Pitchers Find No Relief on CSUN’s Hill : The Starters Usually Finish, Countering Standard Practice

When Bill Kernen was a child, his mother Betty drilled into his mind the concept of finishing everything he started--the dishes, the laundry, his homework.

Now that Kernen is a baseball coach, finishing has taken on a new meaning.

In an era of specialization, from the middle reliever to the setup man to the closer, Kernen’s pitchers at Cal State Northridge strive to complete every game.

Kernen has one of the most-rested bullpens in college baseball. This is a man who can’t spell R-E-L-I-E-F.

In his first four seasons as Matador coach, his pitchers completed 60% of their starts (137 of 229), including 69% last year.

This season, the staff of the 23rd-ranked Matadors (32-17) has completed 57% of its starts with Keven Kempton, John Bushart and Marco Contreras combining for 25 of the 28 complete games, 10 more than the next-highest Western Athletic Conference team. Kempton, nicknamed “Velcro arm,” has a WAC-leading 12 complete games in 13 starts.

Although Kernen-coached pitchers experience few injuries and overwhelmingly endorse his methods, his philosophy is controversial. He receives critical letters and he is second-guessed in press boxes throughout Southern California and the WAC.

In Kernen’s eight seasons as pitching coach at Cal State Fullerton, his pitchers completed 41% of their starts, often while Fullerton Coach Augie Garrido watched in discomfort.

With runners on base and none out in the late innings of close games, Garrido squirmed in his seat and inched his way down the team bench, closer and closer to Kernen.

It was Garrido’s way of letting Kernen know that his nerves couldn’t take Kernen’s decisions to stay with pitchers who were constantly in trouble.

“It’s true, at times, I had a hard time with that philosophy,” Garrido said. “It was not the way I would have done it, but I think if you mix philosophies and you take away the power of the pitching coach, the players lose respect for him. I felt I needed to give Bill room and space so that his philosophy and the way he did things would take hold. So it was up to me to hang on and keep quiet.”

Left-hander Eric Barry and right-hander Tim Thompson, each a little wild, tested Garrido’s patience with the Kernen system. Once, Thompson walked 13 batters, but completed the game and did not allow a run.

“At one point I thought, ‘Why don’t we start with the bases loaded and not waste so much time?’ ” Garrido said.

“Both players were young, talented, and out of control. Bill stayed focused with them. He has tremendous drive and competitiveness and that is reflected in his players.”

Certainly, Bushart reflected it as recently as May 2. For once, Kernen decided enough was enough when the sore-armed Bushart surpassed the 140-pitch count in a less-than-commanding performance.

But before Kernen even completed his trek to the mound, Bushart was insisting on finishing.

Use of the Matador bullpen is so infrequent that Hawaii radio and television broadcasters were at a loss during a game earlier this season when they saw a Matador pitcher warming up. Quickly, they scanned the roster for his name, but it was only starting pitcher Kempton staying loose during a long Northridge at-bat.

Kernen’s complete-game philosophy blends several elements. It starts by recruiting pitchers who aren’t afraid of hard work and pressure situations.

Even with those personalities, Kernen’s way requires a selling job. The level of physical and mental conditioning is taxing, particularly to college freshmen who are accustomed to wind sprints and seven-inning games.

Kernen’s pitchers run up to 30 miles per week, clock a three-mile run in 21 minutes and usually throw more than 110 pitches in routinely going nine innings.

Although his critics believe that his methods are detrimental to pitchers’ arms, pitchers who were coached by Kernen at Fullerton, Illinois and Northridge disagree.

In a survey of 12 Kernen-coached pitchers who went on to the professional ranks, three suffered arm injuries as pros, but none attribute the injuries to Kernen.

Chicago Cubs right-hander Mike Harkey threw a total of 254 innings in 1986 and 1987 at Fullerton and tore a muscle in his arm in 1991.

“One thing Bill Kernen cannot control is whether or not your body is able to handle the rigors of a full season,” Harkey said. “Throwing is not a natural motion.”

