Home >  Sports >  Pirates

Sunday, April 20, 2003

By Steve Ziants, Post-Gazette Sports Writer

Jesse Orosco: Freak of Nature? Nah, just a left-handed relief pitcher. Same thing, you say? Not true. Freaks of nature can be explained by science. Keith Richards. Guests on Springer. The weekend headliner at Club Elite. Left-handed pitchers cannot.

"Old left-handers never die," said one old school manager 52 years ago yesterday, "they just suddenly appear in the seventh inning of a one-run game in Dodger Stadium."

Orosco, who found work in San Diego this season after he was deemed too expensive (and too old?) by the Dodgers, certainly defies explanation.

He turns 46 tomorrow and is still putting on a major-league uniform.

"I keep pinching myself," Orosco told Ken Daley of the Dallas Morning News.

"If I didn't think I could do it, I'd call it quits. But every year, I keep getting called on, so it's hard to say no."

Of 11 players 40 or older on opening day rosters, six were left-handed relievers. But even among this select group, Orosco is without peer.

He is four years older than No. 2 John Franco. He has pitched in more games (1,194) and made more relief appearances (1,190) than anyone in history. He is one of only 26 players to play in four decades and the last player born in the 1950s still playing. And, within his generally limited role as a lefty-killer, he is still one of the last men Barry Bonds or Todd Helton wants to see when the bullpen door opens. He even recorded a save in a 3-0 shutout of the Dodgers April 5 -- just his third since 1998.

Yet everything about Orosco anymore can't help but come back to age. The save against the Dodgers came 24 years to the day after he made his major-league debut with the Mets at Wrigley Field. He came on in the ninth that day to induce Bill Buckner to fly out to Elliott Maddox in right and close out a 10-6 Mets win. For the record, not one of the other 24 players in the Mets' dugout that day has played in 12 years (see chart above).

Even Padres General Manager Kevin Towers admitted the age card came into play -- when they decided three years ago not to sign him at age 42.

"They told me I might be too old," Orosco said. "And now they get me when I'm real old. Go figure."

But real old is such a vague, subjective description. It got The Guy In The Stands to thinking, and so he called on Mr. Peabody to see if he could take The Wayback Machine out for a spin this morning. We take you back to April 5, 1979 -- the day Orosco's career began.

How old is real old?

What did guys do? Orosco's debut will not make SportsCenter, and for good reason. ESPN will not make its own debut for another six months, Chris Berman is "back, back, back"doing traffic reports for WNVR-AM in Waterbury, Conn., and NBC's Saturday "Game of the Week" is about the only national baseball fix available.

The game: We Are Fam-i-lee is months away, stirrup socks and double knits are staples of every uniform, a stumbling ex-player by the name of Joe Torre is Orosco's manager and major-league minimum is $21,000.

National news: Jimmy Carter is in the White House, Three Mile Island is hot (really), fear of two-headed dairy cows in greater Harrisburg is off the charts and the Dow Jones Industrial Average closes at a 5 1/2-month high of 866.68.

Twinkle, twinkle: Four of Orosco's San Diego teammates have yet to be born and Boston GM Theo Epstein is 4.

At Pitt: The Panthers are in the middle of spring football practice and anxious for fall to see if a young freshman-to-be from Central Catholic will be as good as advertised. The kid? Dan Marino.

Talk-ics: In a watershed moment, four women reporters work the Pirates' locker room for the first time, government officials fear gas might go as high as $1 by fall and pop singer Linda Ronstadt and California Gov. Jerry Brown are all the juicy rage in supermarket checkout lines.

Greedy birds: The Penguins announce that seats in Sections A and B at the Civic Arena for the 1979-80 season will go for the ridiculous sum of $11.

A misprint? A Pittsburgh National Bank advertisement urges fans to come out and see the Steelers' "three" Super Bowl trophies on display at one of its offices.

Faces in the crowd: Michael Jordan hasn't even been cut from his freshman team yet and Mario Lemieux is just another 13-year-old on the ponds of Quebec.

Pop sounds: "I Will Survive" by Gloria Gaynor tops the pop charts, "The Deer Hunter" is in theaters and nine television shows now in TVLand's golden stable are in first run on the networks.

Media unmadness: One of America's Great Newspapers sells for 20 cents, its TV section has listings for all of 10 channels and the assimilation into daily life of the VCR, DVD, Eminem, HIV, MP3, B2, CNN, DSL, HDTV, MTV, WMD and JLo are still in some hazy far-off world.

