Belcher Is Still Not Out of Control

Enlightenment did not visit Tim Belcher on a familiar mound of dirt with a rubber slab and some pitching guru filling his young mind with pearls of wisdom.

It struck him about 30,000 feet up--in the skies between Tacoma, Wash., and Los Angeles, to be more precise--and this mind-altering experience enabled a once-wayward right-hander to lift his bumpy baseball career into a locked and upright position.

When Belcher boarded that flight in September 1987, having been traded from Oakland to the Dodgers, he was an unpredictable minor leaguer who made Mitch Williams look like a control specialist. During Belcher’s turbulent summer at triple-A Tacoma, he had given up 133 walks in 163 innings.

When he stepped off that plane, Belcher was a changed man.

“I recall thinking on that flight that I was 25 and was about to get my first shot at the big leagues--what must they be thinking?” said Belcher, who signed a two-year, $10.2-million deal with the Angels this winter. “That I have a good fastball, a good body, I walk too many guys . . . ?

“I thought, ‘I don’t care if every other pitch I throw gets hit off the wall or over it, I’m going to throw the ball over the plate.’ In 34 innings [that September] I walked seven guys. I realized you don’t have to be perfect. You don’t have to nibble. Just throw it over and let the hitters get themselves out.”

Belcher has employed that simple approach for more than 11 years in the big leagues and it has helped a kid from a tiny farm town in central Ohio become one of baseball’s most consistent, dependable starters.

Roger Clemens, he is not. Belcher, who went 42-37 for a mediocre Kansas City Royal team the last three seasons, does not throw a 95-mph fastball. Nor does he have any Cy Young Awards on his mantle.

But Belcher, 37, has won 12 or more games seven times, his earned-run average is 3.97, and he has had only two losing seasons. He is one of four major leaguers to have thrown at least 200 innings a season since 1991--excluding strike-shortened 1994 and ‘95--and he hasn’t been on the disabled list since 1990.

And those are traits the Angels, plagued for several years by pitchers’ injuries and inconsistency, will certainly appreciate.

“This guy gives you quality innings, he’s durable as hell, and he’s won,” Angel Manager Terry Collins said. “It’s nice to have a guy you can rely on.”

As a young Dodger from 1987-91, Belcher relied on his fastball to muscle his way out of jams.

“I’d rear back, aim for the top of the strike zone and hope they swung through it,” Belcher said. “Now, I don’t have that option.”

He throws mostly fastballs, many of them “cut” to sink, run in or tail away. He mixes in an occasional slider, and although he throws a split-finger fastball, the pitch comes up as more of a changeup, an off-speed delivery that dips as it approaches the plate.

“I pay a lot more attention to location and movement,” said Belcher, who has struck out 1,445 and walked 792. “I don’t have the fastball I had 10 years ago, and I don’t strike out a lot of guys. . . . I consider myself a pretty good control pitcher now.”

The only thing he has had trouble controlling is his temper. But it’s not as bad as it was early in his career, when teammates called him “Hurricane” Belcher.

After one minor league game, Belcher locked himself in the clubhouse for five minutes and tried to demolish a 55-gallon trash can with an aluminum bat. One day in 1989, upset over an extra-inning loss, he challenged umpire Ed Montague to a fight in the Dodger dugout.

“That’s a constant battle,” Belcher admits. “Sometimes I fly off the handle too far, get a little too emotional. I’ll look at the tape [of an incident], read the paper and think, ‘Why’d I do that? What an idiot.’

“But I’d rather be a little off center [that way] than to be the slightest bit passive. Passive people don’t get very far in this world unless they have a terrific skill.

“If you’re an average guy like me--I’m a good, solid right-handed pitcher, I’ve had a long career, I’m far from being a Hall of Famer and far from being a bum--there’s no room in there to be passive.”

Composure and Belcher have grown closer over the years.

“You grow up, you mature, you have some success along the way . . . that helps,” Belcher said.

Still, they have gone their separate ways at times.

In 1995, Belcher, pitching for the Seattle Mariners, gave up a dramatic home run to New York’s Jim Leyritz in the 15th inning, losing Game 2 of the division series in Yankee Stadium.

Belcher was the first in the tunnel leading to the clubhouse “because everyone else was on the bench with their jaws dropped,” and to his surprise, was swarmed by television cameramen and photographers. One got too close for Belcher’s comfort, and he shoved the camera into the face of its holder.

After that incident, the Yankees painted a line on the concrete, 15 yards outside the visiting clubhouse door, and media representatives are not allowed to cross it until the clubhouse opens. “The Tim Belcher line,” so dubbed by writers, still stands today.

So, Belcher may break something in the clubhouse or dugout every now and then. Collins will gladly accept a repair bill or two for a pitcher who won’t break down every now and then.

“After we traded for him in 1987, [then-Dodger pitching coach] Ron Perranoski said Belcher had the best mechanics he had ever seen,” said Collins, the Dodgers’ triple-A manager at the time. “He didn’t think he’d ever get hurt.”

Perranoski was almost right. Belcher has been on the disabled list only once, when he had arthroscopic surgery to remove torn cartilage from his shoulder in 1990. He has averaged almost 32 starts--and 12 victories--a season ever since.

“He’s a tough SOB, and he knows what it takes to win,” Collins said. “Those guys are hard to find.”

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* ANGELS: Ken Hill’s recovery could be the key to the rotation. Page 16