He Should Stick to Tee Ball

Lefty throws right-handed, of course, which only serves to remind us that Phil Mickelson is not always what you might expect. After his 70-pitch workout on the mound for the Toledo Mud Hens, it’s a good time to check the box score.

Everyone expects him to win tournaments and he has been blanked for 14 months.

He has never won a major, much to the surprise of everyone, including, probably, most of the Mud Hen roster.

And no one could have expected Lefty to trot out his assortment of junk pitches last week in an effort to impress the Detroit Tigers’ farm team with the hope of signing a contract and pitching in an actual game.

Mickelson failed, however, despite an assortment of off-speed pitches. Actually, off-speed pitches were the only kind of pitches in Mickelson’s arsenal, and that led to his downfall. His fastball topped out at 68 mph, which means that while Mickelson throws hard enough to break an egg, he’s not major league material. Or minor league material, for that matter.

Mickelson faced 18 batters and threw without a screen in front of him. There was only one unsettling moment, when Steve Avery caught hold of one of Mickelson’s pitches and knocked it on a line right past Mickelson’s ear.

Other than that, and discounting the lack of velocity in his pitches, Mickelson handled himself well. The Mud Hens clearly thought so and would have signed him to a one-shot deal, a cameo, to pitch in a game. But the Tiger brass felt differently and turned Mickelson away.

If it were up to them, the Mud Hens figured that a star in another sport such as Mickelson deserved a chance, sort of like when Michael Jordan turned to baseball. Besides, it would have been good public relations. It would have been good for baseball.

Meanwhile, in the Mickelson way, there will be Phil Fallout.

Was it Mickelson’s folly? Was it good for golf? Was it good for Mickelson?

This is the way it goes for Mickelson, whose every move is second-guessed, even when it has nothing to do with golf. Some probably see that as the very problem. Throwing baseballs to try to pitch in the minor leagues has nothing to do with golf.

Mickelson probably doesn’t see it quite that way, but he does say that he hasn’t played up to his standards this year.

That hasn’t stopped Mickelson from working out with the Akron Aeros, a farm club of the Cleveland Indians. It didn’t stop him from visiting the training camp of the Buffalo Bills and tossing a football around. And it certainly didn’t stop him from Friday’s tryout, or whatever it was, with the Mud Hens.

The symbolism is spilling over. Mickelson takes his search for a major into the minor leagues. Mickelson hangs out with the quintessential Super Bowl loser. Hope that doesn’t rub off.

From inside the Mickelson camp, the explanation is simple. He has a life, one outside of golf, and he has the right to do whatever he chooses.

This is absolutely correct. At 33, after 21 PGA Tour victories and with a healthy love of sports, Mickelson is free to chart his course without interference.

He is free just as long as he accepts the fact that some may not understand how it might affect his golf and thus mistake his insouciance for indifference.

Shouldn’t he be practicing more ... more golf, that is?

Here’s another question. What do Fred Couples, Scott Verplank, Briny Baird, Bob Estes, Chris Riley and Rocco Mediate have in common?

They are the players immediately ahead of Mickelson on the money list. Mickelson is 30th on the money list and one step away from not qualifying for the field at the Tour Championship, something Mickelson has done every year since his first full year as a pro in 1993.

Insiders with Mickelson say he’s hard at work, going back to his familiar, more fluid swing, the one he modified at the start of the year when he broke out new equipment. Mickelson wanted to get the ball up in the air more quickly with the equipment, so he began dipping his shoulder and flattened his swing to improve his launch. They say Mickelson needed six months of semi-struggling to discover he needed his old swing back.

That may be true, but the facts are that Mickelson actually played best early in the year. He had five top-10s in his first seven events and tied for third at the Masters. Since then, it has been a struggle. Outside of his tie for sixth at the International and a tie for 13th at Colonial, Mickelson hasn’t finished better than a tie for 23rd in 12 tournaments since the last week of April.

No wonder batting practice sounds good.

This may turn out to be another 1999 for Mickelson. That’s the only year in his professional career he failed to win a tournament. He leaves Sunday for the Suntory Open in Japan, and his next PGA Tour event is the $6-million American Express Championship, Oct. 2-5, in Woodstock, Ga., where Mickelson may get another question answered.

Are the Braves holding a minor league tryout nearby?