Delgado came up to the big leagues for the first time in 1993, when a 24-year-old named Pat Hentgen was mowing down opponents with ease. Flash forward 11 years and Hentgen is retiring, affording Delgado a glance at the next stage of his life.
"You never get younger. It's a battle. I don't think you ever lose that competitive edge, but sometimes your body betrays you," said Delgado. "You don't throw as hard. You don't run as fast. You don't have the same hand speed or whatever. It's got to be a battle when you want to do something and can't do it as good as you want to anymore."
Hentgen explained exactly that. He said his career was built on accuracy and command, qualities that left his arsenal this season. He said his heart was telling him it was time to go, and he couldn't afford to ignore it.
"It's been a tough grind for me, mentally and physically," he said. "I'm just not helping the club the way I want to help the club."
Everyone knew he was frustrated, but the announcement still came as a bit of a surprise. Hentgen had a strong season in 2003, and he was at an age (35) that proved to be no problem for several of his peers. In fact, Tampa Bay manager Lou Piniella said that the Devil Rays were eager to bring Hentgen on board before the season.
"We thought he'd be a positive influence on our young pitchers," he said. "He was an outstanding competitor and a classy individual. I salute his career."
Hentgen was just 2-9, and his numbers were getting worse. The right-hander seemed convinced that his current performance was more than just a blip on the radar. Without overwhelming speed or his usual control, Hentgen was just another guy with dreams beyond his ability.
When that became clear, he gathered his teammates and scheduled a hasty press conference to announce his intentions.
"Once the season starts, you don't expect anyone to retire. It was a little bit of a surprise," said Delgado. "You respect everybody's decision, especially coming from a guy like Pat. He's got a reputation of being a fighter. He didn't feel that fight within him anymore. We wish him the best."
During the game, the Jays announced his name and his retirement plans to the SkyDome audience. During the second inning, Hentgen came out and tipped his cap to a standing ovation -- perhaps for the final time.
Carlos Tosca, Toronto's manager, said he was thankful for the time Hentgen spent with his team. He also said that Hentgen will go down as one of his favorite players, occupying a virtual shrine.
"I don't have one in my study, but I have one in my head," he said. "He's in there."
"It's a hard decision for any athlete to come to this, but I told the front office and my teammates what a grind it's been for me," he said in a pre-arranged news conference. "I'm definitely relieved because it's been on my mind for about a month. I think it's the right decision. I know it is."
"While this is a sad day, we should appreciate and celebrate Pat's tenure as a Blue Jay," said Paul Godfrey, CEO and president of the Blue Jays."
The final impression won't be the lasting one: Toronto fans will likely remember Hentgen as one of the best pitchers in franchise history. The right-hander is all over his team's record book, ranking in the top five in wins (107), starts (238), innings pitched (1,636) and winning percentage (.557).
Most of that was accomplished in the first act of his Toronto tenure. Hentgen rejoined the team that drafted him before this season, signing a one-year deal to solidify the back end of the rotation and act as mentor to a young staff. It may not have worked out like he expected, but Hentgen has no regrets.
"I always said I wanted to retire as a Blue Jay. Lo and behold, I did it," he said. "I'm happy. I've always been proud to wear this uniform."
The right-hander finished with a 131-112 record, compiled over parts of 14 seasons in the big leagues. Casual fans know him best for his 1996 season, in which he went 20-10 with a 3.22 ERA en route to the American League Cy Young Award. Hentgen credited the team behind him for all those victories, saying that any 20-game winner has to be ahead in 25 or more of his starts.
He said his most indelible memory was winning the World Series in 1993. The winning pitcher in Game 3, Hentgen said he'll never forget celebrating in the clubhouse with his teammates and cheering themselves hoarse.
This year, the glory never returned. Hentgen started out slowly and was ultimately removed from the rotation.
"It's good he knew the time had come," said Toronto manager Carlos Tosca. "The guy's a grinder. He's aggressive, he's a battler, but there was nothing coming out of there."
Everybody involved mentioned Hentgen's character and ability to relate with his teammates. That was there, all the way to the end.
