Big league clubhouses tend to be staid places where individuality is frowned upon. Yet, they embraced a guy who called himself “Prime Time.”
It was the summer of 1995, and on one side of his double life, the time couldn’t have been more prime for Deion Sanders.
Now, the lengthy work stoppage meant life without a steady paycheck, and for Reed’s parents, that meant the possibility of losing their home. With few other prospects, Reed reluctantly agreed to do the one thing he knew he could do to make money: pitch. He had been slated to be the Opening Day starter on the Reds’ replacement team. Then the strike ended and he was sent to the minors. Although he never actually appeared in a game as a replacement, he would be among those who were forever shunned.
Reed wasn’t exactly welcomed with open arms, but he was ultimately called up to the Reds without incident. On the day Reed joined the team, Sanders was traded to thein exchange for much-needed pitching, meaning the two were teammates for less than two hours. But decades later, the gesture nevertheless endures.
A major-league clubhouse is everything that its name implies — exclusive, parochial and, at times, juvenile. They tend to be staid places where individuality is frowned upon. In short, not the type of place you might imagine a character like Prime Time being well-received. While playing for the Reds, Deion Sanders asked clubhouse attendance to outfit the balcony of his apartment with a net so he could hit at home.
“The guy didn’t drink, didn’t smoke, he wouldn’t go out clubbing or anything like that,” Stowe said. ”He’d be on his deck hitting.”That’s not to say he didn’t have his idiosyncrasies. Sanders used to ask Stowe for extra thick socks because he was concerned that his calves looked too skinny. He would also bring his Persian cat into the clubhouse and set her atop his locker. Occasionally he’d let the cat out, and it would walk atop the row of lockers and until Sanders called her.
“You see this guy and you see him playing football, and he looks like he’s a pretty big dude,” Leyritz said. “And he’s really not. … as I hit his shoulder, I realized, ‘OK, this guy doesn’t have an ounce of fat.’ He’s solid as a rock.” In the clubhouse, Leyritz remembered that Sanders was often quiet, unless he was reading from the Bible or talking about God. And though Sanders was not a drinker, Leyritz recalled how he still enjoyed going out with his teammates. Out in public, they saw more of the Prime Time persona. But not in the way you might think.“If he went out with us, he never forgot he was out with us,” Leyritz said.
“We’d play this Tetris game, hook up Tetris,” Smoltz said. “Gah, if I could go back in time and have a video of just those games and how much trash-talking, how much fun we had, we had a blast.” , 7-2, and Sanders was informed he was getting sent back to Triple A. His teammates had just given him an emotional sendoff.“What we got to see was the human being of Deion Sanders. Prime Time was what everybody else got to see.” — Dave Gallagher, journeyman outfielder
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