Wednesday, February 28, 2001
The University Daily Kansan
Section B
Baseball
Where are they now?
Former pitcher stays in game
By Brent Briggeman
sports@kansan.com
Kansas sportwriter
The boxes are piled up in the living room of Steve Renko's Shawnee Mission home. It's late February, time to go to Arizona and get back to work.
Such is the life of the professional baseball player.
Renko, a former Kansas pitcher and longtime fixture in the Major Leagues, has found his calling as a pitching coach in the San Francisco Giants minor league system.
Ironically, Renko's career didn't begin with baseball: He came to Kansas on a football scholarship just happened to play basketball and baseball, too.
"I love working with the kids," he said. "So much of the game is mental. I feel like my experience and knowledge can really help these guys out. Most of the guys I work with have the talent, they just need the confidence and that little edge. I really enjoy trying to help them find that."
"That's the way a lot of guys did it," he said. "There were only about five or six baseball scholarships given out then, so they'd work out deals to get you playing multiple sports."
Though he forged a successful football career, earning a start job at quarterback as a sophomore and playing in the same backfield with Gale Sayers, it was on the baseball field that Renko made a living.
Renko was drafted by the New York Mets in 1965 after his junior year. He signed and left school. After coming through the minor leagues with players like Nolan Ryan and Jerry Koosman, he was traded to the Montreal Expos in 1969 and made his Major League debut less than two weeks later.
Phil Renko
"That was a great moment; that's what you work for," he said.
He played for the next 13 seasons for seven different teams. He twice won 15 games in a season and finished his career with 134 wins and more than 1,500 strikeouts.
Kansas coach Bobby Randall was among the players who faced Renko.
Renko said things were different nowadays compared with when he played. The major difference is in the lifestyles of ballplayers, he said.
"He was extremely competitive and just a terrific, terrific pitcher," said Randall, who played five seasons for the Minnesota Twins. "He had a great fastball and a really strong curve."
When Renko entered the league, the major league minimum was $7,500. Now it's $275,000. With less money, players spent their off-seasons working.
"I worked a number of jobs," he said. "I worked in a factory, I worked on the railroad. Do I wish I was 20 years younger and making the millions they make now? Sure. But it was just a different time then."
to maintain a stable family life. His wife of 36 years, Sandra, stayed at home in Kansas City with their two boys during the months that the season intertwined with school. Then they spent the rest of the summer traveling with Renko and his teams.
"My boys loved it," he said. "They grew up around all the different ballparks and got to spend time with all the other kids. They were getting old enough to start shagging balls toward the end. They begged me to play a few more years, but it was time to hang it up."
During his career, Renko was able
Renko entered the real estate business after leaving baseball in 1983. During the next decade, he tried a few different careers but continued coaching local baseball teams in the Ban Johnson and American Legion leagues.
"I was working 12 hours a day, then coaching a lot of the time," he said. "So I finally got to the point where I realized I should just get back into baseball."
The California Angels were the first team to offer him a position and a new life in professional baseball six years ago.
Despite the long bus rides, Renko said he enjoyed working in the minor leagues.
"Sure, I'd probably like to try to coach in the majors, the money and prestige is much higher," he said. "But anymore it's become more of a baby-sitting job than anything else. The players at that level are making a hell of a lot more money than their coaches and more than we ever did, so they don't listen to anything we have to say.
"The players in the minors don't have the egos and are willing to work and learn," he said.
The Associated Press
KISSIMMEE, Fla. — They clustered in the middle of the infield, a who's who of pitching, all wondering just how they'll be affected by the new strike zone.
Pitchers analyze new strike zone
Greg Maddux, Tom Glavine and John Smoltz — with seven Cy Young Awards among them — got their first look yesterday at a change that could profoundly impact the way they go about their business.
Umpires Jeff Nelson and Laz Diaz crouched behind the plate as the Atlanta Braves took batting practice, giving an orientation on baseball's plan to call the strike zone by the rule book definition this season.
Glavine and Maddux in particular could be affected by the change. They have thrived for the past decade by pitching on the outside corner of the plate — and beyond.
"Of course, I'm concerned," said Glavine, a two-time Cy Young winner who went 21-9 with a 3.40 ERA last season. "But we don't know what's going to happen. They can say they're going to call it uniform all they want, but there's still the human element."
Supposedly, many of those pitches will no longer be strikes.
Opponents have grumbled for years that Glavine and Maddux rarely throw strikes but usually get the call on pitches that are inches away from the outside corner.
Edited by Melinda Weaver
That won't be the case anymore, according to Diaz. The rule book says a strike is any pitch over the plate from the top of the knees to the midpoint between the top of the shoulders and the top of pants.
"They're going to have to throw it over the plate," Diaz said. "In the past, we would give them a pitch that was off the plate half a ball. Now, at least part of the ball has to
go over the plate."
Maddux, who won four straight Cy Youngs from 1992-95 and was 19-9 with a 3.00 ERA last season, conceded he might have to make a few adjustments. But he was adamant that he won't change his basic philosophy: keep pitches down and away.
"I'm not concerned where I throw pitches," he said. "I'm concerned about how I throw pitches. If you want someone to talk about the strike zone, don't talk to me."
But what happens if Maddux keeps pitching off the outside corner and the umpires keep calling balls?
"I guess I'll throw two or three innings and go home," he said. "What are you going to do?"
Smoltz, more of a power pitcher than Maddux and Glavine, could benefit from the change if recovered from an elbow injury that kept him out all of last season.
