The 30th of March has been a big date in Jamie Moyer's professional life. First there was this:
On March 30, 1992 (23 years ago today), #Cubs released Jamie Moyer. They would offer him a coaching job. He instead pitched 19 more seasons.
— Ace of MLB Stats (@AceballStats) March 30, 2015
Here's the story about that day, from Moyer's recent semi-memoir:
At the start of the 1992 season, he found himself in Mesa, Arizona, for spring training with his first team, the Chicago Cubs. He was happy with how he had pitched, but getting cut didn't really come as a surprise. He'd surveyed the field, was aware of the numbers game the big league club would be looking at -- how many pitchers and how many spots they had -- and knew he faced long odds. As the team readied to break camp, he was called into the Fitch Park office of Bill Hartford, the Cubs' minor league director.
"Jamie, we have to release you at this time," Hartford said. "The organization doesn't see you helping them as a starter and they don't see you as a relief pitcher at the big league level."
--snip--
"You're almost thirty, Jamie. We don't have room for you in the minors as a pitcher, but we think you'd make a good pitching coach. So we'd like to offer you a coaching job."
"I'm not interested," Moyer blurted out, almost before the words were out of Hartford's mouth.
Hartford shifted in his chair. Baseball men hate delivering this message; he wasn't just releasing Moyer, he was also telling him that, in the organization's opinion, his playing days were over. "Well, look," Hartford said, "We have your rights for three days, why don't you go home and think about it and get back to us?"
"My thoughts aren't going to change," Moyer said.
"Well, just go home and think about it."
Moyer eventually signed with the Tigers and joined the Toledo Mud Hens. Despite pitching well, he didn't get called up in September. The next winter he signed with the Orioles, and pitched so well in Triple-A the following spring that the O's basically had to call him up. Except for a brief rehab stint years later, Moyer wouldn't return to the minors until almost 20 years later. But he didn't really become the Jamie Moyer we grew to love until 1997, when Lou Piniella convinced Moyer to really trust his outstanding change-up.
You know most of the rest.
On the 30th of March in 2012, Rockies manager Jim Tracy announced that the 49-year-old Moyer would open the season in Colorado's pitching rotation.
Ultimately, that didn't work out so well. But Moyer, true to form, wouldn't quit. After the Rockies released him in early June, Moyer signed with the Orioles and pitched tremendously in three Triple-A starts. The Orioles released him anyway, and he signed with the Blue Jays. This time he got hammered in a couple of starts, and that was it.
So far, anyway. Last I heard, Moyer was refining his Eephus pitch...