The pitching skills went a little faster: He worked more than six innings just four times in 16 starts this season. The veteran got pressed back into service when Roy Halladay went down with a shoulder injury, but an awful start in New York convinced him to call it quits.
Hentgen walked four batters and allowed seven runs in that start, which ended inside of three innings. The sudden loss of his control -- a Hentgen hallmark for more than a decade -- helped convince him it was time to go. <
"It's been a tough go for me, physically, on the mound. I just feel like I'm not helping the club the way I want to help the club," he said. "I always told myself I would retire from baseball if I felt I couldn't do what I'm used to doing. I felt it's the right time."
With his mind made up, there was nothing left for the former ace to do except tell his teammates and call a press conference.
"There was a lot of support for him," said Carlos Delgado, who began playing with Hentgen in 1993. "We all stood and clapped, gave him a big hug and wished him the best. There was a major force that drove him to retire. You have to respect that."
KANSAS CITY, Mo.—A few of the Kansas City Royals opined to the daily newspaper here last week that Blue Jays pitcher Pat Hentgen hadn't been his best.
"He had Triple-A stuff. Maybe Double-A stuff,'' one unnamed Royals player said, feeling his team should have done more against Hentgen last Tuesday in Toronto. "And what did we do?''
The last-place Royals probably would have been better served worrying about their own staff, particularly one Brian Anderson, a lefty starter used as Toronto's team piñata last week and who promptly assumed the position once again last night.
By the time Hentgen and the Jays finished up a 9-3 victory, the beleaguered Anderson had somehow yielded home runs the first two times he'd faced Orlando Hudson, a player who had never before gone deep off a southpaw in 186 previous career at-bats.
As for Hentgen, who'd been shown the Royals' comments by an irate teammate, all he'd say about it after two-hitting his opponents over the first six innings and leaving with a seven-run lead in the seventh was: "It was unprofessional.''
Shaking his head with a smile, he added: "It's over now.''
Over in more ways than one, perhaps, as Hentgen, who'd failed to last more than five innings his past three outings, silenced the 13,803 at Kauffman Stadium with his second-longest outing of the year. He yielded a solo homer to Juan Gonzalez in the seventh and then had a second run tagged to his line after Mike Nakamura took over with one out in that inning.
Nakamura allowed a solo homer to Carlos Beltran in the eighth, but the early Toronto outburst and some timely strikeouts by Hentgen — including one on Benito Santiago with two on in the third — had long since ended this encounter. Reed Johnson added a solo homer off Mike MacDougal to cap a 16-hit outburst for a Jays squad that has won six straight.
If Hentgen had Double-A stuff last week, Anderson looked positively New York-Penn League in last night's first inning. The Jays took advantage of an error, some blooped singles and a sacrifice fly for a 3-0 lead.
Up came the switch-hitting Hudson, who'd been batting just .189 from the right side all year, but had impressed his team with his sunny demeanour as he fought to better himself.
"He's even hit some balls hard, right at people at times,'' Jays manager Carlos Tosca said. "He's starting to understand that he doesn't need to keep looking over his shoulder any more. He knows he's going to get those at-bats against lefthanders.''
The only person looking over his shoulder was Anderson after Hudson golfed his pitch over the wall in left centre for a three-run homer. Anderson barely had time to blink at Hudson before the infielder was taking him deep to left field in the third to make it 7-0.
Hentgen was a different man on the mound than he'd been with a 5-0 lead against the Royals last week. He'd yielded four runs in the fifth inning of that affair, prompting all the newspaper chirping by the Royals.
"It always helps to get a lead like that,'' he said. "But the key is to stay aggressive and spot your pitches. I did that.''
The comments about Hentgen, published in the Kansas City Star, were something he'd tried to downplay late last week.
"People have been saying I have Double-A stuff for the past few years and they're probably right,'' he said. "I don't throw as hard as I used to throw and I was never one of those big velocity guys.
"But to come out and say it like that in the paper, and then to not even put your name to it, well ... that's pretty disappointing.''
DUNEDIN, Fla. -- The numbers haven't been pretty for Pat Hentgen this spring, but the Jays' No. 3 starter appeared strong on Saturday.