"Yeah, it's going to help me," said Smoltz, the 1996 Cy Young winner. "Hitters have been taught not to swing at that pitch."
While umpires are supposed to narrow the width of the strike zone, they've also been ordered to call the high strike.
But Glavine has no desire to take advantage of the upward expansion in the strike zone. Just try throwing a high changeup to Mark McGwire.
"That's the way you want to pitch," Glavine said. "I've been conditioned to keep it down, so I'm still going to keep it down."
Maddux, Glavine and S moldzit **n't** throw during yesterday's ses
sion. Instead, they gathered behind second base in the main stadium, getting a good view as Odalis Perez and Kevin McGlinchy threw batting practice and Nelson called balls and strikes.
Diaz worked on an outer field, where Braves closer John Rocker was among those on the mound for batting practice.
Braves third baseman Chipper Jones, the first player to hit with Nelson behind the plate, didn't notice much of a change. But he is fretting about the eventual impact on Glavine and Maddux.
"Yeah, it's going to hurt them." Jones said. "They can't get the ball up in the strike zone. They don't have the overpowering stuff to get it by you, so they need a couple of inches either way."
Manager Bobby Cox has already started the lobbying effort.
"A pitch that's within an inch or an inch and a half of the plate has got to be a strike," Cox said. "That's a perfect pitch, I don't care what anybody says."
While notorious for his run-ins with the umpes, Cox now sounds like one of their best friends. He sees nothing wrong with the inequities in the old system, which didn't seem to hurt the Braves a bit; they've had one of the strongest staffs in baseball since the early 1990s.
"Every umpire has got to have his own identity," Cox said. "We don't want them all to be mechanical."
Glavine doesn't expect the new strike zone to suddenly eliminate the various ways of judging a pitch. He also took a shot at those who imply that only the Braves pitchers get favorable treatment from the ump.
"Do Tony Gwynn and Barry Bonds have the same strike zone as everyone else?" Glavine asked. "Don't tell me it's the same. It's not."
Thomas returns to White Sox with his tail tucked, contract still undecided
The Associated Press
TUCSON, Ariz. — Frank Thomas not only showed up, he apologized.
I piled in a returned to the Chicago White Sox yesterday after missing six workouts while complaining he was underpaid. But he insisted his boycott wasn't about money.
Thomas acknowledged fans, whose favor he regained by hitting .328 last year with 43 homers and 143 RBIs.
probably would turn on him.
"I've never been greedy." Thomas said. "I've had a couple of opportunities to be the highest-paid player in this game, and I didn't want to be there."
"I extend my apologies to those who were affected by my absence. It was a big distraction." Thomas said.
He began his news conference by apologizing to fans and his teammates, whom he plans to discuss the situation with one on one.
1 nomas, who returned on the mandatory reporting date specified by baseball's labor contract, is due $9,927,000 in each of the next six seasons, but only this year is really guaranteed.
If he fails to become an All-Star, win a Silver Slugger or finish among the top 10 in MVP voting, Chicago has the power to change his salary to $250,000 plus $10,125,000 deferred. If that happens Thomas could terminate the contract and become a free agent.
ing days off until we got things clear," Thomas said. "I made no contract demands, I made no trade demands. Money was never the issue. I felt a player who's done what I've done and established a career like I have that certain clauses just seemed unfair to me."
"It was never a holdout. It was tak-
Thomas met Monday night with White Sox owner Jerry Reinsdorf.
"He didn't promise he would make any changes, but he said we would work on it." Thomas said.
Thomas also would like to rework some of the deferred money in his contract. His current contact calls for the team to defer $3,827,000 of each year's salary with interest. He won't get some of that until he's in his '50s.
"Who knows if I'll be here? I've earned my money and it's mine," Thomas said.
Reinford issued a statement that was both critical and encouraging.
Thomas, he said, "understands the public damage caused by his comments and realizes how hard he will have to work to begin repairing his relationship with the fans."
"Frank Thomas has apologized publicly for his remarks about renegotiating his contract, his delayed arrival in camp and the effect his words and actions may have had on our team and fans." Reinsdorf said.
When he left camp last week, Thomas complained he was underpaid in relation to Alex Rodriguez's $252 million, 10-year contract with Texas.
"I said the pay scale is out of whack," Thomas said yesterday. "We're going in at 7-9 million and the bar has been set at 25 million."
"Players will have grips and that will continue until something is settled, something is done. I didn't say 'Look this is my stance today and I'm walking out of camp.' It wasn't like that."
Thomas said he needed the extra days to think about his contract before beginning practice. When Thomas first agreed to his contract in 1997, the guaranteed amount of the first four years averaged $7,756,750, the 10th-highest average salary in baseball at the time.
"Frank has never made demands of me in terms of his contract," Reinsdorf said, "and he again expressed his willingness to honor his current contract."
Reinsdorf denied the team had agreed to drop the revised payment clause but it's always possible he
could agree to that in the future.
"Frank will do his job and now we can live happily ever after," reliever Keith Foulke said. "We've got a month left. It's not like he just showed up for the last week of spring training."
Newly acquired David Wells, who reported nearly a week after the voluntary date for pitchers to arrive, said players should honor their contracts.
"As long as he keeps it to himself and doesn't bring it upon us, I don't think it's going to matter." Wells said.
Manager Jerry Manuel, who got into a screaming match with Thomas a year ago in spring training, said he was confident the six-day walkout would not affect his DH, a two-time AL MVP.
Beds
Beds
Bookcases
Desks
Chests
"It's as if he never left," Manuel said. "Despite all the distractions we've had, he seems to be in good spirits."
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