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Bernie DeViveiros The Doctor of Slide
Devoted to the memory of Bernie DeViveiros, "The Doctor of Slide"
What can one say when a grown man, you’ve only barely met, does a bent-legged slide across your newly laid living room carpet? Well, perhaps you’d have to say, “The doctor is in the house”.
Bernie DeViveiros (pronounced D-Viv-er-us) was the Doctor of Sliding and possibly The Baron of Bunting...but there is no denying that he was a committed baseball man who held an esteemed place in the development of many of the game’s very best players...and hardly anyone outside of the game knows about him.
Until now.
Bernie could and would demonstrate his bent-legged slide at the drop of a hat...literally.
Bernie’s claim to fame was being an innovator. He may not have realized this at the time, but he took what he learned from the best the game had, turn of the 20th century legends such as Ty Cobb, Babe Ruth and Eddie Collins and assimilated that with the lessons he learned on the diamond and developed a simple method to teach the bent-leg slide. His technique was fool proof technique, and has been copied and used by literally thousands of coaches and instructors of the game. He created a simple method to teach the slide and refined it to such a fine degree that he became the self proclaimed “The Doctor of Sliding”.
DeViveiros taught sliding to anyone who was willing to pay attention and listen and he was still doing it well into his 80’s.
Virtually every player coming through the Detroit Tiger organization in the 1950’s and 60’s came under Bernie’s tutelage. Future Hall of Famers like Al Kaline, George Kell and Jim Bunning, and stars like Denny McLain, Paul Foytack, Frank House, Jim Northrup, Mickey Stanley, Dick McAuliffe, Willie Horton and Bill Freehan.
If there was a baseball clinic being run in the 40's, 50's or 60's Bernie was probably there and countless American Legion, high school, college or pro prospects in the Bay Area surrounding San Francisco and Oakland were taught by him. Local Bay area legends such as Billy Martin, Frank Robinson, Curt Flood and Vada Pinson all received lessons from the master of sliding and bunting.
Oakland Oaks
Baseball Library
Detroit Tigers
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Copyright © 2006 Jim Ferris. All Rights Reserved