Josh Beckett heads to Future Games

Beckett headed to Atlanta to pitch in Futures Game Author(s):    Joe Bush Daily Herald Sports Writer Date: July 5, 2000 Page: 7Section: Sports The major-league contract Josh Beckett signed late last summer guaranteed him a shot with the Florida Marlins in a couple years, regardless of how he performs in the minors. He'll pitch in a big-league park much sooner than that. Beckett is on the U.S. roster for the second annual Futures Game, a contest pitting the minors' top prospects from the U.S. versus those from the rest of the world. The game is played on the eve of the major- league All-Star Game, this year at Atlanta's Turner Field. The players are picked by Baseball America, with help from the game's insiders. Beckett, Florida's top-round draft pick last year and the second player selected overall, will leave the Cougars on July 8 from Peoria, meet up with his agent, Mike Moye, who lives in Atlanta, and report to the stadium early July 9. He'll pitch a minimal amount, then take in the major-league showcase with his girlfriend and family the next night. When it was suggested that Beckett - one of two Midwest Leaguers in the Futures Game - is on the roster because of his potential rather than his performance thus far, he's quick to defend his numbers, though he does realize his status as a highly touted prospect. Beckett missed six weeks with shoulder tendinitis, and is sporting a 1-3 record with a 2.12 ERA, 39 strikeouts and 11 walks. "Basically my win-loss record are the only really bad numbers," Beckett said. "My walks to strikeout are OK, my ERA wasn't that bad until I gave up 2 runs in the last game (a July 2 loss), but yeah, I think it was actually more on where I was drafted." Just as the Cougars (pitchers Bryan Moore and Jorge Cordova and catcher Dominic Woody) who played in the Marlins exhibition against Double A Portland last Friday looked forward to seeing some old friends as much as the game, Beckett is eager to hang with a couple of fellow U.S. prospects. Beckett lived a stone's throw from Royals left-handed prospect Chris George, who makes his off-season home in Beckett's hometown of Spring, Texas, and is good friends with Pirates outfield prospect Bobby Bradley. One major-league acquaintance of Beckett's is red-hot Todd Helton of Colorado. Moye is Helton's agent as well. Beckett is relatively sure Helton will be in Atlanta, though perhaps not as a starter. Because this is a breakout year for Helton, and the fans select the starters, it won't be surprising if Helton has to be picked to the all-star team by National League manager Bobby Cox. "I'm probably a little biased," Beckett said of his support for Helton. "He's having an unbelievable year." Moore had the finest outing of the Cougars who played for the Marlins against Portland. The 6-foot-8 right-handed reliever tossed 1 2/3 innings of hitless ball against such Double A batters and former Cougars as Alex Melconian, Joe Funaro, Jesus Medrano and Drew Niles. Moore induced five groundballs (the first was muffed) and a strikeout. He did this in front of the entire Marlins brain trust. "Everyone in the whole organization was there, from John Henry, the owner, to (general manager) Dave Dombrowski to (assistant GM Dave) Littlefield, (roving pitching instructor Britt) Burns, (minor-league chief Rob) Leary ... ," Moore said. "There was definitely some adrenaline there." © Copyright Daily Herald, Paddock Publications, Inc. Click here to go back.

 

