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Switch-hitting OF Dave Collins' time with New York Yankees short but sweet

BY
DAILY NEWS SPORTS WRITER
Saturday, June 12, 2010, 6:37 PM
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Former Yankees outfielder Dave Collins is now the first-base coach with the Florida Marlins. Antonelli/News Former Yankees outfielder Dave Collins is now the first-base coach with the Florida Marlins.

He spent a mere 50 weeks as a Yankee, but Dave Collins perhaps will be forever remembered as a symbol of a George Steinbrenner at his manic worst.

Collins, a quick, switch-hitting outfielder who had stolen 79 bases for the 1980 Reds, was the free-agent apple of The Boss' eye in the winter of 1981. Steinbrenner, smarting from losing the World Series to the Dodgers, was going to remake the Bronx Bombers into the Bronx Burners and saw Collins, once dubbed "the fastest white man in baseball" as a vital cog.

"I remember that like yesterday," Collins says. "He really wanted me to come and play for the Yankees and I really wanted to play for him. As a kid growing up in Rapid City, S.D., I was a Yankee fan, so it was a dream come true. I'll never forget it."

But the '82 season, as any Yankee fan from the era recalls, was no dream. Collins, given a $2.4 million contract, was a man without a position, despite offseason assurances from Steinbrenner that he'd play. He batted .253 with 13 steals in 111 games, and the Yanks finished 79-83, fifth in the AL East.

Still, on a recent visit to New York with the Florida Marlins, for whom he is the first-base coach, the 57-year-old Collins calls his Bronx tenure "a privilege. To play in this city, I wish every player could experience it, because there's nothing like it. It's one of the highlights of my career."

Collins also says he didn't want to go when the Yanks traded him in December of 1982, but regret over that deal, a dud, runs deep — Collins was shipped to Toronto with Fred McGriff and Mike Morgan for Dale Murray and Tom Dodd, a lopsided swap that embarrassed the Yankees for years.

Collins had two good seasons in Toronto, including a spectacular 1984 in which he led the AL with 15 triples and stole 60 bases. In all, he played 16 seasons in the majors, was an original Mariner and finished with 1,335 hits and 395 steals.

"I think they realized, especially in Yankee Stadium, that it was about lefthanded pitching and left-handed power," Collins says now.

After his playing career, he's pursued coaching and has spent 30 seasons in pro ball. He's coached high school baseball and basketball, and been on the coaching staffs of the Cardinals, Rockies, Brewers, Reds and managed in the minors.

He wowed the Marlins with a stirring speech before the season, urging them to pay attention to baseball's considerable mental side.

"What's it going to be like 10 minutes before you win a championship?" Collins says he told the young team. "If you're not prepared for those 10 minutes, you're not going to get to it. That's all about dealing with pressure and how you think."

He is a devotee of "personal development," he says, and is a regular at seminars to learn more about it. It helps him in coaching.

"What good is a great swing or a great arm if you don't have a great mind and you don't know how to deal with success or failure?" Collins says. "Personal development is all about that."

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