The Lessons of Summer : Angel Pitcher Anderson Learned Control Early

The gathering dusk obscured her view from the porch, but the pop . . . pop of the baseball hitting the old catcher’s mitt her husband used was loud and clear.

Janice Anderson’s boy was in the yard between their Geneva, Ohio, home and the family’s two-bay tire store, working on his control.

“My dad would take me out back and catch me,” Brian Anderson said. “Before the session was over, he’d pick a certain spot in the strike zone and put his glove there. I’d have to hit it 10 times in a row before we could quit.

“Sometimes we’d be out there an awful long time.”

Anderson, now a 21-year-old rookie starter with the Angels, was only a Little Leaguer then. And the emphasis was on little.

“Everywhere I played, I was always the smallest player, so I couldn’t blow people away,” he said. “Even in high school, I relied on my control.”

Jim Anderson had always loved baseball and was determined that his son would throw strikes. So many strikes that the catcher’s mitt, a $4 bargain bought at a going-out-of-business sale, had to be retired.

“But it was never work for us, always fun,” Jim said. “I used to hate it when September came and Brian and (daughter) Kara went back to school. We have a pretty good-size yard in back of the store and, when business was slow, we’d play all sorts of different games.

“Brian would pitch to me and if he walked a guy, it was a run for me. Then I’dpitch and if I walked a guy, it was a run for him. Or sometimes Kara would hit, she’s the stick in the family.

“Janice would watch and serve as referee. Because if Brian wasn’t perfect, he’d quit and go into the house until she told him to get back out there.”

A decade later, bone chips start floating around in Mark Langston’s elbow and Brian Anderson is suddenly a starting pitcher in the big leagues, where all too often a walk does mean a run for the other team. So the control he mastered pitching to his dad--and the square painted on the side of the tire store where imaginary batters hit ground balls off pitches in the lower half of the square--is paying off.

In his first big league start this season, Anderson gave up five hits and a run in 8 1/3 innings against Milwaukee on April 10, earning his first major league victory. Friday night, he gave up four hits and two earned runs in six innings against Toronto. His earned-run average is 1.88.

“He’s pretty poised out there,” catcher Greg Myers said. “In that first game, he had all his stuff working. He’s got a lot of confidence and that’s great for a young guy. And he’s got good command of four pitches, and that keeps guys off balance.”

Anderson’s fastball is generally in the low 90s, but he has no qualms about throwing a curve, slider or changeup at any point in the count.

“Now that I’ve matured physically to the point where I’m stronger and throwing the ball harder than ever, that control has stayed with me,” he said. “I think it’s a big advantage. I think it’s why I’m here at this age.

“If you come up here and all you can do is throw 100 m.p.h., these guys are going to catch up to it sooner or later. Having confidence in four pitches has really helped me. It’s just that many more weapons I can use against these hitters, and these hitters are the best in the world.”

Anderson walked only six and struck out 98 during his senior season at Wright State University in Dayton, but he has discovered that the best hitters in the world like strikes.

“The biggest thing Brian has had to learn since he’s become a pro is how to pitch outside the strike zone,” Manager Buck Rodgers said. “There’s control and then there’s control within the strike zone.

“If you’re going to live on the outside corner, then you’re also going to have to come inside. If you want the curve and change to work, then you have to keep them off the plate.”

Apparently, Anderson is a quick study. He hit two Blue Jays on Friday night. Roberto Alomar, who loves to dive at outside pitches and shoot line drives to right, caught one on the shoulder and Anderson showed he is prepared to face the consequences of pitching inside.

As Alomar glared at the mound, Anderson told him to “get to first base.” When Alomar asked him what he had said, Anderson blew a large bubble with his gum, walked halfway to Alomar, popped the bubble and then said it again, loud enough to be heard.

First base umpire Rick Reed stepped between the two and told Anderson to return to the mound.

“He’s got a lot of (guts),” the Angels’ Chili Davis said. “I’ll definitely give him credit for that. He’s got just enough cockiness about him to warrant some success up here.

“He’s a young guy who knows how to pitch, but he’s no nibbler. He comes at you. And he’s got the (guts). Up here, that’s what really matters.”

Anderson was barely 5 feet 10 and weighed 160 pounds when he graduated from Geneva High School. There wasn’t exactly a line of coaches waiting to buy tires to impress mom and dad.

“I was throwing in the low- to mid-80s, tops, and no big school wanted to take a chance,” Anderson said. “But Wright State came after me pretty hard. The coach there, Ron Nischwitz, was a left-handed pitcher in the major leagues for four years with Cleveland and Detroit. He thought it would be a good spot for me.

“I matured there physically and learned a lot from him about mental toughness. I had some good summers with the U.S. Olympic travel team, some success up in the Cape Cod League and things just kind of took off.”

The Angels, with the third pick in the 1993 free-agent draft, selected him in the first round.

“I had heard I was going to be top five and this and that, but you’re wise not to bank on too much because you never know what’s going to happen on draft day,” he said. “But, to be honest, I have high expectations for myself and I would have been disappointed if I didn’t go high.

“Fortunately, the Angels took me and there are some great opportunities for me in the organization. Hopefully, I can take advantage of it.”

Anderson pitched 11 1/3 innings with the Angels during the final weeks of last season, but he wasn’t exactly a sensation until he shut down the Brewers and entertained reporters during a postgame interview laced with one-liners.

Angel veterans watched in fascination.

“I think he started at, like, age 2 and tried to do his whole life in 30 minutes,” Chuck Finley said. “He seems like he’s more polished than most guys you see right out of college like that, but he’s got just enough flakiness in him that we might be able to do something with him.

“He’ll be all right. He’s got a good work ethic and he wants to improve. Plus, he didn’t come in here thinking he already knew everything, which is highly irregular these days.”

Jim Anderson says he never considered that the little southpaw trying to strike out his sister was a potential major leaguer.

“There was a point in high school where it occurred to me that he might be able to get a college scholarship,” he said. “But when you consider the odds of making it to the big leagues, it’s pretty hard to believe. It’s a wild dream come true.”

The dream probably will be shown live and in prime time in the Anderson household Thursday night when Brian pitches against Baltimore.

“Brian and I have been Indians’ fans all our lives,” Jim Anderson said. “We always had the radio out on the stump where we were playing, but it’s amazing how comfortable I feel rooting for the Angels.

“With so many games televised these days, we have to get a satellite dish. I’ve got a mint-condition 1973 Volkswagen Thing with just 12,000 miles on it and I’m going to sell it so we can buy one.”

The Andersons had a date with a satellite-dish salesman Monday night. Unlike Brian, he didn’t need a great pitch.