Though he gave up a homer to the first batter he faced, Hentgen grooved through two innings of relief, including striking out back-to-back batters looking in the sixth. He surrendered a single and a walk in the seventh, but Tampa Bay failed to score again off the 35-year-old right-hander.
On Saturday, Eduardo Perez lined Hentgen's fourth pitch to the opposite field to open the sixth, but the Jays hurler retired the next three batters to end the inning.
"It was supposed to be down and away, and it got up," said Hentgen.
A 6-3 record and 3.10 ERA in 13 starts last season after the All-Star break convinced Toronto to give Hentgen, a Blue Jay from 1992 to 1999, a second chance. However, the results this spring have been far from flattering. Prior to Saturday, Hentgen allowed 26 runs in 18 1/3 innings and carried an ERA of 8.35.
"I don't know statistically how my springs have been in the past," he said, "but I know how I finished last season and how to get to there."
Injury-free last season for the first time in three years, Hentgen has shaken off a slight left calf strain to enter the year confident and ready. He'll make his first pitch as a Jay since 1999 on Wednesday, when he starts at Sky Dome against the Tigers.
"It's going to be exciting going back to the place I've played the bulk of my career," he said.
DUNEDIN, Fla. -- Pat Hentgen has been in the game long enough to know exactly what to say. When reporters line up at his locker, it doesn't take a lot of prodding to get the complete and unvarnished truth about any particular performance.
On Friday, after the veteran allowed four runs in less than four innings, he gave a detailed breakdown on what went wrong. Hentgen said his mechanics were slightly off, that his fastball was rising uncomfortably in all the wrong situations. Time and again, he got ahead of the hitter only to give in with something less than his best pitch.
"I'm disappointed with the results, but I'm going to take away the positives," he said during Toronto's 9-3 loss to the Twins. "I threw more good pitches, where I wanted to throw them, than I did bad ones. It's just that the bad ones went over the fence."
The right-hander allowed three solo homers and gave up runs in each of the innings he pitched. When a reporter pointed out that the deep drives were aided by the wind, Hentgen cut off the would-be excuse in mid-sentence.
"The bottom line is they centered the ball pretty good. Whether the wind helped or not is really irrelevant at this point," he said. "I'm not happy with it by any means, but I'm just going to take the good pitches and remember those."
Last year, when he pitched his way to the third-best ERA of any AL starter after the All-Star break, Hentgen mainly relied on his fastball. He said he knows the root of his problems and that it isn't anything completely new.
Breaking it down to the simplest essence, he said his body is opening up too quickly and his arm is trailing behind. In his next bullpen session, he wants to throw the entire time without throwing a fastball above knee level.
"However you want to word it, the bottom line is I'm rushing just a hair with my mechanics and with the tempo of my delivery," he said. "That's what I need to focus on: slowing the pace, letting the arm catch up so I can whip it."
The Blue Jays are counting on getting a lot of innings out of Hentgen this season, and time is running out in the exhibition season. The rising fastball plagued him in his last start, a two-out outing against Cleveland in Winter Haven. With that in mind, Is his recent performance any cause for concern? Not at all, according to Toronto manager Carlos Tosca.
"He's having a tough time right now getting his fastball down in the strike zone, but I'm not concerned about it," Tosca said. "I'd be a lot more concerned about him if he was making quality pitches and getting the same results. I told him when he came out of the game, 'I'm happy you got a chance to pitch four innings and get the pitch count up.'"
Pat Hentgen and dad lean on each other for support
Pitcher overcomes elbow surgery, Pat Sr. beats cancer
GEOFF BAKER
SPORTS REPORTER, Toronto Star
WINTER HAVEN, Fla.—There was a small, yet important piece of advice Blue Jays pitcher Pat Hentgen received from his father the day he learned a surgeon would have to rebuild his arm.
"Just don't quit.''
Those are the words Patrick Hentgen Sr. yesterday recalled telling his son as they walked out of the Birmingham, Ala., office of Dr. James Andrews more than two years ago. Hentgen had been told his elbow needed ligament transplant surgery and his father wanted to ensure his 33-year-old son didn't get any ideas his career was over.
