Tampabay: Moving from the spotlight to the 'burbs

Retired by 40, they represent a new demographic in the suburbs north of Tampa: pro athletes making the leap from life in the fast lane to gridlock on Bruce B. Downs Boulevard.

Some don the mantle of teacher and coach, working at high schools, giving private pitching lessons and training swimmers at the community pool. Others segue into the world of entrepreneurship, soaking up the adrenaline rush that comes with realizing longtime dreams.

After the spotlight

Cars whoosh by on Bruce B. Downs in the hot May sun. They speed past the tiny Texaco station where Dennis and Jan Rasmussen have opened a gift basket business next door.

Inside Jan's Gift Cottage, soothing music and the scent of potpourri drifts among shelves topped with candles, stationery and teddy bears.

Towering above customers at 6 foot 7, 270-pound Dennis Rasmussen discusses the merits of gift baskets for men. (Father's Day is coming up, after all.)

Rasmussen, 43, retired as a player from Major League Baseball in 1995 and coached until 1999. He and his wife, Jan, 40, considered opening an indoor batting cage complex, but couldn't find the right building. So they decided to follow Jan's passion for arts and crafts.

Enticed by its schools and family friendly atmosphere, the couple moved to Tampa Palms with Jan's three sons, now 14, 16 and 22.

"Now we carpool," says Dennis Rasmussen.

He also chauffeurs the kids to the dentist, the doctor and the movie theater.

Whenever he gets the chance, he's glued to the television watching sports -- any sport.

"I miss it," Rasmussen admits. "But I'm so busy doing other things."

Intermission

After the NBA, the New Tampa YMCA became the court of choice for Haywoode Workman.

The former point guard had just moved to Arbor Greene with his wife and sons last June and he was in the mood for a little basketball.

"I'd play with whoever wanted to play," he recalls.

When Workman, 36, is not caring for the couple's two toddlers, he is helping his wife, Nicole, at her store, Cookie Cutters Haircuts for Kids, which opened in February.

Demographics pointed to New Tampa as the place to launch the salon and raise their two sons, ages 2 and 3, said Nicole Workman, 29.

"It's mine," she says, breaking into a smile. "I just put him to work sometimes."

He meets and greets, blows up balloons and sweeps hair when the stylists are swamped. He's organizing a June 3 charity golf tournament at Tampa Palms Country Club. "I call myself the director of special events," he says, grinning.

"The NBA, it was a dream come true," he says. "Now I know the difference between limelight and nonlimelight. It's more humble."

Coming around again

Olympian Mitzi Kremer stood on the podium in Seoul with her U.S. swim team peers -- living a moment she had watched on television as a small girl.

Music played, cameras clicked and the 20-year old swimmer cried as the bronze medal was placed around her neck in the 1988 Olympics.

The kids she coaches now at the New Tampa YMCA pool are unimpressed.

"If we go to a meet, someone will come up for an autograph and my kids will be like: Why do they want your autograph?" she confesses.

Retired in Tampa Palms from a competitive career that took her to the world stage, Kremer says New Tampa "is where it all came together" for her.

Now the YMCA's 34-year-old aquatic director, she spends 60-hour weeks helping beginners with their first shaky strokes and guiding toned swimmers through state all-star competitions, the Junior Olympics and in some cases the Olympic trials.

"I want to stay with this," says Kremer, who tried coaching in her hometown of Titusville, then moved to New Tampa on the advice of friends. "I've really found what I like."

The game of life

The man behind the black netting does not flinch at the baseball speeding toward his face. He smiles.

"That's it, there we go!" he praises the teenager in the No. 13 shirt. "That was a good one."

Batting practice between Wade Boggs and the Wharton High baseball player resumes.

Welcome to retirement.

Boggs won five batting titles and was an all-star 11 times in his career. The Tampa native earned his 3,000th hit, a milestone that leads to the Hall of Fame, with the Devil Rays.

He is a local legend to ball fans -- one who's not above taking out the trash. Boggs moved here in 1991 and lives in a $1.7-million Tampa Palms home.

"I do more chores than I ever did in my life," confides Boggs, sweat dripping off his chin following after-school practice at Wharton, where he coaches part time. "When you're on the road somebody else does it."

He used to spend half of the year away from his family.

"As a player, when you have kids it's hard to miss them grow up," he says of his son, Brett, a freshman player at Wharton. "Now is a pretty defining time in his life."

Maybe after his son graduates he'll consider getting back into professional baseball.

But Boggs has one rule: "Don't look back.

"Life's too short; enjoy being retired."

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