A new star for this season

Marlins' Willis has made baseball exciting for this fan

It usually takes me a minute to get into baseball following the end of the NBA Finals. If you read last week's column, you know that I was raised as a fan of what used to be America's Pastime (sorry, the NFL has that title now). In particular, a fan of the St. Louis Cardinals. But geographic and psychographic shifts over the years have dimmed my baseball jones into little more than a professional fancy until the end of the pro basketball season. And then it doesn't typically kick in until the pennant races become interesting, unless a particular player jolts me from my hoops hangover and forces me to dance through the nightly cable highlight shows to see how he's done.

Earlier this week, not long after the last bit of confetti had been plucked from David Robinson's hair, a young left-hander with a wonderful name brought me back to baseball sooner than I expected. Dontrelle Willis, a 21-year-old rookie for the Florida Marlins, is all arms and legs and feet (size 13, in fact), flailing in every which direction on the mound. His hat looks like he's had it since he was a kid. His uniform seems three sizes too big. And when he throws a baseball -- no, when he launches a baseball toward the plate and watches it pop (pa-yow!) into the catcher's mitt, past a befuddled major-league hitter, well, Willis looks like he just couldn't be having any more fun.

The kid threw a complete game one-hitter against the Mets on Monday night -- when he faced off against future Hall of Famer Tom Glavine -- lifting his record to 6-1 and lowering his ERA to a stellar 2.61. Willis walked but a single batter in that game and has only 17 base on balls in eight starts this season, making him among the stingiest pitchers in the majors. About a year ago, just after he was traded to the Marlins by the Cubs (along with a couple of other minor leaguers), Wills told a reporter, "I'm not big on walking anybody." Oh, the simplicity of youth.

But forget Willis' numbers. On Monday night the kid put on a show, just as he had been doing since he was called up to the majors. Fans and announcers were as mesmerized by his quirky style; his crooked, cheesy smile; and his youthful exuberance as the Mets were dazed by his stuff. That night he became just what baseball needed: someone who makes us want to watch, who forces us to squint at the morning's box scores as if we were prospectors mining for gold nuggets.

Willis has been compared to Mark (The Bird) Fidrych, the former Detroit Tigers phenom who stoked baseball fans everywhere in 1976 with overflowing curly locks and a flaky persona (he manicured the pitcher's mound between batters like a suburban landscaper) that were overshadowed only by his skill. The Bird debuted with a 19-9 record and 24 complete games, and was the American League's runaway Rookie of the Year.

Yet to my eye, Willis is not the Bird. He is Vida Blue, the high-kicking, intimidating left-handed star of the Oakland A's in the late '60s and early '70s. Five years before the Bird, Blue, in his third season, was the major-league pitcher of record. He had won 20 games by early August, en route to a 24-8 record. He finished the 1971 season with 301 strikeouts, eight shutouts and a magical 1.82 ERA. That year he won not only the Cy Young but the MVP award as well.

In truth, I hope Willis ultimately reminds me of neither the Bird nor Blue. True, they were stars in all glory. Fans who saw them pitch will always recall them with fondness and admiration. But beyond the highlights, their tales are nothing to emulate. Fidrych was used like an old mule by the Tigers. He pitched 250 innings his rookie season -- in retrospect, an inexcusably high tally. His arm was never the same. The Bird pitched only five more years, averaging just 27 innings during his final three injury-marred seasons, when he won only four games -- in total.

Blue pitched another 14 seasons, the final eight for the Giants and Royals. He won three World Series rings. But he never reached 1971 again. He finished with 209 wins but was a 20-game winner only twice after his glory season. He, too, endured shoulder injuries and worse: In 1983 he was among several Royals teammates convicted of attempting to purchase illegal drugs (cocaine). He served 90 days in prison and later was suspended from baseball for one year.

So in time, I hope Dontrelle Willis stops reminding us of anyone else. Let him be, simply, Dontrelle Willis, a dynamic young star in the making who has suddenly made this season matter. For now, that's good enough for me.

Roy S. Johnson is an assistant managing editor for Sports Illustrated. His "Pass the Word" column appears on SI.com every Friday. Catch Johnson on CNN Headline News every Thursday at 3:40 p.m. ET.

 

Related information

Stories

Marlins rookie mows down Mets with one-hitter Roy S. Johnson's Pass the Word Archive

Multimedia

Visit Video Plus for the latest audio and video