Padres scouting director tells stories

Nickels keep his ears wide open Author(s):    Joe Bush Daily Herald Sports Writer Date: July 30, 2000 Page: 4 Section: Sports Gary Nickels looks relaxed in his San Diego Padres polo shirt and khakis, but he's ready for action. Nickels, a Kaneland High School grad and longtime Naperville resident, is the Padres' director of scouting, and was at Elfstrom Stadium Friday and Saturday evaluating the Kane County Cougars. The major-league trade deadline for players to be eligible for the postseason is July 31, and even though fans think of contenders like the White Sox, Yankees, Red Sox, Indians, Reds, Mets, Diamondbacks and Giants when they think of last-second deals, Nickels says the Padres and Marlins and many other also-rans can get in on the transactions. "The possibility of three-way trades," Nickels says. As he listened to an interviewer with one ear, he kept the other trained on his briefcase, which held a cellular phone. It was his link, should the club want to discuss a trade or send Nickels to see a player before Monday's 4 p.m. (Eastern) deadline. The deadline at one time was midnight, and there was a ruling stating that a traded player had to be in the same town as his new team by midnight. That complication led to Nickels' most memorable trading deadline. Though he can't recall the name of the player involved, Nickels was with Baltimore and the Orioles were in Detroit. "We had a player circling the Detroit airport, and he couldn't land, because of the weather, by midnight," Nickels says. "We had to get a special dispensation from the commissioner's office to say 'OK, this guy's eligible for the postseason.' " Nickels, who began his scouting career with the Phillies before moving to the Cubs in 1982, is proudest of 1985, the year he helped sign Rafael Palmeiro (first round) and Mark Grace (24th). Mississippi State's Palmeiro was the no-brainer, but San Diego State's Grace took a little more effort. "I had the Alaska (summer) League that year," Nickels says. "(Grace) was playing up there, so I sat and watched him, and the more you watched him, the more you said 'We've got to sign this guy.' To have two guys like that sign in one year is pretty good." Nickels also helped ink Shawon Dunston and Joe Girardi before switching to the Baltimore organization in 1989, where he rose to the title of scouting director. Nickels joined the Padres after the 1998 campaign. Once the deadline has passed, Nickels will head to Japan to scout that country's pros. It will be his third trip there, and it's an experience he says every baseball fan should make. "It's a little bit different," Nickels says of the Japanese approach to the game. "They care just as much if not more about baseball as we do. The game is played much differently, what you'd call 'small ball.' In the first inning, I saw three- and four-hole hitters bunting. They don't have much power. The power hitters they have are North Americans who are brought over. "The perfect game for (Japanese managers) would be to score 1 run in each of the 9 innings." © Copyright Daily Herald, Paddock Publications, Inc. Click here to go back.

 

Niekro brothers coach women's baseball team

Knuckling under in the Rockies Phil and Joe Niekro on
target with Silver Bullets

Author(s):    Joe Bush Daily Herald Sports Writer
Date: August 1, 1995
Page: 1
Section: Sports

Enough is enough, Phil Niekro yelled at the 24 women sitting in a dugout in Norfolk, Va. earlier this summer. No more breaks, no more kid gloves. Regardless of the fact the Colorado Silver Bullets were learning a sport in many ways vastly different from the comforts of softball, there was no excuse for their recent play.

Bass-ackwards was what the 54-year-old Niekro called his team's performances, and if that's the way it wanted to play, he fumed, then maybe that's the way it should dress.

There was tension, alright.

The Silver Bullets, who played at Elfstrom Stadium in Geneva last Friday, hadn't seen their manager like this before - and Niekro let it build.

Until his pitching coach - younger brother Joe - strolled out of the tunnel.

"He comes out and his uniform's totally backwards, helmet and everything," says Silver Bullets outfielder Angie Marzetta. "Pants turned around, shirt turned around, shoes turned around."

The prank had Joe written all over it, but it needed a good set-up man, and if you ask the Niekros, there is no better accomplice than each other.

Their roles as caretakers of the two-year experiment that is the Colorado Silver Bullets - the only professional women's baseball team in the country - has brought them closer in proximity than they'd been since their days fishing, hunting and playing ball as kids in Ohio.

They have always been inseparable, no matter the mileage between them during their major-league careers of 24 (Phil) and 22 (Joe) years, during which they won more games (539) than any other major-league brother pitching duo.

Since signing on with the Silver Bullets in the winter of 1993-94, the pair have caught up on a relationship Phil calls "absolutely as close as two brothers could ever be."

