Back in U.S., Bannister Suits Angels

Floyd Bannister already had more than one sutoraikku against him when the Angels signed him to a one-year contract in December.

One of the strikes was that Bannister, a 13-year major league pitcher, had spent half of last season in Japan, trying to prove he could recover from rotator cuff surgery he underwent in June, 1989.

Another was that he will be 36 in June. Granted, he is a left-hander, but he still has reached an age at which clubs approach cautiously, if at all.

Before going to Japan, Bannister had been bought out of the final year of his contract with the Kansas City Royals after making just 14 appearances during the 1989 season, then undergoing surgery for the shoulder problem.

“It was looking pretty bleak,” Bannister said of his situation before last season. “I knew being 34 years old and coming off shoulder surgery like this, it would be tough to get an opportunity.”

With virtually no options to play in the United States, Bannister went to Japan and played for the Yakult Swallows, who in turn released him in June after his half-season contract expired. During his final month with the Swallows, Bannister started only one game, and he spent the rest of his time throwing on the side with an arm that was overworked and tired.

So what was anyone to think last winter, when the Angels signed him to a one-year, incentive-loaded contract that could be worth $1.15 million this season?

Never mind that Bannister has two 16-victory seasons and six other seasons with at least 10 victories, despite spending much of his career with sub-par teams. Never mind that he led the American League in strikeouts with Seattle in 1982, or that he helped the Chicago White Sox to a division title in 1983 by going 13-1 after the All-Star break and winning nine games in a row.

When the Americans signed a player the Japanese had basically discarded, you could only imagine that halfway around the world, the management of the Swallows was uttering the Japanese equivalent of the word “suckers.”

But the Angels, it turns out, are pleased, and Bannister, a starter all his career, is by all appearances on track to make the opening-day roster as a long reliever.

“He’s got a very good chance of making the team,” said Marcel Lachemann, the Angel pitching coach.

In his first appearance of the spring Sunday, Bannister allowed two hits in two innings. He is scheduled to pitch again today.

“He’s throwing the ball very well,” Lachemann said, saying Bannister is up to at least an “average” fastball, 88 or 89 m.p.h., and that he has a good changeup and a good curve to left-handed hitters.

“He’s a veteran pitcher who knows how to pitch,” Lachemann said. “He’s also a very, very hard worker.”

If Bannister indeed works his way onto the team, the reward will be substantial: $450,000. It is the first major incentive of a contract whose base salary is only $250,000. There are more incentives linked to such things as appearances and starts, should he fill a spot starter role or break into the rotation.

The seeming mystery is how Bannister is doing so well.

He faltered in Japan after going 3-0 in his first six starts. By the time he left, he had lost two of his last three decisions and ended up on the sideline.

The answer seems to lie in the ways of the Japanese game of besuboru . Some of its methods can be hard on any pitcher, much less one trying to recover from an injury.

The game is conducted under the premise that little is more honorable than work and precision. Drills and practices are esteemed rituals. As Robert Whiting described it in “You Gotta Have Wa,” his book about Japanese baseball, the slogan used to start a game in Japan shouldn’t be “Play ball!” but “Work ball!”

Bannister agrees.

“It’s pretty much work, work, work,” he said. “That’s their philosophy. They think hard work is the main way to get better, especially after an injury. They have to practice. It’s more important than winning. They’ll have three-, four-, five-hour practices. The games are very secondary.”

The assembly-line philosophy intrigued Bannister, who has a copy of Whiting’s book.

“They allow ties,” Bannister said. “A 2-2 tie is fine. Nobody wants to go out and embarrass the other team.”

But the Japanese approach to the American game did not do wonders for rehabilitating his arm.

“I don’t know if they understand how fragile an arm is,” said Bannister, explaining that pitchers threw almost every day and sometimes threw as many as 150 to 200 pitches on days when they did not appear in a game.

“A lot of times I would ask guys why they were throwing when some of them had sore arms,” Bannister said. “They would say, ‘Well, it’s my job.’ A lot of them think the older you get, the harder you have to work to retain your skills.”

Drills added to the strain on Bannister’s arm.

“It wasn’t just pitching, it was throwing to the bases, doing fundamental drills,” he said, describing workouts during the season. “I was doing a lot more throwing because of that.”

Bannister, who was diligent in his rehabilitation after the shoulder surgery, had started strong with the Swallows.

“I felt good. I didn’t have any pain or any discomfort,” he said.

But as time went by and the number of pitches added up, that changed.

Finally, with his arm sore, Bannister asked for 10 days off and got it.

“I think they were fearful I might sue,” Bannister said.

When the Swallows sought to sign him to a contract on terms as brief as week-to-week after his half-season contract expired last June, Bannister went home to Paradise Valley, Ariz.

It was then, while Bannister worked out near his home in the Arizona instructional league, that the Angels became convinced they should sign him. It helped that he had connections to Manager Doug Rader when both were in Chicago and to Senior Vice President Dan O’Brien and scout Bob Harrison, both of whom worked in Seattle.

“I caught a break,” Bannister said. “My main goal is get myself in the best shape I can. Other than that, I’m happy first of all to get the opportunity. Opportunities like this don’t come around a lot.”

Bannister said he would be content with a role as a reliever, in which he would be valuable to the Angels--particularly because left-hander Bob McClure has had injury problems--as an experienced left-hander with knowledge of American League hitters.

But he admits he would like the opportunity to start again before his career ends. He would like to play “a couple or three more years,” he said.

He would like to enhance his career record of 133-142, a mark that observers have long said does not do justice to his talent.

The Japanese experience had its drawbacks, but it also is part of the reason Bannister is with the Angels now.

“An injury like that normally can pretty much end a guy’s career,” Rader said. “At least he got the opportunity to continue to pitch. It was doubtful any club was going to let him go back to double A or triple A to see if he could come back. The whole Japan situation was very much to his benefit.”

Lachemann agreed.

“It might have been a blessing in disguise,” he said.

Or at least one in another language.