Surgery Prompts Trumpour to Change His Approach to Pitching

Pittsfield, Mass., is hard to find on a map and even harder to access quickly by plane. Nestled in the Berkshire Mountains, Pittsfield is three hours from Boston and an hour from Albany. It is known as the summer home of the Boston Pops Symphony, the Pittsfield Mets minor league baseball team and as the private hideaway of Met General Manager Joe McIlvaine.

McIlvaine was in Pittsfield last Tuesday to see the Class A Mets play the Jamestown Jammers, but he was also hiding out from reporters, who were still curious about the Bret Saberhagen trade he had made the night before.

Andy Trumpour, a former Savanna High and Cypress College pitcher, didn’t much care why McIlvaine was in Pittsfield that night. He just knew that McIlvaine was there, that he was the starting pitcher and that he had the opportunity of a lifetime.

Trumpour didn’t blow his big chance. In fact, he pitched the best game of his injury-plagued three-year professional career--a three-hit shutout with eight strikeouts in Pittsfield’s 7-0 victory.

“I pitched seven innings and allowed one run last year when McIlvaine watched me in Kingsport [Tenn.],” Trumpour said. “I wish he could be there all the time. I concentrate more when he’s there, I guess.”

The three-hitter was that much more gratifying for Trumpour when you consider where he has been. Two years ago, Trumpour was lying on a hospital bed after elbow surgery and wondering if he’d ever pitch again.

“I wondered if it was worth it,” said Trumpour, who originally hurt his elbow during his junior season at Savanna. “Once the drugs wore off, the pain was so bad I felt like I was dying.”

It was another year--June 1994--before Trumpour pitched in a game again. He had lost three to four miles off his 92 m.p.h. fastball, but Trumpour believed he had improved as a pitcher.

“I had to learn how to pitch all over again and now everything is not based on my fastball,” said Trumpour, 21, who missed nearly two years of action.

Now most everything is based on changing speeds and location. Trumpour, who leads the New York-Penn League in innings with 70 and strikeouts with 55 and is seventh in earned-run average at 1.92, is doing both effectively. But he had hoped to be doing them in Columbus, Ga.--the Mets’ long season Class-A team--by now.

“I know I don’t have the greatest fastball anymore, but I do have a good curveball and I do hit my spots,” said Trumpour, who has won five of nine decisions. “I know they’re a little cautious after the surgery, but I wonder, ‘What do I have to do to prove to them that I belong in Columbus?’ ”

So Trumpour isn’t happy in Pittsfield, known for its arts and picturesque scenery?

“I would have been happy going straight to Columbus after Kingsport and skipping all this pretty scenery,” he said.

If Trumpour keeps pitching gems in front of McIlvaine, he might get a chance to see places like Central Park and Shea Stadium.

*

Relief pitcher Brian Martineau, drafted by the Texas Rangers in the 11th round from Rancho Santiago College, is having a better season than Trumpour in Hudson Valley, N.Y. Martineau, like Trumpour, has had to prove people wrong. Although he went 21-5 in three seasons at Riverside Arlington High, Martineau was not drafted. He believes scouts ignored him because he had a bad reputation with opposing coaches and people in the Riverside community.

“The scouts told me I’d get drafted anywhere from the first to the 10th round,” Martineau said. “People looked for negatives instead of positives. I got mad a lot when I lost, but they didn’t realize that I just wanted to win.”

So Martineau said he was labeled a “hot head” by people in town. Two years later, Martineau is proving to be more than a guy with a short fuse. In 15 games as a closer, he has eight saves, three victories in four decisions and a 0.69 ERA. In 26 innings, Martineau has given up 19 hits and has 21 strikeouts and only seven walks.

“I always knew I could do this, but I’m not sure they did,” said Martineau, 20, who broke his hand this year at Rancho Santiago after punching a chalkboard in frustration after a disappointing performance.

But Martineau came back from the broken hand to pick up a victory and three saves in the state playoffs. Martineau’s out pitch at Hudson Valley has been the split finger, which he learned from ex-Giant Manager Roger Craig on television when he was 15. Now he uses it 65% to 70% of the time.

Although he was a starting pitcher in high school, Martineau said he was made to be a closer.

“A big thing for relievers is the mental part,” said Martineau, who credits much of his success to Rancho Santiago Coach Don Sneddon. “I’m pretty tough. I don’t let things bother me.”

*

Former La Habra pitcher Rusty Volkert is another New York-Penn League success story. It was nearly 2 a.m. in Canada, but Volkert could have talked all night about his best performance in three years of professional baseball--a five-inning, one-hit, seven-strikeout outing in middle relief against the New Jersey Cardinals.

Volkert’s St. Catharines Stompers team, a Toronto Blue Jays affiliate, eventually lost to New Jersey, 3-2 in 12 innings, but Volkert didn’t seem to care.

“Everything was working,” said Volkert, a ninth-round draft choice of the Blue Jays in 1993. “It was one of those nights when you really feel good about yourself.”

Volkert admits he struggled his first two seasons in pro ball, but he credits St. Catharines pitching coach Al Widmar with his sudden development.

“Up until [last Tuesday], I felt like I was doing something different every time out,” said Volkert, 1-2 with a 2.52 ERA in 14 appearances and 35 innings as a middle reliever this season. “But [Tuesday], everything just came together. I owe most everything to Al Widmar, who taught me a changeup in the spring. In the beginning, it was terrible, but now it’s my best pitch.”

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New York-Penn Road Map

What other league can boast ties to the Little League World Series? The New York-Penn League includes a team in Williamport, Pa., where the series is played each year and the first Little League game was played in 1939. The New York-Penn League has a short stay each summer with only 76 games for each team from June to September.

* A Trip to the Minors

When formed: 1939, as the Pony League, with teams in Pennsylvania, Ontario and New York; took current format in 1963.

Powerful year: Toronto Manager Cito Gaston, playing for Batavia in 1966, led the league with 28 home runs and 104 runs batted in.

Pioneer: Bernice Gera, considered professional baseball’s first woman umpire, worked seven innings of a doubleheader in 1972 before resigning.

Even footing: There were few power hitters in the league in 1979; six players tied for the league lead in home runs with 10.

Sources: “The Encyclopedia of Minor League Baseball,” league records.

* League Locations

Here’s a look at the teams and their major league affilitates:

A. Auburn, N.Y.

(Houston Astros)

B. Batavia, N.Y.

(Philadelphia Phillies)

C. Elmira, N.Y.

(Florida Marlins)

D. Erie, N.Y.

(Pittsburgh Pirates)

E. Hudson Valley, N.Y.

(Texas Rangers)

F. Jamestown, N.Y.

(Detroit Tigers)

G. New Jersey

(St. Louis Cardinals)

H. Oneonta, N.Y.

(New York Yankees)

I. Pittsfield, Mass.

(New York Mets)

J. St. Catharines, Ontario

(Toronto Blue Jays)

K. Utica, N.Y.

(Boston Red Sox)

L. Vermont

(Montreal Expos)

M. Watertown, N.Y.

(Cleveland Indians)

N. Williamsport, Pa.

(Chicago Cubs)