Roger McDowell Returns To Baseball

[GaryMrMets]

http://dodgers.mlb.com/NASApp/mlb/la/news/la_news_story.jsp?article_id=la_20011219_mcdowell_ news&team_id=la

News

12/19/2001 12:00 am ET

Roger McDowell puts the uniform back on
Former Dodger pitcher will coach at Wilmington in 2002
Phil Elderkin
Special to dodgers.com

On December 14 former right-hander Roger McDowell, who pitched parts of four seasons in relief for the Dodgers from 1991 through 1994 and 12 years overall in the big leagues, was named the pitching coach of the organization's Single-A Wilmington minor league team in 2002.
(Wilmington Waves (A)
Brooks Field UNC-Wilmington College
Wilmington, NC, 12345
Phone: (910) 794-4614 Fax: (910) 794-4068 )

This will be McDowell's first time back in uniform since retiring from baseball in 1996.

McDowell, currently a member of the Dodger Speakers Bureau, was known for keeping his teammates loose whenever the club was in a slump by "waking up those sleeping Dodger bats" with a string of strategically-placed firecrackers.

Working exclusively out of the bullpen, McDowell gave up only 11 home runs while wearing a Dodger uniform and only 50 in more than 1,000 innings of big league pitching. Basically McDowell dealt in the corners. His sinkerball "out" pitch usually came in the form of a routine ground ball that (with a runner on first) became an easy double play.

Nature had gifted McDowell (like former Dodger Don Drysdale) with the ability to throw what managers like to call a "heavy" ball. That is, hitting it was like making contact with a 16-pound shot putt. After the batter swings, he usually wishes he hadn't, because it's a while before his hands stop stinging.

Even the game's best hitters seldom get more than a piece of this pitch and, when they do make contact, it invariably results in a roller to the shortstop.

Probably McDowell's best year in the majors was logged with the Mets in 1986, when he won 14 games out of the bullpen, saved 22 more, and relieved in a career-high 75. Among McDowell's postseason accomplishments that season were the five innings of one-hit relief he pitched against the Houston Astros in the sixth game of the National League Championship Series.

In one of baseball's longest post- season taffy pulls - a 7-6 victory for the Mets in 16 innings - Houston used six pitchers, New York four. Three days later, the Mets were in the World Series against the American League champion Boston Red Sox.

Failure to put together a well-balanced bullpen has cost innumerable general managers their jobs. However, it is the field manager's responsibility to keep his bullpen sharp but not overworked.

Managers who regularly get part of their bullpen up and throwing the first time their starter has multiple baserunners often risks wearing out his staff. Yet he can't wait too long to get ready, either.

Basically relief pitchers come in three models - long man, middle man and closer. What the manager hopes to get from the first two are enough shutout innings, after his team has fallen behind and his starter lifted, to keep the score reasonably close.

Then if he regains the lead in the eighth or ninth innings, he can bring in a closer like McDowell who can railroad that edge into the victory column. The best closers, of course, won't walk anyone and are as effective against left-handed batters as they are against righties.

McDowell, who was signed originally as a starting pitcher in 1982 by the New York Mets, held strictly to that pattern through three minor league seasons. This included a 2.15 ERA at one stop, nine complete games at another, plus a 19-6 record overall.

What the Mets were envisioning at this point when they promoted McDowell to the parent club was a young right-handed starting pitcher with the potential to work 200-plus innings a season.

Well, the Mets were right about McDowell keeping the ball down and away from the hitters, making him especially tough in the clutch. But when McDowell couldn't get by the fifth inning in his first two major league starts in 1985, it suddenly occurred to Manager Davey Johnson that maybe the club should try another approach.

Perhaps, working out of the bullpen three or four times a week, for no more than a few innings at a time, McDowell could be the equivalent of Phil Regan in relief. Thus began the noble experiment that eventually produced 159 career major league saves for McDowell.

In fact, never in the remainder of his big league career would McDowell start another game. Once McDowell did go on "relief," there would be eight seasons in which he would reach or exceed double figures in saves. He was also the winning pitcher in relief when the Mets beat the Boston Red Sox in the deciding seventh game in the 1986 World Series.

Asked what his reaction was when the Mets decided in 1985 (after two mediocre starts against the Reds and Pirates) to change him from a starting pitcher to life in the bullpen, McDowell replied:

"When you're a rookie, believe me, all you care about is staying in the big leagues. And I was a rookie who was trying to come back from major arm surgery the year before. What did I know? I would have done anything not to go back to the minors."

"Starter? Reliever? Who cared? The important thing was keeping that major league uniform."

[GaryMrMets]

Q: Is it true that pitchers are made and not born - that no matter how much natural ability they possess, they still have to be taught how to engineer a ballgame?

