Much-Traveled Harris Beginning to Harass Batters

No one knew what to think about Greg Harris when he joined the Texas Rangers last February. He kept mostly to himself in spring training; the players sensed he was quiet and left him alone, the media showed little interest.

Harris knew the feeling.

Before coming to Texas, Harris had played for San Diego, Montreal and Cincinnati in 18 months. Count the New York Mets and he had been with four teams in less than four years. Everybody told him he did a good job, then they traded him or sold his contract.

Whenever it happened, Harris struggled to maintain his confidence, for it was hard not to wonder what was wrong when opportunity repeatedly turned into disappointment.

Cincinnati traded for him in 1982, then sold his contract to Montreal a year later. The Expos worked him 19 innings in spring training last year, then traded him to San Diego in July for infielder Al Newman. And the Padres sold his contract to Texas after he compiled numbers almost as good as any middle reliever in baseball last season.

“When you’re doing well, and they still want to get rid of you, you think there is something (wrong) that nobody sees,” Harris said. “It’s not that way, it’s just the way my career has gone. It’s nothing I’ve done. I don’t burn bridges. I don’t make waves. Just give me the ball, and I’ll very quietly do the job.”

After a shaky spring training, in which he allowed 16 runs (eight earned) in 11 innings, Harris quietly settled down to become the Rangers’ most consistent pitcher.

Harris has had only one bad outing, a six-hit, three-run performance against Cleveland in early May. The rest of the time he has kept the Rangers even or close.

“He has helped the entire baseball team,” Manager Bobby Valentine said. “I don’t know much about his past, but in the present and future, Greg Harris is in a very comfortable situation. He feels good about himself. That being so, I only expect him to be productive.”

“At Cincinnati I fought it,” Harris said. “I said, ‘I should be starting on this club.’ I was upset I was not starting, and I was fighting myself. Now, I only have to concentrate on one thing (middle relief). I come to the park expecting to pitch. I’m no longer fighting myself or an organization.”

It wasn’t long ago that Harris, 29, silently fought organizations and his own feelings. He was the victim of youth movements in Cincinnati, Montreal and San Diego, all of which wanted to promote minor leaguers. Harris was the odd man out.

His worst times came in 1982. He was a spot starter with Cincinnati the first half of the season under manager John McNamara. But when McNamara was replaced by Russ Nixon, Harris became an unhappy mop-up man. His problems were compounded when he returned from a road trip to find that his 2-year-old daughter, Shannon, couldn’t remember who he was.

“That was a weird feeling--your kid doesn’t know you,” Harris said. “It was a feeling I didn’t care too much for. As tough as this game is, you have to leave it at the park. It took a while for me to do that.”

After the disappointments of 1982 and ’83 in the Cincinnati organization and the letdown in Montreal in early 1984, Harris thought he had a chance to stay put in San Diego. He produced well on the mound, compiling a 2-2 record and a 2.48 ERA by allowing only 38 hits in 54 innings. In Game 3 of the World Series, Harris shut down Detroit on three hits and no runs in 5 innings.

But the Padres signed free-agent reliever Tim Stoddard in the off-season, and Harris’ contract was sold to the Rangers a week before spring training opened.

“He did a good job for us, but he was a guy with no (minor league) options,” San Diego general manager Jack McKeon said. “We had a set club, and we had no room for (our) youngsters coming up. We knew we were going to bring one up sooner or later. Circumstances led to the situation, and he was expendable. He’s always been in that situation where he can’t get lucky enough. Maybe now (with Texas) he is lucky.”

“The way I’ve been taking it,” Harris said, “is I’ve got to go where I’m wanted. Since they got Stoddard, that pretty much said I wasn’t in their plans. I’m happy to go to Texas. I thought it was a great opportunity to get going again. It was a shot at a lot of innings, and that’s the way it’s turned out so far.”

Because of his subpar spring performance, Harris was the last pitcher to make the club. With an 0-2 record, a 6.17 ERA and 14 hits in 11 innings this spring, Harris wasn’t sure he would make it.

“He was trying to do too much,” Rangers general manager Tom Grieve said. “He was trying to make perfect pitches. He was pressing because he was not guaranteed a job. He wanted very badly to win that job--I don’t know if there was ever a time when it came down to that (being released). I’m sure we would have been disappointed if he didn’t make the team.

“In the back of my mind I saw that possibility, and I did all I could to make sure that wouldn’t happen.”

When the season opened, the Rangers, media and fans were busy watching Dave Stewart and Dave Schmidt fight for the short reliever role; they were concerned about free agent Burt Hooton’s lackluster spring, and they were curious to see how free agent Dave Rozema would pitch.

Greg Harris was forgotten.

But after a while, Harris forced people to take note. He pitched 4 hitless innings against the Yankees in New York, he went three innings against Cleveland to get his first save in early May and recently pitched two innings against Chicago to earn his first American League victory.

Batters are hitting less than .120 against Harris. With runners in scoring position, hitters are 3 for 16 against Harris, and only two of the 10 runners he has inherited have scored.

“He has probably been our most consistent pitcher,” catcher Don Slaught said. “People are going to have to notice him now.”