"We go fishing together, play golf together - just being together," says Joe, who retired in 1988 after 221 wins, 204 losses and a World Series championship ring he won with Minnesota in 1987 and wears on his right hand today. "He'll call me or I'll call him, we'll have dinner together, which we couldn't do when we were playing for 20 years.

"Sitting here side by side, watching him make moves. Talking about should we bunt, should we hit and run, who's ready in the bullpen, how do you think she's throwing. Just being close. That's something we wanted to do in baseball was play together, but we never got a chance to do. (In fact, they played together twice - with the Atlanta Braves in 1973 and 1974, and with the Yankees for a part of the 1985 season.) Now that he lives in Atlanta and I live in Florida, we're still apart but still close together.

"I had two idols in my life that were men, and that was my dad and my brother. My dad (Phil, Sr.) passed away in 1988. A lot of people ask me how it is to walk in Phil's shadow. I say there ain't no better shadow to walk in."

Phil's shade is indeed cool: 318 wins, 45 shutouts, 3,342 strikeouts, a 3.35 ERA in 5,403 innings, five Gold Gloves, five All-Star games and a reputation as the game's finest knuckleball pitcher.

"Knucksie" is what his brother calls him and it's what his Silver Bullets call him.

* * *

When he took the job in December of 1993, Knucksie knew he could teach women baseball, especially women dead-set on showing the world there was nothing soft about them playing ball.

He just wasn't sure how to tell a woman she didn't make the team, couldn't play tonight, wasn't doing as well as he knew she could. In short, he was insulting them.

"A couple times last year I remember saying to him, 'Look, I came here to play your game,' " says second-year infielder Stacy Sunny. "I just feel like sometimes he didn't really let go and manage the game he could because he really cared about how people felt. Last year he would play people in their hometown, things of that sort. This year he's not doing that.

"He's kinda changed his attitude a little bit and realizes that we are here to play ball and we don't wanna be babied. We wanna play like professional ballplayers."

It is that quality above all which has endeared the women to the brothers. They miss the action of the major leagues and the clubhouse banter, but not much else. The simple joy and love for the game the Silver Bullets have shown is a stark daily contrast to major league baseball's woes, as the team showed in its recent trip to Kane County's Elfstrom Stadium.

"I don't think the game is the game it used to be," Phil says. "It's really come down to business, and it bothers me. There's a lot of things in baseball that bother me. It's not so much what's in the best interest of baseball, it's the best interests of a particular owner. There's guys in baseball that shouldn't be playing right now, as far as I'm concerned."

Joe is just as free with his disappointment, especially with the recent strike.

"Me being a former player, it (hacked) me off," Joe says. "It really did. When we went on strike (for 10 weeks in 1981) it was a little different because the money wasn't there, and it got it up to a certain level.

"It was nice these guys went on strike, to back up what we did, but I think it could have been handled in a different way. It should have been taken care of a long time ago."

* * *

There are no such concerns as the Silver Bullets move from town to town during their 48-game 1995 schedule.

The travel is wearying, especially because the team has no home field. But just when the road rust, the losses (23 in 30 games thus far this season) and the inevitable chauvinist idiot threaten to turn the game into a chore, the brothers are at their best.

"They're hilarious," says pitcher Missy Coombes.

"They make playing here fun," Marzetta says. "This is a humble first step for women's baseball, and sometimes you're gonna have a lot of hard times. They're always making light of the situation. There's a lot more to these guys than the baseball part."

There seems no time for dull moments what with Yogi Berra-type sayings the women have dubbed Knucksie-isms - "Bed check's at midnight. Your bed better be there" - pranks like the one in Norfolk and high-stakes trivia games.

"Who hit the first home run off Joe?" Marzetta asks. "Pete Rose."

Though Phil says the only difference between he and Joe is the five years in age, and Joe says the sole difference is that Phil is the manager and he the pitching coach, it's clear Joe is the instigator of most mischief.