Thompson, who was driven from the game at the double-A level by a rotator-cuff injury, echoed the sentiments of several pitchers, saying that pitching since he was 8 had more to do with his career-ending injury than the 368 2/3 innings he pitched in four years with the Titans.

Former Northridge right-hander Craig Clayton said that Kernen handled him with kid gloves when he developed tendinitis in September, 1990.

“He completely shut me down,” Clayton said. “He didn’t let me pick up a baseball until November and I didn’t throw off the mound until January.”

Scott Sharts, a closer for the Class-A Columbus (Ga.) RedStixx who completed 17 of 30 games in two seasons at Northridge, said Kernen never abused his arm.

“For the most part, I threw 160 pitches because I got myself into (jams),” Sharts said.

“I averaged 120 to 140 pitches,” Sharts added. “Now in pro ball, they don’t let starters throw past 90 pitches. I laugh at that.”

When Kernen was growing up, baseball embraced the concept of pitchers finishing what they started.

A rabid Dodger fan, Kernen listened to every game on the radio and went to Dodger Stadium at every opportunity, scorebook in hand.

His heroes were the Dodger workhorse pitchers--Don Drysdale, Sandy Koufax and Claude Osteen. Each threw every fourth day, racking up a combined 444 complete games in 1,267 starts.

“Drysdale’s philosophy on pitch count was that you know you’ve thrown enough pitches when (hitters) start pulling your fastball,” Kernen said. “So, it’s not the number, it’s whether you’re effective or not. He also used to say, ‘If somebody only threw 200 innings in a year, what did you do the other third of the season?’ ”

Reared on that mind-set, Kernen, 44, threw 106 innings in 1970 as a senior at the University of Redlands. He led the Southern California Intercollegiate Athletic Conference in earned-run average (0.72) and won 11 of the team’s 36 games. On one occasion he threw two complete games in the same day.

“I know for a fact that the human body can do a lot more than we think it can do,” Kernen said. “Society has gotten so soft and mushy over the years. People run 50 miles! People run 100 miles! What do the Ironman triathletes do (swim 2.4 miles, bike 112 miles, run 26.2 miles)? It’s harder to throw nine innings in a baseball game than that? I don’t think so.

“People make way too much of it. I think there’s a lot harder things going on than throwing 130 or 140 pitches in a baseball game when you get to rest every 10 minutes, and between pitches, and you can go at your own speed. And there isn’t a whole lot of movement involved except the motion and delivery.”

Kernen, who pitched for three seasons in the minors, acknowledges that pitching strains muscles, tendons and ligaments. He contends that those areas can be strengthened with exercise and stretching, and that well-conditioned legs take strain off the arm.

Dr. Ralph Gambardella of the respected Kerlan-Jobe Orthopedic Clinic agrees.

The college pitchers Gambardella sees overuse their arms, which he attributes to year-round pitching.

“And the better you are, the more you are used in the summer leagues,” he said. “Everyone has a certain limit and if they exceed it, they’re going to have problems.”

Gambardella is loath to impose pitch counts and a minimum number of rest days between starts because he said pitching is too individualized.

“We look at location, not number of pitches,” he said. “What is the quality of the pitch and are they having a problem with fatigue in the shoulder or the elbow?”

Kernen’s pitchers use Jobe-designed exercises and he believes they are prepared to handle a complete-game load.

“I think the body can be trained to do just about anything,” Kernen said.

But the extent of that training takes most new players by surprise.

“Most of them end up buying into it and loving it,” Kernen said.

Once the conditioning is established, Kernen breaks the nine-inning game down, mentally, into three equal parts.

“You can’t just tell them to go out there and throw 150 pitches and go nine,” Kernen said.

Then, he teaches his pitchers to analyze and exploit the weakness in each batter in the lineup.

“If he’s got a big, loopy swing, he’s got a hole inside,” Minnesota Twins reliever Larry Casian said. “So you start outside, toward his strength, and then when you need to get him out, you go inside.”

Casian credits his eight complete games for Fullerton in 1987 to the Kernen system.

