Cubs’ Bielecki Says That He Owes Much to Frey, Zimmer and Reuschel

Mike Bielecki sat in the antiquated dugout on the Cubs’ side of the field, surrounded by reporters attracted by his newly found circumstance in baseball’s spotlight.

Bielecki was not perplexed, though, but rather the picture of calm, as serene as a man afloat in a boat in a tranquil sea.

Talk of starting the second game of the National League Championship Series Thursday night did not perturb him. Nor did talk about facing his mentor, Rick Reuschel, a veteran who has had more good days, not to mention bad, in the majors than Bielecki has had innings. Not even talk of Kevin Mitchell and Will Clark -- tough customers even if the gales blow in at Wrigley Field -- fazed Bielecki.

For Bielecki knows life can be a lot tougher. Baseball life, that is. It can get real scary when you’re 28 years old and watching your playing career die.

That was Bielecki a couple years back, when he was arguably the best example of a struggling prospect-turned-journeyman one could find. His organization, the Pittsburgh Pirates, no longer wanted to know about ruptured disks in his back or the ruptured spirits of a young pitcher. Indeed, they did not want to know what Bielecki had meant to them in terms of future just a few years before when he had been named 1984 minor league pitcher of the year after going 19-3.

By 1987, Bielecki knew it was all but over.

“I was doing real well at Triple A, but when a couple (Pirates) starters went down, about five guys got called up and not me. That’s when I figured they didn’t have any plans for me.”

That’s about the time the need for a new career became apparent. What that career was Bielecki had no idea. The idea of walking away, maybe going back to school, “trying my luck,” he said, was real. “But I didn’t have to think about it. Thank God I was traded. Thank God I didn’t quit.”

Salvation came in the form of a little trade. It was a throwaway deal, one Cubs GM Jim Frey swung with Syd Thrift because neither executive figured they were giving up much and, therefore, could not lose.

At least Frey was right. For it was Frey who got to sit back and relish the 18 victories, the 3.14 ERA, the team-high three shutouts turned in by Bielecki this season. Mike Curtis, the pitcher sent to the Pirates for Bielecki on March 31, 1988, is out of baseball.

Bielecki doesn’t deal in the irony of the situation. He’s just grateful he is able to pitch. The idea he’ll be pitching for the National League East champions, will be given the ball before veterans such as Rick Sutcliffe and Scott Sanderson, is almost too much for him to assimilate. But that’s OK. The smile said enough Wednesday.

He doesn’t forget the people who got him here, crediting not only Frey and manager Don Zimmer, but even his mound opponent, Reuschel. “Big Daddy,” as the right-hander is known, was a free-falling veteran at Triple-A Hawaii when Bielecki was with the Islanders in 1985. To face Reuschel, he said, is an honor, because Reuschel always had time for the likes of him.

“Big Daddy is like E.F. Hutton,” Reuschel said. “When Big Daddy speaks, everybody listens. He’s a real professional.”

So Reuschel and Frey and Zimmer are invited to share the credit. But Bielecki would be remiss in overlooking his part in all of this. Zimmer told him he’d get a chance, but not as the reliever, a job that didn’t fit him too well in 1988. If he was to succeed he’d have to do so as a starter. And if he was to start, he would have to learn how -- in Venezuela in the winter leagues.

There, Bielecki was reminded of a different set of pressures. Guys patrolled the stands there with machine guns, Bilecki said, “because there was some kind of marshal rule.” Also, he added with a smile, “people love baseball down there. They really get away with things they’d never get away with here. They got into it with each other, though, not with the players.”

Should there have been a riot, the rioters certainly would have spared Bielecki. Equipped with a refined split-finger fastball, he shined, helping lead his team, Zulia, to the Caribbean World Series championship.

Bielecki came into spring training strong, confident and waiting to see if Zimmer was ready to keep his part of the deal. Zimmer did, making Bielecki his No. 5 starter. Tonight’s start shows where one season pushed the 30-year-old on the depth chart.

His ERA was 1.83 in April and 1.51 in May. It never reached 3.00 until July 14. He was 8-4 at the All-Star break, 10-3 after. Bielecki allowed three runs or less in 24 starts and five hits or less in 18 starts. He established career highs in victories, innings (212 innings), starts (33), complete games (four) and strikeouts (147).

“Whenever he got into trouble, he just reared back and just tried to throw harder,” Zimmer said.

For some pitchers that might lead to overthrowing. For Bielecki, it only led to a host of good performances. And now he gets to bask as a star who’s finally fulfilled his potential. No longer does he have to vie with a drug scandal and the threat of a franchise move for attention, as he did in Pittsburgh. No longer does he have to pack and go off to the outback of the baseball world or wonder which career to try next.

Bielecki takes nothing for granted. He knows too well how little separates the old days from the experience which awaits him tonight. He never thought he’d get to this show and now that he has, Bielecki could only say, “I’m just happy I got the opportunity to come here and pitch.”