‘You gotta try pitching’
Former pitching coach recognized Blue Jay Thomas Pannone’s talent from young age
Thomas Pannone’s former high school pitching coach was following along on his iPad as the left-hander made his first major league start for the Blue Jays last week.
The performance - a seveninning masterpiece against the Baltimore Orioles - didn’t surprise Bill Campbell one bit. He knew what the one-time outfielder was capable of from a young age, even if Pannone didn’t back then.
“He was primarily a centrefielder and I said: ‘you gotta try pitching. There’s a thousand guys that can hit the ball as far as you but there’s not that many pitchers that can make the ball move like you,”’ Cambpell said on Monday in a phone interview with The Canadian Press.
“And he would say: ‘no, no, I’m going to be a centre-fielder.’ And I’d say: ‘you’re going to be a pitcher, I’m telling you.”’
Campbell, who has since retired as the pitching coach at Bishop Hendricken High School in Warwick, R.I., was persuaded by Pannone’s strong arm and great ball movement when he first saw him as a 13-year-old at the Rhode Island Baseball Institute where Campbell worked.
He knew Pannone wouldn’t be overpowering on the mound but if he could get hitters to make weak contact and keep them on their toes by mixing up speeds, Campbell thought his young star might have a shot at reaching the major leagues.
Pannone protested the transition
for years.
“He wanted to play every day,” Campbell said. “That was his thing. And he was a good hitter . ... He got drafted as an outfielder by the Cubs (in 2012) and he did junior college and that’s when the Indians picked him up (in the ninth round of the 2013 draft) - as a pitcher.
“And oh yeah, I called him up after that,” Campbell added
with a laugh. “I said: ‘I knew it.’ I’ve been doing this long enough, I just knew.”
Pannone is expected to make his second start Tuesday night against the Orioles in Baltimore.
He took a no-hitter into the seventh inning of his first start last Wednesday, then worked out a jam with runners on second and third with nobody out, helping secure his first career
MLB victory after pitching just 4 1/3 innings out of the bullpen since his call-up from triple-A Buffalo two weeks earlier.
Campbell said Pannone’s ability to work himself out that seventh inning was more impressive than the one hit allowed.
“You get into trouble, you gotta get yourself out of trouble,” he said. “He probably had two innings left after that, who knows? He probably could have gone nine innings. I can see their point, bringing him along a little bit. He hadn’t pitched in a while.
“But he’s a competitor. That’s why I’m glad (manager John Gibbons) left him out there, he got in a bit of a mess and he got himself out of it. That’s how you become a good pitcher.”
Pannone wasn’t the first position player that Campbell helped convert.
Former Blue Jays reliever Jeff Beliveau, who pitched 15 2/3 bullpen innings for Toronto last year, was also a product of Bishop Hendricken. The lefthander signed with Cleveland as a free agent this off-season and was released on Aug. 8, two days before Pannone’s call up.
“He was a centre-fielder too, and same thing, I got him into pitching,” Campbell chuckled. “Tommy was called up (around the same time) Jeff was released. So I felt bad for Jeff, but happy for Tommy.”
Campbell can’t make Tuesday’s game at Baltimore’s Camden Yards - it’s roughly a six-hour drive from his home - but he’s hoping to take in a possible Pannone start during Toronto’s road trip to nearby Boston next month.
For now Campbell is content keeping tabs on his former player from afar.
“I’m very happy for him because I know the work he put in,” he said. “All the good ones put in the hard work - and they listen to what you tell them.”