"Joe is more outgoing," Sunny says. "Joe has a joke for everything and Phil does too, but Phil's very quiet and just sits back and watches things, then he'll jump in with something kinda funny."

There's obvious affection among the brothers and the players. Phil has said coaching the team is like having 24 daughters, and Joe, who has a 21-year-old daughter, agrees.

When he relates the first time he saw the players dressed up, it sounds an awful lot like a father's reaction to his daughter's pre-prom appearance in the living room.

"We had a big dinner in New York last year and went to this Italian restaurant," Joe says. "Me and Phil looked at each other and said 'Is this the same team?' They were beautiful."

* * *

In other words, Phil and Joe are tight enough to see through the same eyes.

They use the same term to describe one another - best friend - and agree these past two seasons have been the best they've spent in baseball:

Along with their players, the brothers are pioneers in the women's sports movement; the team has drastically improved on its rookie-season numbers.

This spring in Florida, the Niekros double-teamed Boston Red Sox knuckleballer Tim Wakefield back into prominence after a dismal 1994.

Best of all, they don't have to dial anything more than a room number to say hey to each other.

"We're absolutely as close as two brothers could ever be," Phil says. "There's just nothing that separates us. Nothing. Nothing ever has and nothing ever will."

© Copyright Daily Herald, Paddock Publications, Inc.

Brewers prospect is a country boy

Low Class A Notebook

Brad Nelson fits perfectly in the small-town Midwest League
By Joe Bush
June 10, 2002
ARLINGTON HEIGHTS, Ill.–Brad Nelson didn’t grow up in what you’d call a baseball hot spot: Algona, Iowa, in the north-central part of the state, has no malls within an hour, and the folks are Braves and Cubs fans raised on superstations.
"Everybody knows everybody, and everybody knows everything about everybody," Nelson said.
They say if you’re good, scouts will find you, but Nelson didn’t wait around. After he hit 27 home runs his sophomore year of high school, he looked to capitalize by taking his game on the road. He missed a lot of his junior season to be at showcases–Iowa is the only state that plays its high school season during the summer–and he didn’t bother with pretense his senior year.
Nelson didn’t play for his high school team in 2001, instead choosing to play for the AAU Kansas City Monarchs, who won the AAU 18-and-under crown. Four days later, he signed with the Brewers, who had worked out Nelson in Miller Park, before picking him in the fourth round last June.
Considered one of the draft’s best high school sluggers, Nelson spent the summer homerless in 105 at-bats between the Rookie-level Arizona and Pioneer leagues. Not that he wasn’t trying; he was trying too hard.
"You don’t want to get caught up in that, or you start to press," he said. "It’s definitely a better way to play, being relaxed."
Numbers Now
He can say that now, in the midst of a season that hints at what the Brewers pictured. Nelson is showing power and production, as well as hitting for average. The 6-foot-2, 225-pound lefthanded hitter led the Midwest League in home runs (12), RBIs (60) and extra-base-hits (31), was third in doubles (18) and second in slugging percentage (.569), and third in runs (37).
Nelson was batting .297 and posting similar stats to Marlins first-base prospect Jason Stokes at Kane County. The two staged a memorable display in mid-May in Beloit.
Nelson hit a solo home run in the ninth inning for a 9-8 win, capping an evening when he was 4-for-5 with two homers and five RBIs. Stokes also went 4-for-5, with two doubles, two homers and six RBIs. They combined for 23 total bases.
"It was just fun to watch," Nelson said. "That’s what makes baseball so fun."
That’s a genuine sentiment, according to Beloit manager Don Money. Nelson’s got the small-town humility.
"He’s down to earth," Money said. "He can joke at himself. He doesn’t take anything for granted."
The Midwest League has been a great place for Nelson’s first full season because it’s loaded with lefties. Nelson is glad and has shown that southpaws may not throw him a curve, so to speak. He was batting .280 against them with five of his home runs.
"He doesn’t try to pull the ball," Money said. "Lefties or righties, it doesn’t matter."
Country Laid-Back
It’s difficult imagining Nelson being uncomfortable at the plate. He’s country laid-back, and says all the right things about his offensive approach–"That’s why it’s called an average," or "My philosophy is to hit line drives and the home runs will come," or "Those are your best swings, that you don’t even feel."
He’s a tad more awkward on defense, however. He was a third baseman and pitcher with 90 mph heat as an amateur, and he’s a work in progress at first base, where he’ll play as a pro because of his lack of quickness.
Money says the kid will be fine, especially given his hitting prowess.
"He doesn’t have a lot of range to his left, but he doesn’t need it, and he’s got a second baseman to his right," Money said.
Nelson knows about working on his game. Though his father farmed soybeans and corn, Nelson’s help wasn’t needed, so his energies could be spent completely on sports.
"I never had to do any chores," he said. "Dad always said I got off easy compared to how he grew up."
Nelson is becoming one of the Brewers’ top prospects thanks in part to a Beloit lineup leading the MWL in hitting. He doesn’t claim any goals other than to conquer the rigors of his first full season as a pro.
He’s just happy that he’s learned to calm down and let the power flow.
"I want to go out and have a good at-bat every at-bat," he said. "I’m just trying to stay more loose."

