The Morning Journal (Lorain, OH)
Touching ending for Feierabend
Midview grad leaves to standing ovation, hopes to get into coaching at pro level
The end of the baseball season is profoundly sad.
For the teams not in contention for the postseason, there is a sense of failure. For the fans, there is the sense that summer is ending and that slate skies; dark and short days; and freezing winds lurk just ahead.
The Crushers are having a season that has been painful to watch as they’ve struggled through injuries and woes with the bullpen and offense. As a result, they are 39-50.
If there has been a silver lining to what has turned into a long season for Lake Erie it has been the effort of veteran left-hander and Midview grad Ryan Feierabend.
Now 36, (his birthday was Aug. 22) Feierabend has been making one last go of it in this his 18th active season in pro baseball in hopes of making it back to the big leagues, or pitching for a minor-league team that’s affiliated with a major league organization.
He looked at the chance to pitch for Lake Erie as a way for scouts to see him pitch while being able to live close to family and friends.
He pitched effectively and by the end of the year was second in the Frontier League in strikeouts and earned-run average.
But it appeared that no major-league teams would be calling on the lefty. So the third-round draft pick in the 2003 MLB Draft by Seattle who made it to The Show with the Mariners, Texas and most recently Toronto in 2018, decided to call it a career.
He went 4-2 in August with a 1.46 earned run average while limiting opposing hitters to a batting average of just .173, so he felt he’d done all he could to try to woe scouts.
This brings us to the Sept. 5 game with Windy City, which he decided beforehand was going to be his swan song to pro baseball.
On a sun-drenched Sunday, Feierabend put on a memorable show for the 1,584 in attendance at Mercy Health Stadium, which included his family, in what turned out to be a disappointing 6-5 loss to Windy City.
The bearded lefty tossed 6 2/3 innings of four-hit baseball and struck out eight while allowing just two earned runs. He left the game in line for the win,
but the Crushers’ bullpen imploded allowing Windy City to score three times in the ninth and a 6-5 win for the Thunderbolts. It turned what would have been a win for Feierabend into the dreaded no-decision.
But as the announcers say, that’s baseball.
Feierabend seemed at peace with his decision to leave the playing side of baseball. His goal is to now move on to a career in coaching in professional baseball.
“I’m about 99 percent sure it’s a wrap,” Feierabend said of retirement from playing. “I’m glad it ended how it ended. If this is the end, I got to do it in front of friends and family,” Feierabend said.
Tireless work at his craft had not resulted in him getting back to the big leagues. And now the time had come to pull the plug on the playing career, said Feierabend.
“You know it’s just really getting to that point. I had a really good year and I don’t think there is anymore I could do to get seen, to get back into affiliated. So now I figure it’s time to take the next step in my career. My plan is to get into coaching next year, hopefully. I’d love to pitch until I was 50, but I’ve got to be a realist and understand that the game is getting younger and that’s just how it is,” said Feierabend.
Feierabend struck out
Nikola Vasic looking for the second out of the seventh inning. That brought Crusher manager Dan Rohn out to the mound to take Feierabend out of the game. The move allowed the fans and the pitcher’s teammates to recognize his playing career. The entire Crushers infield, outfield and catcher Karl Ellison gathered near the pitching mound to congratulate Feierabend during a stoppage in play.
The public address announcer told the crow that they had just seen Ryan Feierabend’s last pitch, which started a spontaneous standing ovation.
“He went out on a great note,” said Rohn. “He struck out the last guy he faced in his career. It was an emotional thing for him. He was having a hard time keeping it together as we all would. The whole infield teared up out there. It’s always emotional when a guy retires.”
Feierabend waved his hat to the crowd and then greeted and shared an intimate moment with his family on the field.
For those of a certain age, it seems like just yesterday that Feierabend was facing down high school hitters while a Midview Middie and scouts of majorleague teams stood behind the backstop armed with radar guns.
“It went extremely fast,” Feierabend said of his career. “It’s funny. I was talking
to my grandmother this morning about it. I can’t believe how fast 19 years has gone for me. One thing that keeps it going is my wife and my family, without her none of this would be possible. She’s a rock. She keeps me motivated and keeps me going every year,” Feierabend said.
Feierabend did a little bit of everything in his final game as a pro. He caught an infield pop-up in the first inning when a bright sun blinded first baseman Steve Passatempo, but fell down in the process of making
the catch and appeared jarred by the entire experience.
He argued with an umpire after balking in a run in the third inning. But also picked off a runner with a sweet spinning pick-off throw to second base in the fourth inning. He struck out eight hitters while limiting the Thunderbolts hitters to just four hits.
“He’s got a really good changeup,” said Windy City catcher Rob Calabrese.
Lake Erie scored single runs in four separate innings to take a 4-2 lead after six. The Crushers tied the game at 2-2 on the fourth on Ellison’s eighth homer of the season.
Eric Calahan scored from second on a bloop RBI-single to right-center field by Steve Kraft in the fifth to give the Crushers a 3-2.
Lake Erie led 5-3 entering the ninth but J.T. Perez, who entered the game with a 2.08 ERA, was torched for three runs on three hits as his record dropped to 1-5.
Feierabend took the loss in stride and didn’t blame the bullpen for blowing what would have been a fairy-tale type day.
“They are hurting just as bad or even worse than I am when that happens. In my 19-year career, I’ve had games where I’ve been winning and we’ve lost and I’ve had games where I was trailing by seven and we came back and I get a nodecision. It’s all part of it,” Feierabend said.
Ellison, who caught Feierabend’s final start, was 8 when his batterymate was a senior at Midview.
“Everybody we play asks us what’s it like to play with someone who was in the big leagues. They expect that maybe there is a touch of that high and mighty, but there’s none of that. He’s the most, humble and caring person and just such an awesome teammate,” said Ellison
But pretty soon, you’ll be calling him coach.