COLLEGE BASEBALL

VALPARAISO | To hear Valparaiso University baseball coach Tracy Woodson tell it, he did Bo McClendon a favor by holding him off his conference roster.

"'We've got guys who are better, and it would be very unfair if I put you on this roster,'" Woodson remembered telling McClendon. "The kids on the team would probably look at him differently and say he's on the team because of his dad, and that's not fair to him."

Not much is fair about growing up the son of a major league player and manager. Sure, there was the perk of spending some time in big league clubhouses. And it wasn't so bad taking batting practice with Jason Kendall and Brian Giles the summer after his freshman year when he went to visit his dad, then the manager of the Pittsburgh Pirates.

But most of the time, dad was only around during the winter.

"When I was younger I didn't really understand," said Bo McClendon, a freshman outfielder playing mostly on the junior varsity team.

Now he understands. Not that that makes it any easier trying to make his mark playing the same sport at the same school where his dad starred. Gary native Lloyd McClendon -- the former Chicago Cub and Pittsburgh Pirate player and manager -- set the bar high for Bo, even if he never made his son feel obligated to live up to it.

"It was tough at times," said Bo McClendon, who was arrested for underage drinking last weekend at a party. "I kind of felt sometimes I had to live up to him, but he made it know that I didn't have to feel the pressure or anything like that.

"Other people might have put pressure on me, but he said I could do whatever I wanted as long as I was doing what I wanted to do."

And as long as he had the grades.

"It sounds crazy, but in my house baseball was always secondary," said Lloyd McClendon, now the Detroit Tigers' hitting coach. "Education came first."

Bo made sure he got the grades, so he could play baseball and football at Merrillville High School. So he could follow his father, mother and older sister to VU, the school where Lloyd McClendon hit .330 and is enshrined in the Hall of Fame.

"It's hard," said Woodson, a former major league player and minor league coach. "I know that. Believe me, I've got a son, and it's probably unfair to him. He didn't take to baseball. He plays tennis. I know what he goes through, and I know what Bo's going through."

For all the comparisons, there's no comparing Bo's style of play to his father's.

"I hit for a lot more power," said Lloyd McClendon, who resides in Chesterton in the offseason. "Bo is more of a speed player and a better defensive player than I ever was. He'll probably steal a heck of a lot more bases than I could ever steal. I think as he continues to develop, he'll become a pretty darn good hitter."

Woodson, who played against Lloyd McClendon and also shared the same agent, is plenty qualified to compare the two.

"Lloyd, you see his fire," Woodson said. "But we have yet to see it from Bo, even though I know that's the type of player he is."