Following a Perfect Ending . . . : Witt Tries to Match Vander Meer’s Feat

Only three days elapsed between the consecutive no-hitters thrown by Cincinnati’s Johnny Vander Meer in 1938.

Mike Witt, who will pitch for the Angels tonight against Minnesota’s Frank Viola in the 1985 season opener at Anaheim Stadium, will have had a little more time to prepare.

It has been 190 days since Witt ended the 1984 regular season by pitching a perfect game against the Texas Rangers at Arlington Stadium, only the 13th in modern baseball history.

Will the opportunity to duplicate Vander Meer’s accomplishment be on his mind.

“Only if I get to the eighth or ninth inning with a no-hitter,” Witt said. “But I don’t think I’ll even go eight or nine.

“I’ve never gone more than seven innings in my first start of the year.

“Then again, I threw 100 pitches twice this spring, so if I get to the seventh having thrown only 80 or so, I might be able to finish.”

The perfect game removed Witt’s anonymity, capped the best of his four major league seasons and became a freak measurement of his maturation.

The 6-7 right-hander was only 20 when he blossomed in the spring of 1981 and made the jump to the Angel staff from Double-A classification.

Witt went 23-29 over the next three summers, displaying what catcher Bob Boone said repeatedly was the American League’s best combination of fastball and curve, but frustrated himself and former pitching coach Tom Morgan with shortages of concentration, confidence and consistency.

Then, last year, things began coming together and Witt went 15-11, the Angels scoring two runs or fewer in nine of his 11 losses.

He led the Angels in victories, earned-run average, 3.47; innings pitched, 246; complete games, 9; and strikeouts, 196. His strikeout total was the highest for an Angel pitcher since Nolan Ryan’s 223 in 1979 and put Witt third in the league behind Seattle’s Mark Langston, who had 204, and Toronto’s Dave Stieb, who had 198.

Said Boone, in the wake of the perfect game:

“This is not a surprise to me. I think he’s the premier pitcher in the league. When he’s on, they’re not going to hit him.

“The only hurdle he’s had to overcome was the finding of his consistency and concentration. This year he fell apart only three or four times. His consistency allowed him to bring his potential to fruition.

“With his stuff, he has a chance to do this every time.”

Manager Gene Mauch reflected on Witt’s 1984 progress the other day and said:

“In ’82 (when Witt was 8-6 for Mauch’s Western Division winner) he hoped he was a big league pitcher but didn’t know he was. Now he does.

“Now he’s the kind of pitcher you expect to win every time he goes out there. I’m not comparing him to Nolan Ryan, but if it’s not a surprise when Ryan pitches a shutout, it’s not a surprise now when Mike Witt wins.”

Witt’s 1985 goal is to win more than 15 and to lose fewer than 11. His new confidence is documented by his lack of surprise when awarded tonight’s assignment.

“I expected it,” he said. “I mean, I was our best pitcher last year, wasn’t I?”

He also said:

“I know what I’m capable of doing and it’s not a perfect game every time out. It would be more reasonable to expect a shutout--or more reasonable than that, to expect a win.

“I went into last year still trying to make the team, trying to convince people I could pitch, taking it game to game.

“I came out of it feeling that I had finally done the job people were looking for and I could go ahead and get ready for this year as I saw best.

“I didn’t have to press as much or worry as much in spring. I’m much more relaxed going into the season. I know I belong. I do expect to win now every time I go out.”

It might have happened sooner, but Witt said he made the jump before he was mentally ready. The angular right-hander, a baseball and basketball star at Anaheim’s Servite High, had been drafted by the Angels only 2 1/2 years earlier. It had always come so easily, so naturally.

“The biggest thing people fail to realize is that Mike is still only 24,” pitching coach Marcel Lachemann said the other day.

“People say he’s a slow developer but I think just the opposite. I think he’s a fast developer. We have a lot of kids in the minors his age who we think are outstanding prospects.”

Witt will admit that it was the mental game that slowed his progress. He simply had a difficult time maintaining his concentration, allowing one mistake to become two, even going so far as to give up mentally on those nights when he didn’t have good stuff warming up.

