SCOTTSDALE, Ariz. — By the time he was 30, Jamie
Moyer had been released three times, and had become a non-tendered free agent.
He had been with four organizations, including the Chicago Cubs twice, and
spent the previous year and a half back in the minor leagues.
Father-in-law Digger Phelps told Moyer about a friend who was making a good
living in the recreational vehicle world. Moyer wasn't interested.
Everybody in his life and everything about his baseball career suggested it was
time to hang up the spikes. Moyer, however, wasn't listening, nor was he paying
attention.
And, 19 years later, he still isn't.
At the age of 49, having undergone Tommy John surgery to reconstruct his left
elbow a year ago, Moyer is back in uniform. A non-roster invitee to the
Colorado Rockies’ spring training, Moyer is intent on becoming the oldest
starting pitcher to make an Opening Day roster.
"I enjoy the challenge," Moyer said.
Challenge? Only three pitchers 49 or older have pitched in the big leagues.
Satchel Paige was 59 in 1965 when Kansas City Athletics owner Charlie Finley signed the
right-hander to a late-season contract that meant Paige, who had been retired
for 12 years, could qualify for a pension. Paige started one game that
September, allowing one hit in three scoreless innings.
The other two were relief pitchers — Jack Quinn making 25 relief appearances at
the age of 49 in 1932, and 14 more appearances during the season he turned 50
in '33. Hoyt Wilhelm made 16 appearances at the age of 49 in 1972.
Moyer wants to become the fourth.
He prepared with an up-tempo workout program in which he added yoga, Pilates
and stretching. So far, so good.
"I've been running a fair amount," Moyer said. "The last 10 or
12 years I hadn't done a lot of that. I haven't had the back stiffness like I
have had in the past. I have been able to do everything that the other pitchers
do during the drills. The next test will be pitching in a game and see how my
body reacts."
That test is scheduled for Wednesday against the San Francisco Giants at
Scottsdale Stadium.
The game will be a test, not only for how effective Moyer will be with his
pitch selection, but how he reacts on the mound to balls hit back up the
middle, and also fielding bunts and covering first base.
In 1989 and 1990, Moyer was a teammate in Texas with Charlie Hough, who retired
in 1994, at the age of 46, and Nolan Ryan, who retired a year earlier, also at
the age of 46.
"I was 28, 29, and I remember looking at those two and thinking it was
really cool that they could do what they were doing," Moyer said.
"I'd think it would be neat to be able to do that. Next thing I knew, I
was being released by the Rockies, the Cubs and Detroit, became a free agent in
Baltimore and was out of the big leagues for a year and half.
"During that time I never forgot that feeling I had in Texas. ... Now,
maybe I can be that player for someone else."
The odds are against Moyer, but they always have been. A sixth-round draft pick
of the Chicago Cubs out of Saint Joseph's University in 1984, Moyer was never
overpowering, and in his youth he seemed almost reluctant to throw the ball,
and when he did throw a pitch, he was trying to hit corners.
By the age of 30, he had a career line of 34-54 with a 4.56 earned-run average.
It was at that time — after declining Phelps' suggestion to get into the RV business
— that Phelps suggested his son-in-law get in touch with pitching guru Bus
Campbell. Phelps heard about Campbell from a friend, Tom Petroff, who lived in
Denver but had been the baseball coach at Ryder College at the time Phelps
coached basketball at the New Jersey school.
Moyer decided to give it a try, and it turned out to be a godsend. Campbell had
a way of simplifying the game.
"He made it fun again," Moyer said.
And he made Moyer successful, finally. He has gone 233-150 with a 4.17 ERA
since that first session with Campbell, who died four years ago. He has won 10
or more games in 14 of the last 17 seasons in which he has pitched, helped
Seattle to an AL West title in 2001, and was a part of the rotation for a
Philadelphia team that lost to Colorado in the first round of the 2007 playoffs
and beat Tampa Bay in the 2008 World Series.
He wants to believe he is not done adding to the resume.
Teams seem to feel he could be right.
When he held his first public workout during the offseason, 11 teams showed up.
Nine of them came back to see him in subsequent sessions, including the
Rockies, who had two different scouts look at him.
He eventually opted to sign with the Rockies, giving them what Moyer admits is
a "no-cost" option in putting together a 2012 rotation. Jeremy
Guthrie is the only pitcher on the Rockies' 40-man roster to have worked 200
innings in the big leagues. Jhoulys Chacin is the only other 40-man roster
candidate who has spent a full season in a big league rotation.
"This is a fun environment," Moyer said. "There are a lot of
young pitchers, and it's fun to be part of that because the team wants to win.
If they had a bunch of young pitchers and said they were going to rebuild, for
me, at my age, I wouldn't be here. I want to win.
"There were teams that told me the door was open for me to go to camp with
them, but what the Rockies offered was an opportunity to compete, an
opportunity to make a club."
The odds are against Moyer.
But then they've been against him for two decades, and it hasn't fazed him,
yet.