Midwest Harvest
By Joe Bush
• The Peoria Chiefs drew a franchise-record crowd of 8,824 to Opening Night at O’Brien Field. The team responded with a 3-0 shutout of Kane County, as righthander Mike Wodnicki threw six strong innings and handed Cougars lefthander (and league ERA leader) Dontrelle Willis just his second loss of the season.
• Cedar Rapids catcher Jeff Mathis was putting together a stellar first half for the Kernels, sitting in the top five in the league in average (.336), RBIs (39), hits (72), doubles (22), slugging percentage (.547), extra-base hits (30) and runs (41).
• While Mathis and his teammates were sweeping South Bend in a home series, Kernels manager Todd Claus was at it again. Claus, who earlier in the season staged his own ejection from a game to try to break a losing streak, tackled the Cedar Rapids mascot, Mr. Shucks, after the sweep was complete.
Mr. Shucks had brought out a broom and was prancing around the infield, which Claus took as a sign of disrespect for the opposing Silver Hawks. He put Mr. Shucks in a headlock, wrestled the broom from him and snapped it in half.
"That’s everything that we’re not about," Claus told the Cedar Rapids Gazette. "We preach going about things the right way. It’s about professionalism and respect. You don’t show anybody up. I don’t care who you are. That team fought hard and fought well. To me it’s common sense. You treat people the way you want to be treated.
"I asked for the broom. I said, ‘Give it to me.’ Somehow it became a struggle. I said, ‘Give me the broom,’ and threw in a few expletives."
• Clinton righthander Shawn Hill, the Expos’ No. 19 prospect entering the season, has been solid and stood tied for the league lead in wins. He was 7-2, 2.97 through his first 61 innings.

Late father helps brothers on the diamond

 

