INSTANT LEGEND : Ben McDonald Gets Two Outs With First Pitch in Majors

No, he doesn’t call his bat Wonder Boy. And he never struck out Babe Ruth on some Midwestern plain. But Ben McDonald knows how to stoke a legend, all right.

The big, rawboned kid from Louisiana, that well-known wrestler of alligators himself, threw his first pitch in the big leagues Wednesday night and got two outs with it, a fairly heady pace even for a phenom.

Someday, you may hear it was three outs (actually, he got the triple play in the minors). You know how poets are. Give ‘em an urn, and they’ll write an ode to it. But there’s no point in stretching the truth with Big Ben, all 6-feet-7 of him. This kid, who signed with the Orioles only 18 days ago, is a tall tale waiting to be written.

The 29,405 who were there to see McDonald’s debut went home as happy as you can when the home team gets crushed in an important game in a pennant race. It was a night to remember on a night to forget. There was that McDonald curveball -- a nasty, Gregg Olson-style hook -- that sent Joel Skinner back to the bench. And the McDonald fastball that blew Brad Komminsk away. And the balk, too. Only a legend would give up his first run on a balk.

The folks saw 2 2-3 memorable innings out of nine. They knew it, too. The fans, who have obviously conveniently forgotten the months of sometimes ugly negotiations leading up to this night, cheered him warming up. (“Made me feel like I was home in Baton Rouge,” McDonald said.) They cheered louder when he came into the game, to the strains of “Benny and the Jets.” He brought his jets, too, hitting as high as 95 miles an hour with his fastball. Wait until he gets his arm in shape.

“He was overpowering,” said his manager, Frank Robinson.

“I was impressed,” said his pitching coach, Al Jackson.

McDonald said, of course, something like “aw shucks” and allowed as how he was glad he could help the team. He also said he had butterflies the size of Montana when he got the call.

“I was just excited,” he said. “I was just running on air. I guess my arm felt good, but I didn’t really feel anything. I was really nervous. Runners on first and third. I was trying to throw a strike.”

Yes, he was pumped up. He stayed pumped up, hours later. For those who care, it was 8:28 p.m. with one out in the third inning when he made that first pitch to Cory Snyder, who hit a weak groundball to short that was turned into a double play, closing out the rally. McDonald clenched his fist, walked back to the dugout, still on air, and maybe wondered what all the fuss was about pitching in the big leagues.

He may be pitching again as soon as Sunday as the Orioles, who play a doubleheader tonight in Texas, have to pitch somebody in the fifth game of the series.

The Orioles started Curt Schilling Wednesday night, and you can’t say this rookie’s season debut was exactly a success. He must have been nervous last night, too, but he wasn’t showing the Cleveland hitters anything they couldn’t hit. With four runs in and a one-ball, two-strike count on Snyder, who had fouled off consecutive pitches, Robinson had seen enough.

“I just didn’t think he had the stuff to get Snyder out in that situation,” Robinson said. “I was hoping Ben could come in and get the strikeout. He did even better.”

One pitch, two outs. It didn’t help the Orioles, who lost anyway, 9-0, to fall two games behind Toronto. But it helped McDonald calm down.

“I was so pumped, I just wanted to throw a strike,” McDonald said of facing Snyder. “The next inning, I used my curveball and tried to move my fastball in and out.”

That next inning was when he threw pitches to make a manager’s eyes go wide, getting a groundball out and the two strikeouts. You had the feeling then that this million-dollar rookie and No. 1 draft pick might be for real. In the fifth, coming back to earth, he walked the leadoff hitter, who got to third on a stolen base and a flyball and then scored on the balk when McDonald, in midwind-up, stepped off the rubber. OK, he is a rookie, raw bones and all.

“Bob had both hands up,” McDonald said of catcher Bob Melvin. “I thought it was time-out, but the umpire didn’t give it to him. It was a matter of miscommunication.”

Joe Carter doubled anyway, which would have scored the run. It was the only hit he allowed, and the last inning he pitched.

The Orioles are not going to rush McDonald, who sat out much of the summer. He is a temptation, though, particularly in the middle of this pennant race. The Orioles look to a pitching staff that would someday include Milacki, Harnisch, Olson and McDonald and figure the future can’t be all bad. For McDonald, the immediate future, though, is uncertain, but you can bet the Orioles are going to look at him again as soon as they figure it’s prudent.

“He could have pitched longer tonight,” Al Jackson said. “Next time, he might go four innings, maybe five.”

And he might get knocked out of the box, too. But you have the feeling even that would be exciting to watch.