Reuschel, at 40, Has Control of His Career

Seven years ago, Rick Reuschel heard the three words a pitcher may dread more than any others: torn rotator cuff. Then 33, Reuschel appeared to have a brighter future as a dairy farmer than as a major-league pitcher. Two prominent physicians told him his chances of pitching effectively again were almost nil. Two teams, the New York Yankees and Chicago Cubs, gave up on him.

But Reuschel, winner of 133 games in nine major-league seasons before the injury, refused to believe he was washed up. Instead of hauling hay, he kept throwing the ball -- although sometimes the only people around to catch him were his agents -- and now his perseverance is paying off in a manner that transcends the usual comeback standards.

Reuschel isn’t just a useful major-league pitcher again, he is one of the game’s best. The right-hander is 36-17 since his trade from Pittsburgh to the San Francisco Giants in August, 1987, and seemingly getting better with each advancing year. “He’s amazing,” Giants Manager Roger Craig said. “He’s pitching better now than he did last year; and he won 19 games last year.”

In one stretch in May and June, Reuschel won nine straight, including a 2-1 victory over the Montreal Expos May 12 that was the 200th win of his career. At the All-Star break (which was no break for Reuschel because he was the starting pitcher for the National League), he is 12-3 with a 2.12 ERA.

How does a paunchy, 40-year-old pitcher with a rebuilt shoulder cut up National League hitters night after night?

“He preys on the hitter’s greed,” Giants catcher Terry Kennedy said. “When a hitter’s got a 2-0, 2-1, 3-0, 3-1 count, supposedly he’s in charge. But when Rick’s pitching, Rick’s in charge. He’ll take a little bit more off, put a little bit more on. Throw the ball just out of the strike zone. Throw a pitch that starts in the strike zone and goes out. It’s never the same pitch twice. The hitter hits a ground ball or pops up. It’s hard to get the fat part of the bat on the ball with him.”

Said Craig: “I’ve seen pitchers with control as good as his, but I’ve never seen anybody who can throw the same hitter three fastballs in the same spot at different speeds like he does. He changes speeds better than anybody I’ve ever seen.”

Perhaps the quintessential Reuschel game occurred June 21 when he beat the Houston Astros for his 12th win of the season. He gave up four hits in 7 2/3 innings and threw only 66 pitches, 52 for strikes.

Reuschel was a 20-game winner for the Cubs in 1977, but five years later, after his trade to the Yankees in the middle of the ’81 season, his career unraveled because of the torn rotator cuff. He spent the 1982 season on the disabled list before undergoing surgery Sept. 8, 1982. When he came off the DL June 9, 1983, the Yankees released him.

Looking back, Reuschel believes he was branded as damaged goods before he had a chance to recover from his injury.

“One reason a lot of guys don’t come back (from rotator cuff problems) -- maybe not so much right now, but when I was going through it -- is there’s a stigma attached,” he said. “Any kind of rotator cuff injury, especially to pitchers, they don’t expect you to come back, and therefore they don’t really encourage you a whole lot to come back.”

Reuschel said the Yankees’ team doctor at the time, John Bonamo, and noted Los Angeles orthopedist Dr. Frank Jobe both told him there was little chance he would pitch again. When Reuschel consulted an orthopedic surgeon in his hometown of Arlington Heights, Ill., he got a more upbeat prognosis. According to Reuschel, Dr. Ralph Lidge “felt like my problem could be addressed without a whole lot of problem, and that if I was willing to work at my rehab, there was no reason why I couldn’t pitch again.”

Buoyed by Lidge’s diagnosis, Reuschel signed with Quad Cities of the Midwest League, then the Cubs’ Class-A farm club, two weeks after his release by the Yankees. Two months later, he had worked his way back to Chicago.

The struggle didn’t end there, however. Reuschel spent the ’84 season with the Cubs but didn’t show enough (a 5-5 record with a 5.17 ERA between stints on the DL) to warrant a spot on the team’s postseason roster. And when he became a free agent in November, he was not chosen in the re-entry draft.

Finally, the Pirates offered to give him a shot in spring training, and, wearing No. 70, befitting his afterthought status, he threw well enough to earn a further look at Hawaii, then the Pirates’ Triple-A affiliate. Called up May 21, 1985, he went 14-8 with a 2.27 ERA for the Pirates, an effort that made him The Sporting News’ Comeback Player of the Year.

Said Lidge: “I think his pain tolerance is extremely high ... And he has a lot of smarts. You’re not impressed with that when you first talk to him, but in getting to know him, I could see he has the right mix -- like they say, the right stuff.”

What’s next? The Cy Young Award? The Rick Reuschel Workout?

Reuschel doesn’t make a whole lot of his comeback. “It was just a lot of hard work,” he said. “I had nothing else to do anyway, so I don’t think it was all that big a deal.”