Late Father's voice calls to Harris brothers Author(s):    Joe Bush Date: April 7, 2000 Page: 1 Section: SportsXtra In the bottom of the seventh inning of a tie ballgame between Aurora Christian and Kaneland last Saturday, Aurora Christian ace Tim Harris faced what many kids might call a crisis. The senior right-hander gave up a 1-out double, then advanced the runner with a wild pitch. Out came the head coach. It's a scene played out at least once in most ballgames. Not quite this way, though. The head coach at Aurora Christian is 1994 Eagles grad Trevor Harris, Tim's brother. Trevor, a couple inches taller than his 6-foot-3 brother, moved in close, spoke intently, then gave a slight butt pat and left. Tim admits he doesn't always listen to Trevor the way he might to a coach who might be much older and not a relative. A father figure usually commands respect, and it wasn't too long ago that Tim and Trevor thought nothing of a fraternal fracas. Saturday, in the seventh inning, though, Tim listened to Trevor but heard his father, Tom. "Bend your back," Tom always said, "and follow through." Tom died Oct. 3 of liver cancer found in August 1998. Radiation had beaten the cancer for a year, but a checkup revealed a spread of the disease. Though Tom had continued to work as a trucking-company salesman while undergoing radiation the year before, the chemotherapy required for the second round ravaged him. "I thought it was gone, and he was going to be fine," Trevor says of the first year. Tom's weight fell, and two days after entering a hospital, he died with Trevor, Tim, daughter Tiffany and wife Andrea at his bedside. "He was just fighting, unbelievable," Trevor says. The 55-year-old was battling to borrow at least eight more months. Then he would not only be able to watch Trevor coach Tim, he'd be able to help. He also wanted to see Tim graduate. Trevor got the Eagles baseball job last summer and wanted Tom to assist him and assistant coach Kent Madsen this spring. Tim wanted Tom to pick up where he left off, coaching him in the Oswego youth leagues from the ages of 8 to 14. "He pretty much taught me everything," Tim says. "I was pretty much planning on him being here." Both the brothers were. Tom, an East Alton native who loved the St. Louis Cardinals and was a board member of the Oswego Pony League, coached Trevor until he was 16. "He's part of who we are," Trevor says. Tim has embraced sports for a decade, and since Tom's death, sports has returned the favor. Tim, a defensive-rebounding whiz of a forward/center, bowed out of the starting lineup so the Eagles could add another scorer. He reclaimed a starting role later in the season, and at the end of the year had taken 27 charges. The Eagles won a Class A sectional crown. Basketball turned into baseball, and Tim is thankful for the distraction. He's not sure what emotional wall he'll face once baseball season is through. "I'd love to stay busy," he says. The brothers agree the toughest time is once the action ends and the ride home begins. They're missing that third voice, the one that during the game advised and after the game analyzed, criticized and opened their eyes. If Tom were in the stands last Saturday, that voice would have saved Trevor six words. After Trevor returned to the dugout, Tim bent his back and followed through with 2 strikeouts to end the inning. The Eagles won the game in 9 innings, with much thanks to Tim's complete game and 17 strikeouts. "God does things to test us," Trevor says. "Sometimes he takes the best things away for those tests. We fully rely on God." - You can reach Joe Bush at (630) 587-8641 or at jbush@@dailyherald.com © Copyright Daily Herald, Paddock Publications, Inc. Click here to go back.

 

 

Minor-league PR chief helps with visiting team's radio broadcast

HighBeam Research

Title: 'Voice' of the Cougars reaches out to Iowa.(Sports)

Date: 8/5/2000; Publication: Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL); Author: Bush, Joe

