start Monday night against Rochester.
Mike Dunne is the Red Barons’ scheduled starter on Thursday, with Kirt
Ojala expected to start for Columbus.
Red Barons roster
— Page 2B