Duane Below: small-town guy with big-league dreams

Tigers prospect is a small-town guy with big-league dreams

February 10, 2008

BY JON PAUL MOROSI

FREE PRESS SPORTS WRITER

BRITTON -- The directions were simple: Take U.S.-23 South, exit at Cabela's and drive west on M-50.

Eight miles later, you will arrive at Britton-Macon Area School. The district -- which consists of a single building, for kindergarten through 12th grade -- combines with nearby Deerfield to field teams in most sports.

Britton has a population of 672, according to the most recent U.S. Census Bureau estimate. It has no stoplights and covers less than one square mile.

Dwight Below, a 64-year-old with a full head of gray hair, sat in a booth at Britton's Whistle Stop Station -- the only sit-down restaurant in town -- on Thursday afternoon. There was a photo collage on one wall titled "BRITTON AREA: THEN AND NOW."

Most of the pictures were black and white: the old school building, the old train depot. Along one edge was a snapshot of Dwight's son, Duane, in a sparkling white Tigers uniform.

That photo was a color photo.

A customer approached and asked Dwight Below (pronounced BE-low) how his son was doing -- a common conversation starter here.

He's doing well, Dwight Below told him. Spring training starts soon. A lot of folks seem to think he will pitch for Detroit's Class A affiliate in Lakeland, Fla., this year.

"Maybe," Dwight Below said, "you'll see him pitch in the big leagues someday."

"Maybe," the man replied, "he'll put us back on the map."

Below was not yet 2 years old when Adrian-born Ray Soff -- the most recent Lenawee County native to play in the big leagues, according to Retrosheet.org -- threw his last pitch for the St. Louis Cardinals in 1987. In the years since, many draft picks have come from areas with year-round warmth and/or highly competitive summer baseball programs.

Britton has neither.

"I like when people say I can't do this or I'm not a prospect," Below said during an interview last month in Kalamazoo, where he trained this off-season. "It just drives me."

When he graduated from high school in 2004 -- there were 40 students in his class -- Below had no plans beyond pitching for a Blissfield-based American Legion team. Then came his break: Below pitched his best game of the summer against a team coached by Keith Schreiber. Schreiber also happened to be the coach at Lake Michigan College in Benton Harbor.

Afterward, Schreiber asked who had been recruiting Below. No one, he was told. That changed quickly. After posting an 18-4 record for Schreiber over two seasons, the Tigers selected Below in the 19th round of the 2006 amateur draft. He signed for $15,000 -- and is saving it all, he said.

Below, 22, now has a realistic chance of making it to the major leagues. He went 13-5 with a 2.97 ERA in 26 starts for the Class A West Michigan Whitecaps last year, led the Midwest League with 160 strikeouts and was named the Tigers' minor league pitcher of the year.

And he did it all while throwing a fastball that rarely topped 90 m.p.h.

"I wish I could sit 91-92 and touch 93-94 -- that would be perfect," he said. "But I've got to deal with what I have. As long as I can do that, and keep getting guys out, I'll be fine."

Below was unbeaten in his final eight starts of the season. He grew a mustache during the streak, which included two postseason victories, as West Michigan claimed a second straight league title.

David Chadd, the Tigers' vice president of amateur scouting, has said that Below is similar in some ways to Tigers left-hander Nate Robertson, although Robertson has a harder fastball.

"For him to do what he's done, (considering) where he's from," Chadd said, "that's pretty amazing."

"I remember both of us talking at a young age about wanting to be baseball players," said Josh Pizana, Below's close friend and high school teammate. "I guess it's every boy's dream, but he never changed his mind."

The temptation is there to call Duane Below the most famous person in Britton. That might be true. His closest competition for that title, though, would come from his own family.

His mother, Phyllis Below, is one of the most popular people in town. And that is a matter of fact, not opinion: In 2005, she was named Citizen of the Year for Lenawee County by the Daily Telegram in Adrian.

Phyllis Below worked as a special education aide at the school for 14 years, along with numerous volunteer activities, and has lived in Britton almost her entire life. She and Dwight have owned the same home -- next door to the school -- since 1969.

"I can't picture us leaving at this point in the game," she said. "I wouldn't want to move all my junk."

Later, she added, "I like the small town. I really do. My son Scott said (the kids) were too protected, that they didn't know enough about the real world. Well, it didn't hurt them to be protected for a while. Everyone keeps an eye on the kids. That's what I appreciated."

The Below family started with a girl, followed by a boy, followed by a dilemma: Phyllis wanted more children. Dwight, who worked at Fingerle Lumber in Ann Arbor, wasn't sure he could support many more.

In the end, they took a unique approach: They served as foster parents in 1968-90 while continuing to have children of their own.

They had housed 30 to 35 foster children in all.

"Maybe more," Phyllis Below said. "Some stayed a couple weeks. Some stayed two or three years. Sometimes, they stayed seven years."

Through a combination of the foster children and her own, she added, "We (usually) only had seven in the house at one time."

One foster child remained with the family permanently. Meanwhile, the Belows had a total of six biological children; Duane was the last.

By the time he started school, many of Duane Below's siblings were involved in athletics. As early as the second grade, Phyllis Below said, he became a student manager for some of the school's teams.

"He was like a little gym rat," said Doug Witt, Britton's former varsity baseball coach. "He was talented enough at an early age where, a lot of times, coaches would put him into the drills with the older kids. And he'd do all right. He was a good all-around athlete."

Below's accomplishments as a three-sport star are well-known -- if not legendary -- in his hometown.

A standout end on the varsity football team, Below filled in at quarterback and passed for 200 yards in one game, Pizana said. He could barely dunk but completed an alley-oop in a rivalry game against Deerfield. (The schools have separate basketball teams.) He socked 11 home runs as a senior and finished the year by striking out 15 in a regional tournament game.

"I knew he was good," said Andrew Clark, the current Britton baseball coach.

"He had those signs of greatness, but I didn't know what a pro prospect would look like."

He does now. So does everyone else in Britton. And no matter what happens this year -- or in all his baseball seasons after that -- Duane Below has convinced a tiny town of all the good things that can happen when you dream.

"When I make my first big-league check, I'll probably buy a car," Below said, his mind drifting toward the future. "Nothing fancy. Just a car."

Contact JON PAUL MOROSI at 313-223-4097 or jmorosi@freepress.com. Check out his Tigers blog at www.freep.com/sports.