Welcome Change For M’S Moyer Has Gone From Has-Been To Star Since Cubs Pink-Slipped Him In 1992

The Chicago Cubs thought so little of Jamie Moyer that they offered him a job as a minor league pitching coach in Peoria, Ill., in spring training 1992.

When he turned them down, they released him. He’d already been released by Texas and St. Louis earlier in the ‘90s.

When he went home, he couldn’t find a job in baseball for six weeks. His wife badgered him to either go back to college and get his degree or get a job. She wanted him out of the house.

“People are entitled to make their decisions,” Moyer said. “Managers. Pitching coaches. General managers. Presidents. Whoever.

“Everybody is entitled to their opinion and everybody has an opinion. But I’m entitled to my opinion, too, and I always felt I could pitch.”

As it turns out, a lot of people made wrong decisions about Moyer, who has become an unlikely star on a Seattle Mariners’ roster that has lots of them.

At 34, with his seventh organization in a career that began 14 years ago, the slightly built left-hander who specializes in a changeup has blossomed.

Going into today’s final game of the regular season against Oakland, Moyer was 17-5 with a 3.86 ERA in 30 starts and 185-2/3 innings - unbelievable statistics for a player who couldn’t find a job when the Cubs released him five years ago.

Since being acquired in a trade with Boston for outfielder Darren Bragg on July 30, 1996, he is 23-7 for Seattle.

When the Mariners open their playoff series against A.L. East champion Baltimore this week in Seattle, Moyer will start Thursday’s Game 2.

How good has Moyer become? Randy Johnson good, that’s how good!

Asked this week after the Mariners clinched the A.L. West if Johnson had a chance to win the A.L. Cy Young Award, Seattle manager Lou Piniella showed the amount of respect he had for Moyer.

“Both he and Moyer should be considered. They should both get consideration,” he said.

Moyer for the Cy Young? C’mon, Lou!

“Over the last couple of years, he’s developed into a great pitcher,” Mariners catcher Dan Wilson said. “He’s just a guy who has mastered the art of the changeup.”

Said Piniella: “He can pitch. He makes adjustments on the mound as well as any pitcher I’ve seen.”

When your fastball is in the 83-85 mph range and your changeup is in the mid 70s, you’ve got to make adjustments. Compared to Johnson’s 98 mph fastball, Moyer doesn’t have a fastball.

“I’ve had hitters get on me from the dugout after they’ve made an out,” he said. “They’ll yell, ‘Why don’t you throw a fastball?’ I love it.

“When you see a hitter go in the dugout and go back in the tunnel and then you hear bats snapping and you hear somebody screaming, that’s when I’m at my happiest.”

Moyer says he has “nine or 10” different speeds on his pitches.

Mo Vaughn of Boston and Gary DiSarcina of the Angels are big fans.

“He’s a pitcher, he’s just a tough pitcher,” Vaughn said.

“He’s got a great changeup and he knows how to pitch,” DiSarcina said.

Moyer’s 17 victories were a career best. His .773 winning percentage was second-best in the A.L. to Johnson’s .826 (19-4). Clemens, who is favored to win the Cy Young, had .750 at 21-7.

Piniella and pitching coach Nardi Contreras love Moyer’s results and his tenacity. He pitches out of jams adroitly and isn’t afraid of confrontations with hitters.

“He doesn’t back down,” Contreras said.

Toronto slugger Carlos Delgado found that out at the Kingdome on Sept. 14. After Delgado hit a homer in the fifth inning, Moyer hit him in the leg with a pitch.

Delgado thought it was deliberate and yelled at Moyer. Moyer yelled back. There wasn’t a fight, but the 6-foot-3, 225-pound Delgado would have been a tough opponent for the 6-foot, 170-pound Moyer.

“He started mouthing off to me on the way to first base,” Moyer said. “I yelled back, ‘If I wanted to hit you, I surely wouldn’t hit you in the leg.”’

Moyer started the 1996 season at Boston with a 59-76 career record. After going a combined 13-3 for the Red Sox and the Mariners last season, he’s 30-8 over the last two years.

If the All-Star game was at the end of this season, he would be chosen to go.

“I just felt I wasn’t ready to give up,” he said. “I don’t think it’s about showing people they were wrong. I think it’s about showing myself.

“I knew I could pitch. Now, I’m proving it to myself.”