There’s Still Life in the Bullpen for This Darned Old Pair of Sox

TORONTO — The telephone jingled in the bullpen because the fuzz-faced boy on the hill for Chicago was beginning to get a serious case of the shakes. Jackets quickly came off and then Tim Belcher and Kirk McCaskill, a couple of savvy old relief pitchers-- relief pitchers ?--heated up in a hurry, so that they could come in to keep the White Sox from coming apart at the seams.

“It used to take me 20 minutes to get ready to pitch,” McCaskill said. “Now it takes 20 pitches.”

Pressed into emergency service here Saturday night in a Game 4 of the American League playoffs that it behooved the White Sox to win, Belcher, the popular Dodger starting pitcher of yesteryear, and McCaskill, the equally popular Angel, donated five innings of skillful relief that kept Toronto’s hard-swinging Blue Jays at bay. They saved the bacon of nervous young Jason Bere and calmed things long enough for the tourists from the United States to recover and win, 7-4, thereby squaring this series of Home Field Disadvantage at two apiece.

Not so very long ago, it was inconceivable that either of these level-headed right-handers could be looked upon as mere stopgap measures. Forgotten but not gone, Belcher, the mystery guest and winning pitcher of this game, could only say that he was “as surprised as anyone” to be called upon, while McCaskill spoke of the bullpen being a happier place than he had expected it to be.

And the 1980s?

Going, going, gone.

It was Belcher, five years ago next Friday, who drew the starting assignment in Game 1 of the World Series for the Dodgers, sometimes fondly remembered as the Kirk Gibson Game. Although he was roughed up by Jose Canseco and made an early exit, a few nights later Belcher bounced back to take Game 4 from the Oakland Athletics, 4-3, and soon a sparkling diamond ring would be his.

McCaskill, meanwhile, is seven years removed from his first full season with the Angels, a year he both treasures and rues for having been tagged with two defeats in an unforgettable seven-game American League championship series against Boston. He has been waiting ever since for another shot at some of that fancy jewelry Belcher wears.

Why aren’t they starting for the White Sox?

Various reasons, two of them being Wilson Alvarez, the winner of Game 3, and Bere, the starter of Game 4.

“In my 11 starts for the Sox, I would have had to put together an Orel Hershiser or Don Drysdale-type streak of innings to do as well as Wilson and Jason did down the stretch,” said Belcher, who was acquired July 31 from Cincinnati as a form of pennant insurance. “And even then it might have been a push. They were that good.

“But I always try to find the positives in everything, and the positives in that situation were that it was more about what those two guys were able to do, not what I didn’t.”

Acknowledging that it was increasingly difficult at times to hold his tongue, Belcher said he continually reminded himself what little good could come from complaining. (If only all the White Sox felt the same way.) He made few starts after two-hitting Oakland on Aug. 10 and was lucky to loosen up and work one lousy inning of Chicago’s season-ending game at Cleveland--his only 1993 appearance in relief.

Bere, a raw but talented rookie, took Belcher’s place in the rotation. Then, in the third inning Saturday night, Jason went to hell. With the bases loaded, Belcher was summoned to pitch with a 1-and-0 count on Tony Fernandez, a fact that catcher Ron Karkovice forgot to mention until too late.

“It was ball one on Fernandez and I already forgot that until Karko came out and told me,” Belcher said. “By then it was 2-and-1 and I was in pretty deep water.”

But he struck out Fernandez swinging on a fastball up and away. And then Ed Sprague obliged with a grounder toward the line near third. Robin Ventura stabbed it, stepped on third and the White Sox got out of the inning with only three runs of Toronto damage.

Belcher ended up working 3 2/3 innings of three-hit relief, until on came McCaskill to record four more important outs. Belcher denied that he ran out of gas but was happy for the help, McCaskill mowing down John Olerud and Paul Molitor, the first two men he faced, and striking out Pat Borders to open the eighth before being relieved from the pressure himself.

“Actually, it’s a little more relaxed down there in the bullpen than I expected,” McCaskill said. “When I was a starter, I always made fun of these guys and all their superstitions and nonsense. Now I’m one of them and I’m kind of enjoying it, maybe a little more than Tim.

“I think it’s tough for anybody in those situations, and if you don’t have butterflies, you don’t belong in this line of work. But it’s good to be of help any way I can. I kept hearing these Toronto guys talking about how they’ve bounced back all year, and I reminded our guys, ‘Hey, that’s been our trademark, too.’

“Last night was a big game, tonight was a big game and tomorrow’s a very big game. All I know is, when that telephone rings, you’d better answer it.”