It was all reminiscent of advice his son had offered him only a few years before, with much more than baseball on the line.
Anyone looking for clues about the passion Hentgen has for baseball need only to look at the man who has followed him around baseball diamonds since age 8. An inning spent with the elder Hentgen — even at an exhibition game like Toronto's 7-4 loss yesterday to the Cleveland Indians — is a study in raw devotion.
The pitcher's dad fidgeted in distracted fashion, talking in brief sentences and unable to take his eyes off the field. And those were only moments when the Jays were hitting and not when his son was getting pounded for five runs in a seemingly endless opening frame.
The feeling between father and son is clearly mutual.
It was just before the final outing of his first go-round with the Jays in 1999 that Hentgen left the team in Cleveland and flew home to Michigan to be with his father, who'd had emergency surgery for a cancerous growth in his back. His son would break down in tears a day later when telling the tale to reporters after an eight-inning victory at Jacobs Field.
Though Hentgen could not have known at the time, the story did have a happy ending. The growth removed from his father's back was cancerous but not the severe type doctors feared it could be.
"They removed it and now everything's been okay since," his father said yesterday.
The visit late in 2001 by father and son to see Andrews had the elder Hentgen playing the role of optimist. He had seen all the photographs of famous athletes on the doctor's walls and made sure his son took notice.
"It was like, `Oh my God, he did that guy. Oh my God, did that guy,'" he said. "It was amazing. You name a guy that's an older guy and he did him. Know what I mean? Obviously, he was doing incredible work."
The pitcher yesterday remembered how nervous he was and his father being there for him.
"He knows how much it means to me, how much baseball means to me," he said. "I think my dad being in the trades his whole life, he looked at that profession with the same dedication that I do mine. And I think that's what I learned from him."
His father worked proudly as an insulator in the construction trade for decades until the pitcher offered him the financial help to retire early. Now 60, he has already spent five weeks in Florida watching his son's games and will remain for the duration of spring training.
Some of his father's passion was still clearly visible in Hentgen yesterday. Despite shrugging off spring statistics as meaningless, Hentgen spat out words like "embarrassed" in discussing his worst outing so far.
Hentgen said it's no surprise he would display his father's mannerisms.
"He's one of the most influential people in my life," he said. "He just enjoys coming out here and watching me play, watching the Jays play. I don't know who was more excited when I signed with Toronto, me or my father."
Hentgen missed nearly two seasons before coming back with the Baltimore Orioles late last year. The absence made his father realize just how much of his own passion had drifted into his son's career.
"He's been my entertainment since he was 8 years old," he said. "I hope he hangs in there for another five years, to tell you the truth.
"It's something to do in the summer and I've been following him around. I'll admit that when he went down, it wasn't as exciting to watch a game of baseball. It's kind of neat when your kid's out there, you know?"
The Orioles announced Wednesday that they will not pick up contract options for 2004 for pitcher Pat Hentgen or catcher Brook Fordyce, allowing both players to become free agents.
Hentgen went 7-8 with a 4.09 ERA in 2003 after missing most of the previous two seasons following reconstructive surgery on his right elbow. Fordyce batted .273 with 6 homers and 31 RBIs in 108 games.
The club also resigned third baseman Jose Leon to a minor league contract and assigned him to Triple-A Ottawa. Leon batted .241 in 21 games with the Orioles last year and .265 in 79 games at Ottawa.
Pitchers Scott Erickson and Hector Carrasco filed for free agency on Monday. Erickson, who missed 2 ½ of the last four seasons on the disabled list, was 79-68 with a 4.73 ERA since joining the Orioles in 1995. Carrasco went 2-6 with a 4.93 in 40 relief appearances last season.
By Joe Christensen
Sun Staff
If ever there was a game meant just for Orioles pitcher Pat Hentgen, this was it.
His team suffers a crushing, 10-inning loss Thursday night in Minnesota and flies back to Baltimore, with most players getting home from an eight-game road trip at about 5 a.m.