For the last three days, Kane County media-relations director Marty Cusack has been a member of the media.
Cusack, an original member of the Cougars front office, sat in on three of the four broadcasts of the Cedar Rapids Kernels flagship station, KCRG. Play-by-play man John Rodgers and Cusack have been friends since Cusack saved Rodgers' bacon in Rodgers' first visit to Elfstrom Stadium, in 1996.
"I forgot my (radio) equipment," Rodgers said before Friday night's game. "I don't know how he did it but at the drop of a hat, he got me (equipment). I've always been grateful to him for that."
Rodgers has had Cusack as a pre-game show guest in the past, but this series marked the first time Cusack has provided commentary during games. The cosmopolitan Cusack, who has toured China as well as England three times, ensured a discussion of many subjects other than the on-field action.
"John's a great guy, he's a smart guy, very interesting, he likes knowing about different things," Cusack said. "After a radio guy's seen these guys for 120 games straight, he may need another perspective. So we talk and we bounce ideas off each other."
In between pitches - especially during the Cougars' 11-2 win Wednesday - the pair engaged in the lively art about the late Chicago Mayor Richard J. Daley and his Democratic machine (Cusack is a Chicago native), a theory from an evolutionary biologist about why there are no more .400 hitters in the major leagues, and nearest and dearest to Rodgers' heart, the Kernels' stadium issue.
Veteran Memorial Stadium was built in 1949, and though it is not the oldest park in the Midwest League (Quad City's John O'Donnell Stadium, 1931), it is one of the most outdated.
"It's in bad, bad shape right now," Rodgers said. "We haven't made improvements recently because we keep saying 'Why put money into something that's going to be leveled, hopefully, in the next year or two?' "
The club's ownership group wants to build a stadium, and has $3 million from the state of Iowa towards that plan. An Aug. 15 vote will determine if a four-year levy - essentially a $13 annual increase in the average homeowner's property tax - will provide another $4.8 million.
"It's a fairly-small cost to pay for the benefit you'd get," Rodgers said. "If that passes, nothing'll stop us."
Rodgers was most happy to have Cusack on as a neutral supporter of minor-league ball. Not only did Cusack provide a solid knowledge of the minor leagues - he was an assistant general manager or general manager for two seasons in two towns before coming to the Cougars, and has been to every Midwest League town - he argued against academic theories which downplay the economic effects of a team on a community from professors who, in Cusack's words, "are full of it."
"They sit there and look at numbers but never get out," Cusack said.
Rodgers ate up Cusack's views, and said his the KCRG audience did as well.
"Marty's provided a real objective, non in-the-fray view of why professional baseball is real important to a community," Rodgers said. "I think our listeners have appreciated hearing that because sometimes when you're in the heat of the battle, you don't realize ... some of the things he said to our listeners I think struck a chord because they come from a guy who's visited our city and seen what a wonderful old ballpark we have, but he's also seen how you have to keep up with the times."

COPYRIGHT 2000 Paddock Publications
This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.

This document provided by HighBeam Research at http://www.highbeam.com

Cuban defector overcomes struggles in pitching career

HighBeam Research

Title: Finally, a home game Family makes the difference for Cuban defector Izquierdo.(Sports Weekend)

Date: 6/22/2001; Publication: Daily Herald (Arlington Heights, IL); Author: Bush, Joe

