Tapani Now on a Real Tear for the Cubs

If Sammy Sosa has emerged as the man in regard to the National League’s most-valuable-player award, Chicago Cub teammate Kevin Tapani might now be the leading candidate for the Cy Young Award.

Tapani goes for his 20th victory and eighth in a row against the Cincinnati Reds today. The 34-year-old right-hander is more of an improbable story than Sosa, who had never hit more than 40 home runs in a season.

As Tapani explained a few days ago in San Diego: “I signed a three-year contract with the Cubs and went on the disabled list even before I threw a pitch. Now at least I feel like I’m earning my way.”

Tapani signed the $12-million deal as a free agent in December 1996 but was unable to pitch in spring training because of a torn tendon between his index and middle fingers. The medical reports weren’t good.

“I saw doctors in L.A., Chicago and Phoenix,” he said. “Two of them didn’t want to touch it. They said I was done, that I might as well go home.”

Ultimately, Richard Eaton, a hand specialist in New York, repaired the tear. Tapani delivered his first pitch for the Cubs after the All-Star break last year and finished the season 9-3, an indication of things to come.

Tapani, in fact, is 28-10 since the surgery, and pitching coach Phil Regan contends the injury worked to Tapani’s advantage since it reduced his reliance on the split-finger fastball and prompted him to refine what is now a “tremendous changeup.”

Tapani’s late emergence is also a surprise in that he has been with five organizations, his best seasons being 16-9 and 16-11 with the Minnesota Twins in 1991 and ’92. Fred Claire, then general manager of the Dodgers, traded for him before the July deadline in 1995, and he made 13 appearances with a 4-2 record and 5.05 earned-run average before joining the Chicago White Sox as a free agent in 1996.

Reflecting on that short stay with the Dodgers, Tapani said he thinks that the repetitive tendon tear might have already been affecting his work, although “I can’t say that for sure. I just wasn’t real sharp, and I think that going to a different league and throwing to a catcher I had never thrown to and to hitters I had never pitched to contributed to that. I’m the type pitcher who benefits from familiarity.”

This time, Tapani has encountered few problems adapting to the National League. With Kerry Wood sidelined because of an elbow strain, Tapani has continued to provide the Cubs with a stopper down the stretch.

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Jim Bowden, the Cincinnati Red general manager who had been Tom Lasorda’s choice to become Dodger GM, remains the No. 1 candidate to succeed Pat Gillick in Baltimore. Dan O’Dowd and Frank Wren, the Cleveland and Florida assistants, are also in the field.

The Reds, meanwhile, have offered a minor league supervisory job to recently fired Detroit Tiger manager Buddy Bell, and he is expected to accept, putting him in position, perhaps, to challenge Bob Boone for the Cincinnati managing job when Jack McKeon steps down.

Said Bowden: “Buddy is the kind of employee we love because it works within our budget. The Tigers are paying him for the next two years.”