Editor’s note: The following column from the Best of West collection was originally published in the Port Arthur News on June 9, 2004.

Doug Recio can’t help but chuckle when he reads some of the tall tales being written about Lew Ford and his baseball adventures with the Minnesota Twins. Various reports have referred to Recio’s one-time star at Port Neches-Groves as goofy, flaky, odd, zany, loopy and off-the-wall.

“Sounds pretty much like the Lew I remember,” says Recio, who left Port Neches for New Braunfels not long after Ford’s graduation. “He was a great kid to coach and he worked hard, but he just drove me crazy with some of the things he did.”

Ten years later Ford is driving American League pitchers crazy. Entering Tuesday night’s game against the Mets, he was eighth in the AL in both batting average (.328) and on base percentage (.406). Though Lew’s cooled down from an early season rampage that had him hitting a league-leading .418 at one point, he continues to be an offensive catalyst for the Twins.

Ford’s latest hitting streak is seven games and he’s started to hit with power. Three of his seven home runs have come in the last 10 games. Usually batting in the leadoff spot, he’s also collected 10 doubles and two triples, while driving in 31 runs.

Among the many who have been impressed with Ford as a player is former Beaumont Golden Gator shortstop Ozzie Guillen, who is now the manager of the Chicago White Sox.

“That kid in left field is a going to be a great player,” Guillen said, after a series between the Twins and White Sox. “Talk about (Torii) Hunter and Jacque Jones, but that kid is a pretty good player. Good outfielder, good arm and a pretty good player. He will get better and better every day.”

For every superlative about his play, however, there’s a wacky story that belies the fact the 27-year -old Ford made 1,400 on the SAT and earned an academic scholarship to Texas A&M.

He’s missed flights, run the wrong way out of the clubhouse when told he was needed as a pinch-runner and asked why fans were booing him when they were chanting, “Lew, Lew, Lew” after a home run. Once, after showing up with an iron-shaped burn on his stomach, he was accused of trying to iron a shirt while wearing it.

Twins manager Ron Gardenhire tells the story of asking Ford to get ready to pinch hit. “I heard this huge crash back in the bat room,” Gardenhire said. “I looked around the corner and Lew’s sprawled on the floor. He wiped out (when his spikes hit the concrete floor).

“I had to stay back there with him because I was laughing too hard to manage the game.”

Recio, who also managed Anaheim Angels relief pitcher Ben Weber at PN-G, can relate.

“We had a big game against Nederland one night,” he said. “Lew was always pestering me to play in the infield and I wanted to keep him happy. So I put him at third base. A left-handed hitter from Nederland hit the ball off the end of his bat and the ball went toward third spinning real crazy.

“Lew never flinched. The ball went between his legs. I swear he never saw it. He was still looking at the batter and the ball was rolling in the outfield. When he was in a zone, he was in a zone.”

Recio said his only surprise with Ford being in the major leagues, and playing like he belongs, is that it didn’t seem he was really serious about pursuing a baseball career.