Bauer, acquired by the Indians from Arizona as part of a three-team trade also involving Cincinnati, has a unique approach to his job. Some other pitchers, including Hall of Famers, have had their own quirks. With photo gallery and videos.
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CLEVELAND, Ohio - The Cleveland Indians completed a trade with the Arizona Diamondbacks and Cincinnati Reds on Tuesday night, as reported by The Plain Dealer's Paul Hoynes.
Among the key players involved in the nine-player deal were outfielder Shin-Soo Choo -- going from the Indians to Cincinnati -- and pitcher Trevor Bauer and outfielder Drew Stubbs. The Indians acquired Bauer, one of baseball's most promising starting pitchers, from Arizona, and Stubbs from Cincinnati.
Baseball has had its share of quirky pitchers through the years - from Lefty Gomez delaying his next delivery to watch airplanes fly overhead, to Mark "The Bird" Fidrych talking with the baseball and motioning its desired flight.
Bauer may someday find himself included among the sport's most idiosyncratic hurlers.
Bauer is known for standing behind the mound on his last warmup
pitch between innings, then taking the ball and firing it as hard as he
can, near the plate or not. Sometimes it ends up in the screen behind home plate.
He also has a unique pregame routing. Bob McManaman wrote about Bauer for the Arizona Republic during the Diamondbacks' 2012 spring training:
Take his penchant for wearing headphones and listening to music as he throws side sessions or warms up in the bullpen. If they would let him, he'd wear his headphones while pitching in a major-league game.
"Oh yeah, absolutely," Bauer said. "And I plan to at some point in my career. I'll just have to sneak it by some people."
Bauer was 34-8 with a 2.36 ERA at UCLA, setting Division I records in strikeouts a year ago. Part of what made that possible, he said, is staying true to his array of off-the-wall and self-chosen practice habits.
That includes playing long toss right before he pitches -- sometimes from foul poll to foul poll, which is pretty darn long for long toss. Opposing players often stop what they're doing and simply watch when Bauer gets into his act.
Video: Diamondbacks pitching coach Charles Nagy (50), the former Indians star pitcher, fields long tosses from pitcher Trevor Bauer before Arizona's game on July 3. The camera is, approximately, stationed behind the left field foul pole. Bauer is throwing from near the warning track in right field, not far from the foul pole:
Now, by no means an exhaustive list, but some of baseball's unique pitching characters:
Bert Blyleven: The curveball artist, who had a pretty good fastball, too, pitched for the Indians from 1981-85. He waited much too long to be elected into the Hall of Fame, not until his 14th year on the ballot. If his pranks could have been included among his qualifications, Blyleven would have been a first-ballot inductee. Some of the tricks he pulled on teammates, clubhouse workers and media members would be dangerous if not conducted by such an able practitioner. Blyleven enjoyed the fans, too. With the Indians, when they held their spring trainings in Tucson, Arizona, Blyleven would sometimes lead songs for senior citizens in attendance at Hi Corbett Field.
Ernie Camacho: Camacho pitched for the Indians from 1983-87, setting a then-team record for saves in a season with 23 in 1984. It was always an adventure with Ernie. On May 6, 1984 at Cleveland Stadium, pitching against the Tigers, Camacho was hit on the left wrist by a Darrell Evans line drive. Unable to catch the baseball without feeling pain in his glove hand, the right-handed Camacho had catcher Ron Hassey toss the ball to third baseman Brook Jacoby or first baseman Mike Hargrove, either of whom would gently flip the ball to Camacho's bare right hand. Once, Hassey forgot, and fired a bullet back to Camacho, who re-coiled in pain as he gloved the baseball. Camacho pitched 2 2/3 innings, taking the loss, 6-5, in 12 innings.
While with the Indians, Camacho had bone chips removed from his pitching elbow. He put them in a jar that he kept in his locker. Often, when Camacho was effective, it was only after manager Pat Corrales went to the mound and yelled at him.
Steve Carlton: Near the end of his 329-win career, the Hall of Famer known as "Lefty" spent part of a season (1987) with the Indians. Carlton, a near-recluse at times, almost never spoke with reporters. He was ahead of his time, in a sense, with his training, which included martial arts. He insisted that he be caught by certain catchers, including Tim McCarver near the end of McCarver's fine career, and at one point, when the Phillies' regular backstop was one of baseball's best, Bob Boone. Carlton certainly had a mind of his own. Even McCarver, one of his best friends, once was quoted as saying, "Lefty reads too many books."
Dizzy Dean:
In the 1934 World Series, during which he won two games to help the "Gashouse Gang" Cardinals win the title, four games to three over the Tigers, Dean entered one game as a pinch-runner. He tried to break up a double play by purposely running into a throw. The baseball hit Dean in the head, and he was taken to the hospital. The story grew that newspapers ran headlines such as, "X-ray of Dean's head shows nothing." Whether true or not, that captures the image Dean didn't mind building both as a player and later as a popular announcer. "Ol' Diz," as he called himself even in his relative youth, took little care with the English language. When a teacher complained to him about the grammar children were hearing during Dean's work as a radio broadcaster, he replied, "A lot of folks who ain't sayin' 'ain't,' ain't eatin'. So, Teach, you learn 'em English, and I'll learn 'em baseball."
