Phillies: A Fesh face in the bullpen
Posted: Tuesday March 02, 1999 04:38 PM
By Mark Bechtel, Sports Illustrated
CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Sportswriters tend to be a cynical bunch, with baseball
beat writers being especially jaded. I guess covering the same guys for 162
games is going to breed a little contempt. So it was quite refreshing to
roll into Phillies camp and hear the scribes who follow the team talk about
what a fun team this is to cover.
The Phils are a young, mostly mediocre bunch, but they play as hard as any
team in the majors, and their clubhouse chemistry is fantastic. They've got
a talented kid at every position except left field, where they're trying to
groom the top pick from the 1998 draft, slugger Pat Burrell , to
take over. However, their starting pitching, with the obvious exception of
Curt
Schilling, is awfully suspect, meaning that Philly won't pose a
serious threat to the Braves and Mets in the NL East.
One guy looking to make the staff as a lefthanded setup man is a
26-year-old named Sean Fesh. He missed most of 1996 (in the Padres
minor league system) after having Tommy John surgery. Then he was dealt to
the Mets, who released him following the 1997 season, which he spent at
Double-A. No major-league team showed an interest in him, so Fesh found
himself faced with the prospect of finding real work. He was living with
his parents in Connecticut, and he started calling any team that would
listen to him. He offered to fly anywhere at his own expense just to get a
tryout. He explained that he had started throwing sidearm, and that his new
motion had increased his velocity and movement. Still, no one was willing
to give him a chance.
Fesh started giving pitching lessons at a local batting cage to high school
kids and 40-year-old men. Every day he would come home and immediately look
at the answering machine. "It seemed like there were always three
messages: two hangups and a courtesy call," he says. "You know,
'Thanks, but no thanks.' "
Then last May, Fesh and his father drove to Scranton, Pa., to see a few of
Sean's former minor league teammates, who were playing for Ottawa. Fesh
spotted Dallas Green, who had recently returned to the Phillies
front office, and walked up and asked for a tryout. Green told him he'd
have to call the Phillies to see if it was OK, and to come back in the
seventh inning. When Fesh returned, Green gave him his chance. A few days
later, Fesh worked out for the Phils, and on Mother's Day the team offered
him a minor-league contract. Fesh responded by posting a 1.36 ERA at
Double-A Reading with nine saves and 41 strikeouts in 33 innings. The Phils
added him to their 40-man roster in October, and he will probably start the
season in Triple-A.
Fesh struggled in the Arizona Fall League, but this spring I've seen him
repeatedly make hitters look silly during live BP. With the Phillies'
pitching as thin as it is, there's a decent chance he'll make his first
major-league appearance sometime this season. Why the perseverance?
"I'm not going to stop playing this game until they rip this jersey
off me," he says.
It's hard not to root for a guy like that.
Sports Illustrated writer-reporter Mark Bechtel will check in with
periodic Postcards from his tour of spring camps.
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