PARIS — David Lesch remembers how, as the first-round winter draft pick for the Dodgers in 1980, he was singled out by Tommy Lasorda to throw against all-stars Ron Cey, Reggie Smith, Davey Lopes and Bill Russell on his very first day of spring training.
His initial pitch to Cey sailed over his head. Cey got up from the dirt and shot him an angry glance. But Lesch calmed down and pitched the rest of the practice without a hitch.
For The Record
Los Angeles Times Thursday, April 16, 2009 Home Edition Main News Part A Page 4 National Desk 1 inches; 36 words Type of Material: Correction
Syria's president: Tuesday's Column One, about a former baseball player who wrote a book about Syrian President Bashar Assad, said that scholar David Lesch teaches at Trinity College in San Antonio. Lesch teaches at Trinity University.
"Having gone through that, probably nothing else will ever intimidate me," he says.
That lesson came in handy nearly a quarter-century later when Lesch, now a respected Middle East scholar, walked into an interview with Bashar Assad, the president of Syria.
He was nervous and, yes, just a little bit intimidated. Here was the man who U.S. officials alleged was helping insurgents in Iraq and militants in Lebanon, the man who sat atop an extensive and powerful state security apparatus in one of the world's most tightly controlled nations.
But Lesch was quickly put at ease. Assad was ready for him on time, even opening the door to the modest conference room himself and welcoming the scholar in.
Two years earlier, in 2002, Lesch had submitted a formal request to interview Assad for a book. It was a shot in the dark. Most Arab rulers prefer to issue vague pronouncements via official media channels, and are rarely willing to subject themselves to the scrutiny of an interview.
Which made it all the more surprising when Lesch got a call from Syria's ambassador to the U.S.
"He said, 'David, it's on.' "
And thus began an extraordinary five-year acquaintance between Lesch, the Dodgers farm team pitcher who had found his way into academia, and Assad, the ophthalmologist and accidental heir to the Syrian presidency.
From the start, the two found they had a lot in common. For one thing, fate had drastically altered the course of each man's life.
Lesch's baseball dreams were cut short by a shoulder injury, a rotator cuff that wouldn't heal. As his fastball faltered from 95 mph to the low 80s, the Dodgers cut him loose and he contemplated other life possibilities.
He went back to college, where a couple of inspiring professors saw promise inside his battered brawn. He went on to Harvard, where he earned a doctorate in Middle Eastern history, eventually landing a teaching post at Trinity College in San Antonio. The baritone-voiced former jock eased into the life of a university academic, trading baseball cleats for loafers and sports jerseys for tweed jackets.