Witt recognized that the 1984 season could be pivotal. He had to prove to himself and the Angels that his potential was legitimate or he might soon be doing his proving elsewhere.

He prepared by going to the Venezuelan Winter League, determined to develop a consistent delivery and a thinking pattern. He emerged with a 7-1 record and trust in his stuff.

“I was finally comfortable with the idea of challenging hitters, rather than trying to finesse them,” Witt said. “I felt confident that if I did have a bad game, I knew how to correct it. I carried that momentum into the season. There was a night-and-day difference for me between the end of the one season and the start of the other.”

Two other developments contributed to his mental improvement:

--He was introduced to St. Paul hypnotherapist Harvey Misel by Rod Carew, and ultimately worked with Misel and Los Angeles area hypnotist Lee Fisher. Witt said he now feels capable of maintaining an intensity that allows him to block out everything except the catcher and hitter. “But if I find that I can’t do it on my own, I wouldn’t hesitate calling them again,” he said.

--His marriage to former Angel secretary Lisa Fenn provided Witt with an outlet for his thoughts and emotions. A young loner on a team of veterans, Witt was close only to Tom Brunansky, who was traded to Minnesota in May of ’82.

“I used to go home and sit with thoughts that I didn’t know how to get out or figure out,” Witt said. “I’d end up bringing them back to the park with me the next day and the day after. I’d make my next start still thinking about my last one. Now I have someone to talk to, to work things out with. It’s easier now to put today behind me.”

There was also, for Witt, a pivotal change in pitching coaches.

Morgan came to believe that Witt was incapable of following instructions and literally washed his hands of a prospect whose height has made it difficult to maintain consistent mechanics and delivery.

“It’s all in his head,” a frustrated Morgan finally said of Witt.

Lachemann came in with new patience and a new program.

“Lach has allowed me to work within my own mechanics,” Witt said. “I’m not constantly being pressed to try something new. It’s been a lot more settling for me than under the previous pitching coach.”

Said Lachemann: “The ability and delivery were there. I just tried to show him that we were going to be patient and had confidence in him, that he didn’t have to panic when he had a bad game. We stressed that his stuff was strong enough to challenge hitters rather than thinking he had to be too fine.”

Witt’s growth can be measured by his 8-5 record and 2.69 ERA at Anaheim Stadium last year. He had previously had a 10-16 record there, pressing in a futile bid to cope with the pressure of pitching before family and friends.

His overall consistency, however, was the yardstick management employed last winter in rewarding Witt with a three-year contract that guarantees him $2,150,000 and can net him another $750,000 in incentives.

The perfect game obviously didn’t hurt, although Witt said he would have gotten the same contract even if he had lost the season finale. “I had already established myself over the course of the season,” he said.

The club also gave Witt a VCR and tape of the perfect game. He made a cameo appearance on “The Jeffersons” and appeared at several baseball card shows during the winter, where he was paid to sign autographs.

Otherwise, Witt said, the perfect game didn’t produce a financial bonanza or occupy his thoughts.

“I think it might have been different if it had happened in midseason,” he said, “but then I’d have had to put with a lot of distractions.

“As it was, the season ended, and the only time I thought about it was when other people brought it up.”

He also thought about it, however, on the couple of occasions when he was hit hard during the spring.

“I got to thinking that teams might gear up for me, but the fact is that they gear up anyway,” Witt said. “Maybe they get a little more intense for a (Rick) Sutcliffe or (Mike) Boddicker, but they still can’t do more than they’re capable of.”

Will Witt now stay within himself?

“I’m sure Mike realizes that it was just one game and not a standard he can strive for,” Lachemann said. “I mean, how long has baseball been going on, and that’s only the 13th one.”

It was in the wake of his perfect game that Michael Atwater Witt displayed his new confidence. He reflected and said:

“I always thought that no-hitters were only for guys who win 20 games and strike out 300 batters. But I think that with a few breaks I could have won 20 last year, and I have to think now that I may be in that class.”