“Everybody basically has the same abilities,” Casian said. “If you’re in better shape, they’ll break down before you do. If you are mentally tough, you can go nine, 10 or 11 innings.”

Northridge’s career complete-game leader, Kenny Kendrena, threw 178 pitches in two extra-inning games, including 12 innings against California last season.

“Of course, it gets more physically demanding in the 11th and 12th innings,” Kendrena said. “But I was so excited that he (Kernen) would stick with me that there was no way I’d let the other team beat me. I didn’t believe in the word tired . I was one of those guys who would do anything for Coach Kernen. I didn’t want to let him down.”

Kendrena, who completed 25 games in 37 starts in two seasons, also threw two complete games in three days in the NCAA West II Regional final in 1991. He was simply following in the footsteps of another Kernen-coached pitcher, Dave Weatherman.

Weatherman was knocked out early by Pepperdine in the 1979 College World Series semifinals. He came back the next day and threw a complete game, 2-1 victory over Arkansas for the national championship.

At Fullerton, Weatherman completed 41% (25 of 61) of his starts. Weatherman attributes the difference to Fullerton’s status as an 18-year-old Division I power. The Titans’ success, including national championships in 1979 and ‘84, attracts higher-quality pitchers and a deeper bullpen.

Northridge, in only its third season at the Division I level, has not attracted more than two blue-chip pitchers each season. The Matadors were surprising NCAA tournament qualifiers in 1991 and 1992, earning those berths almost exclusively on the arms of Kendrena, Clayton, Sharts, Kloek and David Eggert.

“A lot of people don’t understand Kernen’s philosophy,” said Weatherman, one of Kernen’s assistants in 1990 when the Matadors were Division II national runners-up.

“It’s hard for people to fathom because of what they see on TV (professional baseball) or in other (college) programs. It’s evolved out of necessity. When the necessity isn’t there, he won’t be so extreme.”

Kernen forced Contreras to take finishing to extremes earlier this season against Wyoming. With Northridge ahead, 16-1, in the ninth, Contreras gave up seven runs on five hits and two walks. Still, Kernen did not pull his starter. Eventually, Contreras got the last out of a 16-8 win.

“There are some times I do leave guys in past the time they’re probably effective,” Kernen said. “I don’t want them to feel they can be bailed out. I didn’t take Marco out because it was his tough luck. You get rocked, it’s your problem. You fight your way out or you die. It takes as much energy to throw a ball as a strike.”

Last week, Contreras’ father, Marco Sr., publicly criticized Kernen’s decision to stay with his son in the ninth inning of an 11-8 loss to UC Santa Barbara. The score was tied, 6-6, at the start of the ninth, when Contreras surrendered five runs on a walk and five hits, including a three-run homer and a triple.

While the Gauchos were putting the game out of reach, Marco Sr. was yelling, “Take him out. Have a heart.”

Kernen finally did, replacing Contreras with freshman Evan Howland, who got the last two outs.

His response to Marco Sr.’s criticism is: “I couldn’t care less. I didn’t hear anything in the six innings when he (held UCSB scoreless).”

The younger Contreras, a junior transfer from Citrus College, openly blames himself for his sub-par performances and has never hinted at criticizing Kernen. He has, at least publicly, passionately adopted the mind-set described by Vale Lopez, who completed 21 games in 1989 and 1990 for the Matadors.

“Out there (on the mound), the help is inside,” Lopez said. “You don’t look in the bullpen or the dugout. You look in the mirror. It’s like life. When things are going great, it’s easy. What do you do when things are not going so great? When it’s hot out or cold or your arm hurts?”

Harkey said he still falls back on Kernen’s lessons.

“He was always preaching, ‘Don’t give the hitters too much credit.’ ”

And Thompson patterns his lifestyle after Kernen, who runs regularly, and watches his diet.

“He’s a phenomenal individual,” Thompson said. “He has a sense of discipline about him, but it is not militaristic. On and off the field, his lifestyle is something you could emulate.”

With a few exceptions. Kernen’s determination to finish is obsessive.

A boring novel? An entire bag of potato chips?

He has finished them too.