No coincidence that Borucki may remind fans of Buehrle
TORONTO — If Mark Buehrle were to get star-struck by one big-league pitcher, it would likely be former St. Louis Cardinals right-hander Todd Worrell.
The one-time Blue Jays starter — a native of St. Charles, Mo., half an hour from St. Louis — can’t explain the connection. Worrell pitched with a different hand. He was a closer who threw upwards of 90 miles per hour. Buehrle was a lefty starter in his 16-year career with the Chicago White Sox, the Miami Marlins and Toronto. His average fastball speed was 86.1 miles per hour, according to FanGraphs.
But still, the No. 38 Buehrle wore in high school was an homage to Worrell.
“I don’t know if it was just all the games that I went to, it seemed like he pitched all the time,” he said.
Ryan Borucki tells a similar tale about the pitcher he idolized growing up.
“It seemed like every time I went to a White Sox game he was always pitching,” said Toronto’s 24-year-old starter for Friday night’s game against the Seattle Mariners.
He is, of course, talking about Buehrle, whose No. 56 he now wears on his back after Buerhle did so through his major league career.
Now, Borucki’s admiration makes more sense.
“He was the No. 1 starter for the White Sox for a long time,” Borucki said last month. “I grew up a White Sox fan. Lefty pitcher and a lot of stuff ... I could picture myself being him. I started working fast just like him.” Buehrle gets it, too.
“I can see me being his (favourite), just being lefties, kind of being similar,” he said.
The two have never met, despite their mutual ties to the Blue Jays organization. Toronto centre-fielder Kevin Pillar recently texted Buehrle in an attempt to put the pair in touch before Borucki made his first hometown start against the White Sox last weekend, but connecting has yet to materialize, Buehrle said.
“I was like, ‘What are you doing, trying to make me feel old?’ That’s how it makes me feel whenever somebody says, ‘Oh, I’m a big fan, I grew up watching you.’ And I’m like, ‘Man, I’m not that old, am I?’ ” the 39-year-old Buehrle joked.
He hasn’t really seen Borucki on the mound. Buehrle admits he doesn’t pay attention to baseball like he thought he would, now that he’s out of the game. He sometimes checks scores at night and looks in on how his buddies are doing. He went to two Cardinals games this year — against the White Sox and the Atlanta Braves, to meet up with the Jays former head athletic trainer George Poulis — but said he never sits down and watches a game on television.
But he was renowned in the Jays clubhouse for mentoring the likes of Marcus Stroman and Marco Estrada, among others. And he was happy to share some advice for Borucki about navigating the big leagues. “I just tell guys, ‘You can’t hold on to a certain pitch.’ If you make a pitch and a guy hits a home run off of you, you see guys out there that are, like, ticked off and still pissed almost the next pitch or two,” Buehrle said. “I tell guys, ‘You can’t do that, because nothing good is going to come out of it.’ ”
Borucki has developed something of a reputation for quizzing his teammates about the game. On recent broadcasts, he’s been caught in deep conversation with now-former Jays pitcher
J.A Happ (who was traded to the New York Yankees last week) and veteran outfielder Curtis Granderson.
Buerhle is a big fan of that inquisitiveness. “Heck ya,” he said. “Talk to everybody you can. Pick the brains of pitchers, guys on defence, anybody. You can learn from not just starting pitchers on the bench.”
And while he’s no longer involved in baseball, Buehrle would be happy to take a call from Borucki.
“If he has questions, I’d be glad to answer it the best I can.”