Byline: Joe Bush Daily Herald Sports Writer
No matter where his baseball career takes him, Hansel Izquierdo will never be as far from home as he was between 1994 and 2000.
Izquierdo, promoted by Florida from Class A Kane County to high Class A Brevard County (Fla.) last Saturday, defected from Cuba when he was 17 years old.
Along with former Cougar lefty Michael Tejera (now at Class AA Portland), Izquierdo simply slipped away from the Cuban Junior National team while at an airport during the team's competitive tour of the United States.
Izquierdo didn't see any of his family again until last year, and their absence nearly cost Izquierdo his baseball career. Once he said "political asylum," there was no going back.
"I wish I could go to Cuba like the Dominicans, like Venezuelan guys, like Mexicans," Izquierdo says in his serviceable English. "It's a good thing, after the season, to go home and see everybody."
The Marlins released Izquierdo after two seasons. The White Sox let him go two seasons later, and the Cleveland Indians could tolerate him for not quite two months.
Lost in America, Izquierdo was hanging out with the wrong people in the wrong places, not doing the right things for his body and his major-league dream.
He signed with Sonoma County (Calif.) of the independent Western League last August, a couple weeks after the Indians sent him packing. Independent ball is where many ballplayers usually go just before starting a career in coaching or real estate.
In six pro seasons, the right-hander pitched just 12 innings above Class A ball. If he goes to Brevard County and repeats the 7- 1, 1.32 ERA he posted for the Cougars this spring, Izquierdo could earn a shot in Portland (Maine), and be teammates once again with Tejera.
Florida signed him again last November on the advice of Marlins rookie-league pitching coach Euclides Rojas, who has known Izquierdo since 1995.
"If there's a comeback player of the year in the minors, Hansel Izquierdo is the poster child," says Marlins minor-league director Rick Williams. "He has enough stuff to rebound his career."
The difference?
Rojas says much of it could be as simple as a cure for homesickness.
"It was because he was too young, and he had no family here," says Rojas. "It's hard for young guys. The influences he had were no good for him. I knew he had a good heart."
An uncle of Izquierdo's drove the getaway car from the airport that day in 1994, and housed Izquierdo as he finished high school. Florida drafted Tejera and Izquierdo out of Miami's Southwest High in the sixth and seventh rounds of the 1995 draft, respectively.
Izquierdo has lived on his own in Miami in the off-seasons since that draft, working as a pitching coach for 10-to-13 year-olds and one year as a security guard. In 1998, he played winter ball in Venezuela.
Somewhere among the loneliness and alienation and cultural disorientation, Izquierdo developed a bad attitude and worse habits.
"The biggest problem used to be Hansel himself," Williams says. "Hansel had some difficulty with structure and rules."
A seventh-round pick does not get the leeway afforded players selected in the first couple of rounds.
"Young people make mistakes," Izquierdo says. "I made a couple mistakes three, four years ago. When you make a mistake in a professional business, you got to wait for something to happen."
Izquierdo didn't have to wait long with each of the organizations that gave him a chance. In Sonoma County, the bottom of the pro baseball barrel, he scraped together a 9.69 ERA in 13 innings.
"I was worried, because I was trying to find my shape, trying to find myself," Izquierdo says. "Inside myself, I knew I would get it back."
The reunion with family members clearly was only half of what Izquierdo has been missing.
His father Tomas is still searching for an escape plan, but his mother Ana and 20-year-old brother Maurice are in Miami, where they have been all last season.
Covertly, they took a flight to Mexico, then to Miami, and live in Izquierdo's apartment. Izquierdo is overjoyed that they are a family again, and that backbone has been a major factor in his rebirth.
"That's what I was looking for, that help," he says. "There's nothing like family. It's a big thing. I've got my Mom here with me. Nobody like Mom."
Neither Ana nor Maurice could force Izquierdo to dedicate himself to get back in shape, however, nor could they toe the rubber and throw the pitches.
The guy Rojas saw this past offseason was not the guy the Marlins had released in 1997.
"I knew he was still hungry and working hard and still had the eye of the tiger," says Rojas, who also makes his offseason home in Miami. "Everything has been different. He's more responsible. He's more mature. He was more serious in his job."
Izquierdo befuddled Midwest League hitters with a slider, a sinker he learned from former Cardinals great Joaquin Andujar while with the White Sox, a fastball and a changeup.
"His fastball runs into right-handers, away from left-handers, and his slider, it runs away from right-handers and into left- handers," says Cougars catcher Dennis Anderson.
"The ball's going to be moving one way - you never know which way it's going to be going. So it makes it really tough to hit. You can't just guess. "
Izquierdo was the oldest Cougar, and came through in the clutch this spring. He's at a Class AA or AAA age, and showed Florida what it needed to see before it would send him to the tougher Florida State League.
"I learned a lot from Euclides - that you've got to take care of yourself, in the field and off the field," Izquierdo says. "I'm not a 19-, 20-year-old guy. I'm 24 right now.
"Everybody learns from mistakes, and everybody makes mistakes. The important thing is, after the mistakes, how you act, how you come back."
Now that Izquierdo is playing for a team half a state from Miami, instead of the other side of a communist gulf, he will have family in the stands for his games for the first time since he was 15.
"I came (to the U.S.) with that reason, to defect," Izquierdo says. "I told my mom and I told everybody I want to pitch, to make it in the major leagues. To play major leagues is to be freedom, too. So, you make a stand for a couple of reasons, not for only one reason."
COPYRIGHT 2001 Paddock Publications
This material is published under license from the publisher through the Gale Group, Farmington Hills, Michigan.  All inquiries regarding rights should be directed to the Gale Group.

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