His opponent arrives in Baltimore from Texas, squinting through the same red eyes at roughly the same hour, and out from the plane steps the Boston Red Sox and the most potent offense in baseball.
Game No. 106 of the season on a sticky, August night. Two teams and their exhaustion. A Hentgen delight.
In vintage, pre-surgery form, Hentgen pitched one of his best games as an Oriole, coming three outs from a complete-game shutout in a 2-1 victory before 41,188 at Camden Yards.
"I think that's the best we've seen him in a couple years," Red Sox manager Grady Little said. "He's real close to being back to where he was earlier in his career. When the stuff is there, this guy is quite a competitor."
Hentgen, 34, won the Cy Young Award in 1996, so his standard is pretty high.
On Opening Day 2001, his first game as an Oriole, he held the Red Sox to one run on four hits in 8 2/3 innings, matching Pedro Martinez pitch for pitch.
This was as good as he's been since. Friday of next week will be the two-year anniversary of the Tommy John ligament-replacement surgery on his right elbow, and Orioles catcher Brook Fordyce said, "I would say he's back."
The Orioles improved to 10-5 since the All-Star break, despite going without a hit for the first three innings against Red Sox starter John Burkett (8-5).
With two outs in the fourth, the Orioles finally broke through.
Jay Gibbons lined an 0-2 pitch to left for an opposite-field double, and Tony Batista followed with a bloop single into shallow center field. Red Sox center fielder Johnny Damon, playing back to respect Batista's power, came charging in and dove, but the ball fell in, giving Batista his 70th RBI of the season.
The Orioles added a key insurance run in the seventh, as Bigbie hit a leadoff double and scored on a one-out single by Fordyce.
Hentgen (4-5) reached the ninth inning with 112 pitches, inching toward his second complete-game shutout since 1997.
Behind him, the defense had been superb. Gibbons made a diving catch to rob Trot Nixon of extra bases to end the fourth, making the grab and then rolling into the right-field fence. Seldom-used rookie shortstop Jose Morban started a complicated 6-4-3 double play to end the fifth inning.
Fatigue? The Orioles showed no signs of it. Hentgen wasn't looking for a crutch, anyway.
"Getting in that late is a lot harder on the position players than it is on a pitcher," said Hentgen, who is 3-0 with 2.63 ERA in his past four starts. "I got plenty of sleep. I felt good, so I don't even really think it was a factor."
Hentgen started the ninth inning with a ball against Red Sox leadoff man Johnny Damon. The next pitch was supposed to be a fastball away, but it tailed in, and Damon lined it inches over the right-field scoreboard.
Orioles manager Mike Hargrove walked to the mound, motioned for closer Jorge Julio, and just stood there for a moment, feeding a steady stream of compliments into Hentgen's ear.
"A loss like [Thursday] night," Hargrove said. "that can tear the heart out of a ballclub. And you need a good solid performance out of your pitcher the next day. Pat stepped up big time and showed why he is who he is and why he's a Cy Young winner. I just told him I appreciated it, and appreciated him."
It was a big moment, but the Orioles were still three outs from a win, and the Red Sox had Todd Walker, Nomar Garciaparra and Manny Ramirez coming up - the heart of a lineup that came in leading the majors with a .294 average.
Julio took a stutter step from the bullpen and ran to the mound. On Thursday, he threw 33 pitches, and one of those had bounced off Fordyce's glove, allowing Michael Restovich to reach first and Doug Mientkiewicz to score the tying run.
This time, with seven pitches, the Red Sox were finished. Walker grounded sharply to second, Garciaparra struck out swinging at a tumbling slider, and Ramirez hit another grounder to second, ending the game.
Hentgen had hit 90-mph on the radar gun three times. Last September, he had a hard time hitting 83.
"Compared to when I left Florida [from spring training], I've got a little life on my ball," Hentgen said. "I don't even really consider [the surgery] an issue anymore."
By Roch Kubatko
Sun Staff
Originally published June 13, 2003
Pat Hentgen will return to the Orioles' bullpen this weekend, with Rodrigo Lopez coming off the disabled list and going back into the rotation.
Thanks to Charlene for sending me this pic.
 |
