MILWAUKEE — It was June 16, 1986 — a nice, sunny Sunday afternoon in Chicago, as Jamie Moyer recalls it now. And as Moyer toed the rubber at Wrigley Field, all he could do was focus on ignoring his overwhelming nerves.
Moyer was all set for his first major league start with the Chicago Cubs, slotted against his baseball idol, Philadelphia's Steve Carlton. Still nervous as the game began, he stared at the first big-league batter he would face as then-Phillies center fielder Ron Roenicke squared up at the plate and looked back at him.
He doesn't remember exactly what pitch it was that Roenicke hit — he guesses now that it must've been a hanging curveball that did him in — but the 29-year-old Roenicke smacked the ball down the left field line for a well-hit double. Much to the nervous chagrin of the young pitcher, he had given up an extra-base hit to the first batter he had ever faced.
"I was probably thinking, ‘What am I doing here?' " Moyer said Saturday. "But, you know, it was my first game in the big leagues."
Nearly 26 years later, Moyer still has a spot in a major league rotation. In fact, as he continues fighting to hold that spot with the Colorado Rockies, some have asked the same question of the now-49-year-old Moyer, who last week became the oldest pitcher to win an MLB game.
And this weekend, he need only look across the field to the home dugout at Miller Park to get a reminder of where he began and to catch a glimpse of the man who gave him his very first taste of the big leagues.
Roenicke, now 55 and manager of the Milwaukee Brewers, still remembers that game in 1986. He can't quite remember ever hitting leadoff in his time with the Phillies, but Moyer knows full well it was him who looked up at his rookie self from home plate that day more than a quarter-century ago.
And like Moyer's memory, his game is still very much intact with the Rockies — a now-legendary example of longevity in sports.
"It's incredible," said Roenicke whose playing career ended in 1988. "I can't imagine a guy pitching at that age, playing baseball at that age. When I was 35 years old, I felt like I was old. I would've had trouble playing. At 40, I would've definitely had trouble playing. At 45, no chance. I'm barely out there throwing batting practice, he's pitching in the big leagues. Incredible."
Last Tuesday against the San Diego Padres, Moyer threw seven scoreless innings, pitching the Rockies to a 5-3 win and cementing himself in the baseball history books. He threw 87 pitches in that game, down from the impressive 112 he pitched in a loss to the Giants the week before. And with the Rockies' rotation struggling, Moyer — who has a 2.55 ERA in 17 1/3 innings — might be pitching quite a bit in the season leading up to his 50th birthday.
It took Moyer a while after that first game with the Cubs to find his place as a pitcher in the major leagues. Never one to wow scouts with dominant stuff, he bounced from team to team until landing with Seattle in 1996.
It's there, Brewers pitcher Randy Wolf said, where Moyer's career started to take off because of his dedication to the craft of pitching – dedication he'd need with a fastball that never hit 90 mph.
"It's amazing to see that his career really blossomed past the age of 30," said Wolf, 35. "I played with him. I see his work ethic… I've seen his dedication. … To find the time and the balance to do everything that he does at the age he is, it's amazing."
Wolf played with Moyer in Philadelphia during the 2006 season and couldn't believe when he saw the then-43-year-old complete a full workout the day he was scheduled to pitch. It's that routine and a complex understanding of pitching, Wolf says, that's kept him in the majors for so long.
Of course, it helps that Moyer's calling card has never been one of blazing velocity.
"The guys that got by on having good stuff -- hard, nasty stuff -- when they don't have that, what do they fall back on?" Wolf said. "He never really had the overwhelming stuff to blow guys away, so he always had to know how to pitch. As long as he was healthy, he could stay in the game. That's where he really had a leg up on everyone else."
Josh Roenicke, a reliever with the Rockies and nephew to the Brewers' manager, was skeptical and curious, like many others were, when Colorado announced the signing of Moyer before the season. After all, not only had his uncle doubled off of Moyer in Moyer's first start, but in 1987 his father, Gary Roenicke, had hit two home runs in one game against the pitcher. How could this guy possibly still be in a major league uniform?
Now, the young Roenicke understands. And he says the Rockies' pitching staff — loaded with plenty of young guys trying to prove themselves — has only benefited from having that kind of longevity in the clubhouse.
"It just shows that if you work hard and try to stay in shape you can keep in this game for a long time," Josh Roenicke said.
Moyer admits that it was strange the first time he crossed paths with managers or coaches he once played with or against. But at 49, he's used to it now. He knows clubhouses are littered with guys like Josh Roenicke or other sons of former players, a full generation away from his beginnings in the majors. He knows his former counterparts, like the Brewers' manager, have settled into coaching jobs or front offices or retirement.
But for however long the game allows him to persist, that won't be Moyer. He's got too much left to learn, he contends.
"There's no secrets," Moyer said. "This game is all about adapting. Ask any hitter. Ask any pitcher. This is a giant chess game."
And for 26 years, nobody in professional sports has been able to adapt quite like Jamie Moyer.
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