Billmeyer: 'A year I'll never forget' He finally catches on in the majors By Steve Batterson QUAD-CITY TIMES Mick Billmeyer finally made it to the big would have been if I were playing, this has been a year I'll never forget," said Billmeyer, the starting catcher on the Quad-City Angels' 1990 Midwest League championship team. "It's allowed me to live out what I dreamed about for years. I'm in the big leagues. It's a great job." He didn't travel the expected route, but the 31-year-old journeyman is relishing every bit of his first season as the bullpen catcher for the California Angels. "Even though it has been every bit as frustrating to watch the team collapse as it A Billmeyer Until last November, Billmeyer figured he would spend the summer of 1995 painting houses back home in Maryland. Instead, California general manager Bill Bavasi - the Angels' farm director during Billmeyer's playing days in the organization - made him an offer too good to refuse. This year, he's thrown batting practice, hit fungos and spent every day catching relief pitchers in the bullpen. He sat in on organizational meetings during the strike, welcomed the major-league players back and eventually watched California build and then I lose its lead in the American League West. "I've seen a little bit of everything," he said. And, that's the way it has always been for Billmeyer. Originally a farmhand in the Orioles organization, he signed as a free agent with California in 1990 and was assigned to the Quad-Cities. He eventually played his way up to Class AAA, but eventually tired of bouncing up and down between Class AA and Class AAA and asked for his release. That led Billmeyer to the Northern League, where he played a season at Rochester (Minn.) before he signed with the Rockies organization. He spent most of the 1994 season in Class AAA with the Rockies, but was released. "I was back home painting houses when Bill Bavasi called. It was too good to pass up," Billmeyer said. "I'm still relatively young and I feel like I can play or help." Bavasi has asked Billmeyer to consider a job as a minor-league manager for the Angels farm system next year. But, he wants to return to the major-league bullpen for at least one more year. "I don't want to go back to the minors, at least right now," Billmeyer said. "A friend of mine did the same job for the Dodgers and Tommy Lasorda eventually decided to keep him around on the major-league staff. I wouldn't mind that a bit. I'm enjoying this."