Mark Fidrych:
As a Tigers' rookie in 1976, Fidrych used his hard sinker to earn a runner-up finish in the Cy Young Award voting. But even more, "The Bird" had a unique personality that made him a pop hero. He'd talk to the baseball on the mound, bobbing his upper body up and down and motioning with his arm the ball's intended direction. He'd get on his hands and knees on the mound and pat down the dirt until he felt it was just right. The skinny, curly-haired Fidrych played the game with genuine joy. He'd sprint a few steps toward teammates after they made plays to show his appreciation, or make a brief return to the field after a game, happily sharing with fans a success that even he seemed unable to believe. Unfortunately, Fidrych hurt his arm after several brilliant outings early in the 1977 season, and his pitching was never the same.
Video: Mark Fidrych retires Elrod Hendricks to complete the Tigers' 5-1 win over the Yankees on June 28, 1976 at Tiger Stadium. "The Bird's" pitching quirks aren't so evident here, but watch his reaction to the last out and how he returns to the field after the fans call for him:
Lefty Gomez: Personable and renown as a practical joker, Gomez's nickname was "Goofy." No matter, he's in the Hall of Fame, one of the mainstays of the juggernaut Yankees from the early 1930s to early 1940s. He was also a quote machine. Joe McCarthy, the great Yankees manager, once said to Gomez, ''Lefty, I don't think you're throwing as hard as you used to,'' to which Gomez replied, ''You're wrong, Joe. I'm throwing twice as hard, but the ball isn't going as fast.''
Al Hrabosky: "The Mad Hungarian" was intimidating with his Fu Manchu moustache, sinister glare and hard fastball. Between pitches, Hrabosky would walk toward second base, his back to the batter as he rubbed the baseball over and over and then slammed it into his glove, taking a deep breath. He'd stalk to the mound and stare down the batter. Opposing hitters, and umpires, too, didn't especially like the act. During a 2-1 Indians' win over the Royals on Aug. 1, 1978, Tribe backup outfielder Horace Speed tried to take a stand for all batters against the showboating lefty. Imitating Hrabosky, Speed strode behind home plate as he went up to hit, pounded his bat with one hand into the other and stormed to the batter's box. Predictably, Speed had no chance, "The Mad Hungarian" fanning him and then getting Ted Cox and Rick Manning to strike out the side.
Bill Lee: The crafty left-hander known as "Spaceman" has co-authored a few books, including "Baseball Eccentrics: the Most Entertaining, Outrageous, and Unforgettable Characters in the Game." Lee was a fine finesse pitcher, with a repertoire that included the high-arcing eephus pitch, or blooper, known for Lee as the "Space Ball." Lee enjoyed entertaining fans, often between games of the doubleheaders common during his career. He'd catch fly balls he hit to himself, sometimes snagging them behind his back. Lee also courted controversy with comments on divisive topics, a penchant that continues for him even now as a frequent guest on radio talk shows.
Mike Marshall:
Marshall is a "character" in a different sense than the other pitchers. He has three degrees, including a Doctorate in kinesiology, the science which examines how people move. Marshall teaches pitching methods that he believes prevent arm injuries. His time as a major league pitcher indicates that he knows his subject. The peak of Marshall's 14-year career was in 1972-73 with the Montreal Expos, when he finished fourth and second, respectively, in the National League Cy Young Award voting, and in 1974, when he won the award as a Los Angeles Dodger. In that remarkably unique season, Marshall pitched 208 1/3 innings in 106 games, going 15-12 with 21 saves and a 2.42 ERA. He pitched seven more seasons, retiring at age 38, and he had something left in those final years, placing seventh and fifth, respectively, for American League Cy Young Award honors in the 1978 and 1979 seasons with the Minnesota Twins.
Satchel Paige: Paige's legend was secure when the Indians signed him at, they said, age 42 during the summer of 1948. He may have been older, but he helped the Indians win the World Series, their last title. Paige was one of baseball's best pitchers ever, but his prime years were spent in what was then called the Negro Leagues. African-Americans had not been allowed to play in the major leagues until 1947, when Jackie Robinson played for the National League's Brooklyn Dodgers and then, that summer, the Indians' Larry Doby became the American League's first African-American player.
Paige was an amazing story-teller, drawing on his reservoir of experience barnstorming the country during his long, long career, and said lots of great things, such as, for a small sample: "Age is a question of mind over matter. If you don't mind, it doesn't matter;" "I never threw an illegal pitch. The trouble is, once in a while I would toss one that ain't never been seen by this generation;" "Don't look back. Something might be gaining on you." Paige had a variety of pitching deliveries and threw every pitch in the book, giving them names such as the "Hesitation Pitch," "Jump Ball," "Midnight Rider," "Bat Dodger" and "Trouble Ball."
Video: A tribute to Satchel Paige, including interviews with Buck O'Neill and Paige's former Indians teammates, Hall of Famers Bob Feller and Larry Doby. With brief looks at Paige's 1965 appearance with the Kansas City Athletics, pitching three scoreless innings at who-knows-what-age, and his Hall of Fame induction speech:
Turk Wendell: Wendell is among the game's most recent pitching characters, retiring after the 2004 season. He was outspoken on baseball topics, sometimes commenting on other players, including those suspected of steroids use such as Barry Bonds and an ex-teammate, Sammy Sosa. Wendell had several superstitions. He'd chew black licorice while pitching, then brush his teeth between innings. He'd insist that umpires roll the baseball back to him, and if they threw it instead, he'd let it hit the ground. Wendell would wave to his center fielder before making the first pitch of an inning, and wait for the guy to wave back.
Video: Another long-toss session for Trevor Bauer, this during the Diamondbacks' 2012 spring training:
