Clippers pitcher has seen world through baseball
INDIANAPOLIS — Stephen Fife should never walk away from a ballpark feeling unwanted. He has played for 17 professional baseball teams, including three in the major leagues and in Venezuela, the Dominican Republic and Japan.
But his cellphone might as well have been on airplane mode during the winter, in that he was a 31-year-old righthanded pitcher without a team.
“I was unemployed and unsigned until the first week of February,” Fife said. “I contacted everyone — coaches, staff and front offices. Then I called the scout who drafted me with the Red Sox. He had some people he knew with the Indians, and he got on it for me. He told me there was a roster spot with Cleveland. Then I called my agent.”
If Fife continues to pitch the way he did in the Clippers’ 5-3 loss to Indianapolis in Victory Field on Sunday, it could become a pretty fair deal for him and the organization. He gave up one run on eight hits, didn’t walk a batter and struck out five in five innings in getting no decision. He threw 83 pitches, 61 of them for strikes.
Indianapolis won the rubber match of the season-opening threegame series by scoring three runs off relievers Ben Taylor and Evan Marshall in the seventh.
Columbus got 14 hits but left 12 men on base, including the bases loaded in the second and two in the fourth and seventh. Greg Allen, Francisco Mejia, Richie Shaffer, Brandon Barnes and Nellie Rodriguez each had two hits.
Manager Chris Tremie liked what he saw of Fife.
“He did a nice job for his first outing,” Tremie said. “One inning cost him some extra pitches, and that probably kept him from going another inning. I was happy the way all our starters attacked the zone and three strikes in this series.”
Boston picked Fife in the third round of the 2008 draft out of the University of Utah. He played in the New York-Penn League, South Atlantic League and Carolina League in his first three seasons, but he was just getting warmed up.
“This is my first bit in the International League,” he said. “I definitely could put together some thoughts about my time in baseball. I’ve seen a lot of the world playing baseball, and it has been cool. My contract was purchased by the Seibu Lions last year when I was with the Marlins, and Japan was a great experience. I enjoyed my time there, but it wasn’t the opportunity I was hoping for. I’d go back in a heartbeat.”
Fife’s pitching line suggested that Indianapolis knocked him around. But one hit ricocheted off his right leg, one bounced off one of his feet, one went off his glove, one was fisted into center field, and another was just off the glove of Shaffer at third.