Moyer trying to get back in baseball at age 50
SCOTTSDALE, ARIZ.— On a sunsplashed afternoon, Jamie Moyer, wearing his familiar No. 50 and pushing 50 years old, stared in to catcher Wilin Rosario for the sign.
For the first time in more than a year, Moyer was back at the office — on the pitching mound, facing live hitting again.
“I was a little anxious. I hadn’t been out there for a while. It was a little uncomfortable, a little weird,” Moyer said.
After undergoing Tommy John surgery on his left arm in December 2010, after all the torture of rehabilitation, after throwing three bullpen sessions last fall as he auditioned for big-league scouts, Moyer threw like, well, Jamie Moyer recently, all movement and location. He pitched to contact and wiggled out of trouble. Eight months short of his 50th birthday, Jamie Moyer is trying to get back to the big leagues. He’s in the Colorado Rockies’ camp as a non-roster invitee. He has spent half his life pitching in the big leagues. The Rockies are his ninth organization. Still, Moyer said he felt like he was a rookie all over again, trying to impress the parent club. He said he isn’t chasing Satchel Paige, isn’t trying to make a point that age is just a number. He just wants to pitch and stay healthy. “When I was hurt I kept thinking that if I could write it out, the way I was leaving the game wasn’t how I would have wanted to write it.” In his season debut in a Rockies intra-squad game, Moyer threw 42 pitches in two innings, allowed three hits, a run and struck out one.
“It was amazing. It felt like when you buy anything new. That kind of feeling. I had a new arm.” JAMIE MOYER ROCKIES PITCHER ON RETURN TO THE MOUND AFTER SURGERY
He said he felt great. “It was amazing. It felt like when you buy anything new. That kind of feeling. I had a new arm.” His quest is the most inspiring story of the Cactus League. In fact, the only person who doesn’t think Jamie Moyer’s story is remarkable is Jamie Moyer. “I look at this as my job,” he said. “This is my livelihood. Last summer was the first summer since I was 8 years old that I didn’t play baseball.”
Moyer won145 games for the Mariners. He has won 103 games since he turned 40. In 2006, his last year with the Mariners, he was seriously considering retirement before the M’s traded him to Philadelphia. He was 56-40 with the Phillies, winning 16 games in their 2008 championship season.
He is the oldest pitcher to start an NLCS game and the oldest pitcher to throw a shutout. He has thrown shutouts in four decades, won 267 games and pitched in 686 games. If Moyer makes the Rockies, the new Marlins stadium in Miami will be the 50th big-league park in which he has pitched.
“Having the good fortune to be around this long, those things happen, but that’s not why I’m doing this,” Moyer said. “The main thing for me is that I still believe I can do this.