Talk about time out of mind.

"I don't feel out of place, though" Orosco says of being the old, old man in a clubhouse full of kids. "Like their music; I listen to all the same stuff. I'm still hip. Or try to be.

"I just don't dance anymore."

But if he wanted to, The Guy's sure he's still got his white Travolta suit hanging in a closet somewhere. Because you know how old people are. They don't throw anything away.

The talisman

David Justice was seen as something of a lucky penny. He went to the postseason 11 consecutive seasons even though he played for four different teams. Now that he's retired, superstitious eyes turn to pitcher Troy Brohawn. Brohawn pitched for the Diamondbacks in 2001, the year they won the World Series. Last year, he pitched for the NL champion Giants. Last week, the (World Series-bound???) Dodgers called him up. "If it was that easy," Brohawn says, "I might have been here a little sooner."

Bullet-in

As part of their Puerto Rican "homestand" this week, several Expos visited Fort Buchanan, a U.S. Army installation in Guaynabo. In a moment that would rank this among the most bizarre road trips since Otter, Boone and the boys went in search of Fawn Lebowitz, an MP asked if there was anyone in the traveling party that would like to get shot. Who said Universal Studios had it all? Montreal pitcher T.J. Tucker volunteered.

The MP wasn't going to use a live round, of course. He provided Tucker a protective helmet, marched him 15 feet away, turned him around, then fired a practice round at Tucker's left butt cheek. It "stung a little" and left a mark on his pants, but otherwise did no damage.

"It was a once in a lifetime thing," Tucker said. As getting shot often is.

Water, but no wine

What's that they say about when in Rome do as the Romans? Or in baseball's case, when in San Juan do as the Catholics. In deference to a very passionate Catholic population, there were to be no beer sales at Hiram Bithorn Stadium for Friday's Expos-Reds game -- Good Friday's Expos-Reds game. It proved to be an epiphany for The Guy, who now believes that God likes a good beer. How can he be so sure, you ask? Simple. He rained out the game.

We coulda been a contender

The Guy has to wonder if Detroit's Dmitri Young is OK to get behind the wheel of a car, handle sharp objects or operate heavy machinery. With the Tigers staggering into yesterday at 1-14, hitting .177 as a team and averaging an unthinkable 2.1 runs a game, Young went on record this week as saying that, "I don't think [the American League Central] is all sewed up." Maybe not, but last place would seem to be.

This 'n' that

Remember when we thought Tim Wakefield's career was over after the Pirates released him in the spring of 1995? Ooops! Wakefield appeared in his 324th game with Boston Friday, fifth all-time among Red Sox pitchers and just three games behind a guy named Cy Young. ... More astounding than the Yankees hitting their 31st home run of the young season Friday is the fact that Yankees pitchers have allowed only four in their 13-3 start. ... Manager Ron Gardenhire benched shortstop Cristian Guzman April 12 for breaking one of those notorious unspecified team rules. "I don't have a doghouse," Gardenhire said, "but Guzzy was in my garage." ... Attendance may be down on the whole, but one of baseball's bright spots can be found in -- believe it or not -- South Florida. The Marlins have shown a 68 percent jump through nine dates. Of course, take into account that's a 68 percent jump from next-to-nothing. ... Give yourself a hand if you predicted that until Curt Schilling beat Colorado Thursday, Elmer Dessens would be the only starting pitcher in the Arizona rotation with a win. ...

Not that he's off to a bad start, but who would've thought that three weeks into the season, lumbering high-priced Phillies slugger Jim Thome would have as many triples (2) as home runs (2)? ... You know Randy Johnson must be hurting. His 11-7 loss to the Brewers April 11 ended a personal 14-game winning streak against Milwaukee dating to Aug. 5, 1992. That's 3,901 days if you're counting. ... The New York Times reported that Major League Baseball is exploring the possibility of a World Cup in 2005. ... And finally, Orioles third base coach Tom Trebelhorn will be ready when they get to U.S. Cellular Field -- site of Tuesday's fan attack on umpire Laz Diaz. "I'm going to be on red alert. I won't be orange or amber. And anyone who comes out of the stands, I'm going to kick his [butt]."

Shot and a jeer

Shot: Whatever happened to those kinder, gentler days when on-field fan assaults meant Morganna, a buss on the cheek and sheer awe?

Jeer: Poor Mike Illitch. He knows it has been a bad week when, as owner of both the mighty NHL Red Wings and the lowly Tigers, it was the Tigers who were his only source of happiness.