Minor League Notebook : Misuraca Brushes Off Image That He’s a Brushback Pitcher

Mike Misuraca listened to the question, then laughed mischievously. Asked whether he ever threw at batters, Misuraca stated his case diplomatically.

“I don’t intentionally throw at a guy,” said Misuraca, a former Orange Coast College standout who now pitches for Elizabethton (Tenn.), a rookie league team of the Minnesota Twins. “But I will not hesitate to protect my teammates.

“If one of their guys throws at one at our guys, I will not hesitate to (retaliate). There are some unwritten rules in baseball and it’s up to the pitcher to enforce them. That’s just my style; that’s just how I get the job done.”

Last year, in his first season of professional baseball, Misuraca was involved in two bench-clearing brawls with the Class-A Kenosha (Wis.) Twins.

Misuraca’s inside fastball might have had something to do with it. He hit a batter, the batter charged the mound and his teammates followed.

“Some of these guys, they don’t know the game yet,” Misuraca said. “I was pitching and throwing really well. Their number-nine player comes to the plate. I had him 0 and 2, I threw a pitch and it flew out of my hand wrong.”

Misuraca, 20, said he didn’t consider himself the instigator.

“The guy was hitting .100,” he said. “Why would I hit that guy to put him on base? It’s ridiculous. If they knew the game, they wouldn’t have come after me.”

The next time it happened, Misuraca said, it “was the same thing. But the thing is, it happens, when you throw the ball hard, it happens.”

While at OCC, Misuraca was the Pirates’ top pitcher as a sophomore in 1988. Although not that dominating physically--his 6-foot frame was 20 pounds lighter than it is now at 180 pounds--he developed an effective curveball.

And then there was his inside fastball.

“He wasn’t a really physical guy,” OCC Coach Mike Mayne said. “So he had to protect what was his.

“I wouldn’t put it past Mike to throw at a guy if he felt it necessary. He could do that if he was upset enough about a guy getting on base. He’s kind of a throwback player anyway. He has his code of ethics in the game, maybe a little like the old-time ballplayers. You hit a home run and he’s gonna take it out on the next guy.”

Midway through the season last year, Misuraca was sent down from Kenosha to Elizabethton. Neither Misuraca nor any of the Twins’ management believes Misuraca’s demotion had anything to do with the brawls or his pitching style.

Bill Smith, the Twins’ assistant minor league director, said the move gave Misuraca more chances to pitch. At Kenosha, which is in the competitive Midwest League, Misuraca was used very little.

“He was sent here because we were strapped for pitchers,” Elizabethton pitching coach Rick Tomlin said. “We needed help immediately, and he was struggling a little bit in Kenosha.”

Now though, Misuraca, Elizabethton’s opening-day starter, is having one of his best seasons.

At 9-2, Misuraca has the most victories of the team’s five-man rotation. The Twins (40-20) have a seven-game lead in the Appalachian League, and their starting pitchers have lost only six games.

In 90 innings, Misuraca has struck out 79 and walked just 28.

“He’s a real aggressive pitcher,” Tomlin said. “That’s part of pitching as much as anything. The pitcher has to let the hitter know that that plate is his.”

And as far as his reputation as a brushback pitcher?

“I know he had a reputation at some other places, but maybe he was realizing that was one of the things he had to work on,” Tomlin said. “He just needs to grow up a little bit and to distinguish what’s right and what’s wrong.

“He does have a little mean streak in him, though. He’s a little nasty, he’s a little belligerent, he’s a competitor . . . qualities you have to have to be a current pitcher. He might get a little out of hand sometimes, but he’s still young and still learning.”

Roommates wanted: Last year, John Fishel of the triple-A Tucson Toros, a Houston Astros’ affiliate, was awakened by a midnight telephone call.

The call, from Houston, was for his roommate, Craig Biggio. Biggio packed, rushed out the door, and by 2 a.m. was flying to Houston to join the Astros.

In January, Fishel, a former Cal State Fullerton star, was traded to the Yankee organization as part of a three-player package that sent Rick Rhoden to Houston. Fishel was sent to the Yankees’ triple-A team, the Columbus (Ohio) Clippers.

Since joining the Yankees’ organization, Fishel has seen a lot more players--as well as managers--come and go. While he was being interviewed by phone last Friday, Fishel learned that his manager at Columbus, Bucky Dent, would replace Yankee Manager Dallas Green.

“It’s stressful,” Fishel said. “I shouldn’t say very stressful, but more so than any other organization. There’s always a lot of moves going on. . . . I think we only have four players (on the team) who started the year here.”

And roommates? Fishel had four roommates when the season started.

“All of them are gone,” he said. “The first one got traded, the second one got sent down, the third got traded, the fourth got sent down. I’m the only one left.

“Now, everyone’s saying they don’t want to room with me.”

Good road for Rhode: David Rhode, a former Corona del Mar High star, was promoted in June from the Astros’ double-A team in Columbus (Ga.) to its triple-A affiliate in Tucson.

As a second baseman in Columbus last season, Rhode began switch-hitting and finished the season batting .267 with a team-leading 73 runs and 36 stolen bases.

With Tucson, Rhode is hitting .317. He’s hitting .442 with men in scoring position.

“He’s doing outstanding,” Tucson General Manager Mike Feder said. “He’s really been a clutch hitter for us.”

And from both sides of the plate. According to Feder, Rhode is batting . 317 from the left side, .316 from the right.

Former Rancho Santiago College slugger Bob Hamelin, now with the Kansas City Royals’ double-A affiliate in Memphis, Tenn., is out for the rest of the season with a back problem.

Hamelin, who set state community college records with 31 home runs and 105 RBIs at Rancho Santiago last year, has what doctors are diagnosing simply as a “sore back.”

“Something in there is strained, but I took all the tests and there’s nothing wrong with the disks or bone structure,” said Hamelin, a first baseman.

“I’ve never been hurt before . . . I’ve never missed a baseball game in high school (Irvine) or college, so it’s pretty disappointing.”

Hamelin originally injured his back in a game June 4. After sitting out a week, he tried to play in a doubleheader, hurt his back again, sat out another week. That pattern continued through the rest of June and July. He went on the disabled list Aug. 3.

Hamelin, who hit .308 with 16 home runs and 47 RBIs in 68 games this year, said he isn’t counting out playing in the instructional league in September. He’s now in North Carolina, he said, visiting friends and fishing.