A: I would say "yes" to that question with few reservations because, when you first start out, it's a pitch by pitch mentality. Help is there in going over the strength and weaknesses of opposing hitters with your pitching coach before the game. And during a game, throwing to a catcher like Mike Scioscia or Gary Carter, who know the hitters, takes the guess work out of it. But it's not something you learn overnight.

Q: Why, when a pitcher is ahead in the count, like two strikes and no balls, does he always waste the next pitch? Or, to put it another way, why would a manager in that situation want to concede a ball to the hitter when a strike might catch him by surprise?

A: In the first place, it's not a waste pitch. It's what we call a "purpose pitch." You throw it off the plate because the hitter may swing at it anyway. Even if he doesn't, nothing much has changed because the hitter (fighting a 1-2 count) is still in the hole. Pitchers continue to use this strategy because it works, because the percentage for success is so much in his favor.

Q: What happens on days when a relief pitcher goes to the mound and knows ahead of time that he doesn't have his best stuff?

A: Well, if you're a veteran pitcher, it doesn't change what you already know about the hitters. For example, some hitters will swing at your first pitch no matter what. Others, like Brett Butler (a former Dodger) wouldn't swing at anything unless it was in the strike zone. Overall, it's as basic as staying with your strength and staying away from theirs, regardless of what your strength might be that day. On days when you pitch poorly and lose, you become a duck. You know, you let everything roll off your back. Never take the bad stuff home with you. Your next reaction should be to want to come back the next day in a like situation and feel you can blow the hitters away.

Q: Anything to the occasional rumor that certain umpires sometimes call balls and strikes according to the score, the pitch count or who is at bat?

A: It happens. You don't like it, but sometimes it happens.
While I was still waiting to pitch in my first big league game with the Mets, two of my teammates warned me that umpires have a way of testing rookies that I wouldn't like or understand. The way umpires do it is to call a perfect strike a ball and then wait for your reaction. What they are trying to do is establish right away that they are the bosses behind the plate and that it would be a mistake not to respect that fact. If the rookie pitcher doesn't react or show any emotion, he's okay. But if he is obviously upset, it becomes a lot harder and a lot longer for him to get established.

Q: Will a team automatically play better behind its best starting pitcher and its best reliever?

A: Human nature being what it is, that's often the case. When players have extra confidence in a certain pitcher, you get that kind of effort almost every time.

Q: Why do left- handed pitchers seem to be in so much demand today in Major League Baseball?

A: It isn't just today. It's been that way for years. Hitters, particularly left-handed hitters, see so few good left-handed pitchers that they have a hard time adjusting to them. Yet there are plenty of right-handed hitters who complain about how left-handers mess up their rhythm as well. You find a good left-hander, you lock him up. Man, it wasn't too many years ago that the Dodgers couldn't find even one left-hander worth having on their roster.

Q: Who do you think is the best relief pitcher in the game today and why?

A: After watching him in person and on television, I've always thought that Trevor Hoffman of the San Diego Padres (brother of Dodger third base coach Glenn Hoffman) is the best. One word, after you identify his skills, sort of describes Hoffman and that word is fearless. Hoffman has several good breaking pitches that he'll throw at any time against anybody. And they always seem to be around the strike zone, making it tough for the hitter to hold back. Hitters who try to read him can forget it, because there really is no pattern to what he does. By the way, I have never had the pleasure of meeting Trevor Hoffman.

Q: Why is it so hard for Major League Baseball to create a unified strike zone among its umpires?

A: What baseball seems unable to comprehend is that every umpire, like everybody in this world, has his own personality. So naturally every umpire is going to have his own strike zone. It's not a bad thing and it's not something you can legislate. With pitchers it's not a big deal because for years they have all made a point of learning each umpire's strike zone and adjusting to it. Baseball is crazy if it thinks it is going to help the pitcher by extending the height of the strike zone. The way to win in the big leagues is to keep the ball down. One of the first things you learn, even as a kid pitcher, is that most home runs are hit off balls above the belt line.

Q: Have you ever had a sore arm?

A: If they are honest, practically all big league pitchers will admit to sore arms throughout most of their big league careers. In fact, I pitched in the big leagues from 1985 through 1996 (Mets, Phillies, Dodgers, Rangers, Orioles) with a sore arm that had already been operated on once. The reason you can do it is because you are young and because it doesn't hurt when you're actually pitching. I loved baseball so much that when I finished my career with Baltimore in 1996, I had three more arm operations in 14 months. Let me tell you what it got me - a trip to spring training with the Chicago White Sox in 1997 and 1998. When Chicago said "no" the second time, I finally got the message.