Mark Thurmond Alive and Doing Well in Detroit : But His Two Padre Buddies--Show and Dravecky--Continue to Have Problems on Mound

Update on three buddies who used to be members of the Padres’ starting rotation: Eric Show lasted only 2 innings Monday night before the pain in his right elbow forced him to leave the game, again. He has tendinitis in his elbow and is on the 15-day disabled list, again.

Dave Dravecky was lifted in the second inning of Tuesday night’s game with a sore left elbow and will miss his next scheduled start.

Meanwhile, former Padre Mark Thurmond, who was rumored to have a sore left shoulder when he was traded to Detroit for Dave LaPoint July 9, is healthy and doing just fine.

Thurmond is being used regularly as a reliever and spot starter for the Tigers, and he’s happy to be playing for a team that is still in contention.

“I seem to have regained my pitching form over here,” said Thurmond, who is 4-1 with a 2.10 earned-run average in 15 games. “And this is a class bunch of guys. I couldn’t be more pleased to be on a team with this kind of character.”

Sounds like the harmony on the Padres, doesn’t it?

“The trade has been the best thing for me,” said Thurmond, who admitted he wasn’t surprised at the transaction. “I needed new scenery.”

But Detroit?

“I remembered the mayhem in the streets after the final World Series game (1984),” Thurmond said. “That was the first thing that came to mind. I was happy for the move, but I wasn’t sure Detroit was the place I wanted to be.”

For Thurmond, Detroit brought back memories of buses on fire. Tiger Stadium reminded him of the time he was rocked by the Tigers for three runs in the opening inning of the fifth and final game of the 1984 World Series.

“I’ve talked with some of the guys about the times I pitched against them in the World Series,” Thurmond said. “One day at Tiger Stadium we saw the highlights of the series during a rain delay. I was standing next to Larry Herndon, who had hit a two-run homer off me in the opening game in San Diego.”

Thurmond lost that opening game, 3-2, but the result isn’t what sticks most in Thurmond’s mind.

“I will always remember throwing the first pitch of the World Series,” Thurmond said. “It was a slider for a strike to Lou Whitaker.”

Thurmond had his best year in 1984, compiling a 14-8 record with a 2.97 earned-run average. But in 1985, he fell to 7-11 with a 3.97 ERA. This season, he was 3-7 with a 6.50 ERA when he was removed from the Padre rotation.

“I never felt I had lost it,” Thurmond said. “I had the best spring training I had ever had and I’m not a spring training pitcher. That was probably a bad omen. . . .

“At the time of the trade, I wasn’t getting to pitch as much as I’d like to. I can’t blame them. I wasn’t pitching well. But I seem to have regained my form over here.”

The day after Thurmond was traded to the Tigers, there was a story in a Detroit paper claiming that the Tigers received damaged goods because Thurmond had undergone acupuncture treatment on his left shoulder in June.

Thurmond wants to set the record straight.

“I had pitched a complete game against Atlanta in early June,” he said. “The next day I could barely move my arm. My biceps were sore. (Padre reserve catcher) Bruce Bochy had gone to an acupuncturist, so the next day I went. I felt great. That was the extent of it. I don’t have any worse arm soreness than any other pitcher.”

So, while Thurmond throws, Show and Dravecky sit on the bench with sore arms. Lately, when Thurmond has looked for the names of his buddies in box scores, he has been disappointed. He has to phone them to find out what’s going on.

“I talk to Dave weekly,” Thurmond said. “Eric is kind of hard to get hold of, but I keep in touch with him through Dave.”

It has been easy, however, for the Padres to follow Thurmond’s career since he is often in the Tiger box scores.

“Mark has done a super job for us,” Tiger Manager Sparky Anderson said. “He couldn’t do any better. He’s mostly relieving now, but we feel he can bounce back and also start. When he first came here, he wasn’t throwing good, but now he’s throwing really well. Sometimes a change is so good for people.”

A change of scenery and a change in mechanics.

“I noticed certain things right off the bat,” Tiger pitching coach Billy Muffett said. “Mark said he wasn’t aware he was doing these things, but he went to work on them right away.”

In his delivery, Thurmond was bringing his hands back instead of splitting them in the middle. That resulted in a loss of arm speed.

“It was like I was throwing darts instead of letting go,” Thurmond said.

Muffett said: “Once he made the adjustment, he started throwing harder and it really helped his control.”

Thurmond also moved from the middle of the rubber to the left-hand side, which is where he pitched from in 1984.

“That seemed to get the life back on the ball,” said Thurmond, who explained he had moved to the middle of the rubber “because I had about a two-week period where I was 1-4 with an ERA of about 9.00. . . . I thought that some kind of change would help.”

Even though Thurmond is not a member of the Tigers’ starting rotation, he appreciates his situation.

“I can’t complain how I’m being used,” Thurmond said. “I’m getting to pitch a lot. Earlier in my career, I didn’t want to be in the bullpen. Now I appreciate the value of being a swing man. It’s exciting to go to the ballpark not knowing if you’ll get in.”

That’s something that neither of his buddies can say. For the time being, both Show and Dravecky know they won’t be on the mound.