MLB marvels at Moyer’s feat
49-year-old lefty oldest to get a win
They still were rejoicing in baseball clubhouses throughout the land Wednesday, celebrating and reveling in Jamie Moyer’s feat as if they had won the game themselves.
“I’ve been part of a lot of great wins and seen a lot of historic things, but that one definitely belongs in the top 10 of anything I’ve ever seen in baseball,” said 1984 Cy Young winner Rick Sutcliffe, 55.
Moyer, who is older than eight active managers and 16 general managers, became the oldest pitcher to win a major league game Tuesday: 49 years and 151 days.
Moyer’s first career start, in 1986 for the Chicago Cubs, came more than two years before they installed lights at Wrigley Field. He’s going strong 2½ decades later, giving up no earned runs in seven innings in the Colorado Rockies’ 5-3 victory vs. the San Diego Padres.
“This is not a novelty act or a sideshow,” said Cincinnati Reds pitching coach Bryan Price, his former pitching coach with the Seattle Mariners. “This is about him wanting to pitch to help a major league club. He wants to pitch more than he wants to prove people wrong.”
Moyer, who didn’t throw a pitch harder than 79 mph Tuesday, carries around the original scouting report on him from the Cubs. It ridiculed his velocity and strength. It questioned whether he could make it past Class AA.
Now, 268 victories later, he is tied with Hall of Famer Jim Palmer for 35th on baseball’s all-time win list.
“Shoot, maybe I’ll come out of retirement,” says retired left-hander Kirk Rueter, who pitched in 13 seasons. “Seriously, I hope he pitches in his 50s. It’s great for the game. It’s great for everyone who doesn’t throw 90 and always hears that he’ll never make it.
“I heard that my whole life. I know he does, too.”
Moyer has defied the scouting reports his entire career. He bounced around with four organizations, and when he was released at 29, the Cubs offered him a coaching job. Moyer refused to give up.
“He’s always wanted to do things on his own terms,” Price says. “You can’t talk him out of anything. If you really wanted Jamie to do something, all you had to do is tell him he can’t do it.”
Sutcliffe, Moyer’s former teammate with the Cubs, helped persuade the Baltimore Orioles to sign him in 1993. Sutcliffe had no idea whether he’d make the team but figured he could at least be a great clubhouse influence in spring training and stay around in the organization as a coach.
“Nobody — I mean, nobody — ever saw this coming,” Sutcliffe says.
The beauty of Moyer’s endurance is not so much that he’s pitching in four decades, but that he’s doing it after missing the 2011 season recovering from Tommy John’ elbow surgery. When Moyer made his major league debut, Tommy John was an active pitcher, not a surgical technique.
“That’s what’s so amazing about this, is that he’s coming off rehab when he was 48,” Sutcliffe said.
Moyer played a crucial role in the Philadelphia Phillies’ 2008 World Series title, helping them win pivotal Game 3 at age 45. Shortstop Jimmy Rollins said he thought at the time that Moyer would retire, having little left to accomplish.
“I’m sure one of the motivating factors to go out there and win that game at the age of 49 was making history,” Rollins said. “And if you ask him, there’s more history to be made. I think he’ll try to pitch at 60 if he could. If he can still raise his arm, he’ll be dragging it out to the mound somewhere.”
Regardless of Moyer’s physical condition, St. Louis Cardinals pitcher Kyle Lohse says it takes courage to pitch the way he does.
“I don’t have the guts to go out there throwing 78 mph, but he can pitch,” Lohse said. “And that’s what it’s all about in this game.”
Said Cardinals manager Mike Matheny, 41, who retired six years ago: “He’s the nastiest pitcher I’ve ever faced. He absolutely killed me. When he was with Seattle, I actually looked forward to facing Randy Johnson than Moyer.”
Now, in a couple of months, Moyer can be the only man in the big leagues who can use his baseball card as an AARP card.
“Having the good fortune to be around this long, those things happen, but that’s not why I’m doing this,” Moyer says. “I don’t think pitching until I’m 50 is the driving force behind this. The main thing for me is that I still believe I can do this.
“There will be a time and a place for all of that. I think now it’s about proving something to myself.”