Pitching Is as Pitching Does : Phillies’ Grace Is Different, Particularly His 6-0 Record

Amazing Grace?

Well, who can blame Philadelphia Phillie Manager Jim Fregosi for using the obvious to describe Mike Grace, his 25-year-old rookie right-hander?

It’s not only that Grace is 6-0 with a 2.34 earned-run average heading into tonight’s start against Hideo Nomo at Dodger Stadium.

It’s that he has overcome four elbow operations, virtually missing three consecutive minor league seasons, and a shoulder problem that developed after his recall last September.

It’s also that he’s a little . . . well, here’s where the Phillies wrestle with the description and finally say he’s a little different but have a tough time pinpointing it.

Some of them call him Gump, as in Forrest Gump, because he tends to be oblivious to his surroundings.

Grace defeated Greg Maddux and the Atlanta Braves, 6-0, on a four-hitter in his last start, and Fregosi said Thursday, “I don’t think he knew Maddux was pitching against him until the next day.”

Larry Andersen, a little different himself during a long pitching career and Grace’s mentor since serving as his pitching coach with Reading (Pa.) of the Eastern League last year, wrestled with it and suggested maybe Grace’s mannerisms set him apart, or his voice, or his weird laugh.

“Let’s just say if Disneyland is ever looking for someone to wear the Goofy costume, I’ve got a perfect candidate,” Andersen told the Philadelphia Inquirer recently. “He just makes me laugh.”

Maybe it’s because Grace often calls Andersen in the middle of the night and begins by saying, “Hi, Dad, this is Chopper.”

Or maybe it’s because he wears his uniform socks fully exposed, or drinks only distilled water, or adheres to a low-fat, nonalcoholic diet that is heavy on bananas.

Goofy? A candidate for Disneyland?

“You have to consider the source,” Grace said with a laugh.

“Larry’s formula for success was a cigarette, coffee and doughnut in the morning, a cheese steak 30 minutes before the game and a hot dog in the fifth inning. The reason he thinks I’m a little goofy is that my formula is a little different than his.”

For the results-oriented Fregosi, the thing that makes Grace distinctly different is that “he thinks only baseball,” and, in this day of diluted pitching and possibly juiced baseballs, “has an ERA under seven.”

“He’s the kind of kid you love to see have this kind of success because he’s paid the price--and still is,” Fregosi said, adding that the dedicated Grace works out for two hours even after he pitches.

“I mean, it’s an amazing story. The organization could have quit on him three or four times. He could be sitting home right now, but he never quit on himself.”

A 10th-round draft choice from Bradley University in 1991, the 6-foot-4, 220-pound Grace might have begun developing elbow problems in that first summer when his catcher, trying to throw out a runner stealing second, delivered a low, hard throw that nailed Grace in the back of the elbow.

He had surgery for bone spurs that October, pitched only six games the next summer, had a second operation to break up scar tissue in November, then sat out the 1993 season entirely while having yet another spur operation in August and still another in December--the fourth overall--when Dr. Frank Jobe suspected ligament damage but failed to find it.

“There were a lot of lows, but probably the lowest was in ‘93, when my arm had deteriorated to a point where just staying functional on a day-to-day basis was more a concern than pitching again,” Grace said. “It was tough at times, frustrating. I can’t say I never thought about quitting, but I didn’t focus on it. I wanted to give myself every chance I could. If it didn’t work out, then I could accept it.”

Grace had faith in himself and a religion that had helped him ditch an earlier, wilder lifestyle, but he basically had to learn to pitch again.

The guy who could hit 90-plus on the speed guns in ’91 was at 75 when he began throwing after the fourth operation.

He ultimately appeared in 15 games in Class A in 1994, graduated to 13-6 at double-A Reading in ‘95, won both starts at triple-A Scranton later that summer and was recalled by the Phillies in September.

There was one more hurdle. After shutting out the Dodgers on two hits for seven innings of his first major league victory at Dodger Stadium on Sept. 6, Grace shut it down again because of shoulder pain. Torn cartilage, Jobe said.

Grace and his wife moved from Illinois to Clearwater, Fla., so he could work every day with trainer Hap Hudson at the Phillies’ spring camp.

“It was frustrating to be hurt again after working so hard to overcome the elbow problems, but I certainly knew how to address an injury, and I kind of looked at it as just one more challenge,” said Grace, whose work ethic has established the standard for a team racked by pitching injuries and desperate for help in the spring.

A rehabilitated Grace took advantage of that opportunity and has been a model of reliability and consistency. He has walked only eight and given up only 47 hits and six home runs in 57 2/3 innings.

“My stuff is pretty ordinary,” he said. “I don’t throw as hard as I did before the elbow problems, but I probably became a better pitcher because of it. I basically try to aim for the middle of the plate and hope the ball works its way to a corner.”

There’s more to it, of course. Andersen and Steve Carlton, among others, have played important roles in his mental approach.

Control, command and composure are his bywords, and Gump is not oblivious to what he has accomplished, but the injuries and surgeries have provided perspective.

“I couldn’t have envisioned this after taking five years to get past A ball,” Grace said. “I’m happy to be 6-0, but I’m not making as big a deal out of it as everybody else seems to be. I’m taking it game by game. I don’t take anything for granted anymore. I mean, getting a chance to play and pitch again is rewarding enough.”