Where Nobody Knows Your Name: Life In the Minor Leagues of Baseball by John Feinstein
Authors: John Feinstein
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removed from being drafted in the twenty-second round by the New York Mets out of Fresno Pacific University.
As soon as he signed, the Mets sent him to play for their short-season A-league team in Brooklyn—which was usually a sign that they considered a player a prospect. The Mets’ majority owner, Fred Wilpon, had grown up in Brooklyn worshipping the Brooklyn Dodgers, and he had built a ballpark for the minor-league team in order to bring baseball back to Brooklyn in some form.
“Pitching there wasn’t the typical rookie-ball experience,” Schwinden said. “You were playing in front of eight thousand or nine thousand people every night. You knew everyone in the organization paid attention to how the team was doing and to the players on that team. It was fun for me. I liked the crowds and the buzz and the attention.”
He pitched well in the summer of 2008—his ERA was 2.01—and began a steady climb up the Mets ladder. He had made it to Double-A Binghamton two years later and had been used primarily as a starter the second half of the season. But he hadn’t pitched especially well in that role, and the following season began with him headed back to Binghamton—as a reliever.
“It was discouraging,” he said. “My entire baseball career hadalways been about moving forward. This didn’t even feel like a lateral move. It felt like a demotion.”
Baseball luck—bad for Boof Bonser, who was in Triple-A Buffalo’s starting rotation, good for Schwinden—intervened. Bonser hurt his elbow in his first start of the season, and because he had starting experience, Schwinden was called up from Double-A Binghamton to Triple-A Buffalo on April 17 for a spot start. He pitched well enough to earn a second start. He pitched well again. That earned him a spot in Buffalo in a starting role after Bonser had to undergo Tommy John surgery. Schwinden’s second go-round as a minor-league starter went much better than the first one had. In 2010, as a starter in Binghamton, his ERA had been 5.56. This time, in a league where any ERA under 4.00 was considered good (small ballparks, wide strike zones, generally speaking), his ERA was 3.87.
He knew his pitching had been solid throughout the 2011 season and was thinking he might have earned himself an invitation to the Mets’ major-league camp in the spring of 2012. On the final weekend of the season, soon after he had made his last start of the year, he was getting dressed when Ricky Bones, the pitching coach, walked over to his locker and said, “Skip needs to see you for a minute.”
Schwinden was baffled for a moment, wondering if perhaps Tim Teufel wanted to see if he might be able to come in out of the bullpen on the last day of the season.
“I really was clueless,” he said. “But then, as we were walking into Tim’s office, Ricky said to me, ‘You’re going to need some better clothes.’ I sat down and Tim said to me, ‘Well, Chris, you’ve had quite a year. You started it pitching relief in Double-A. You’re going to finish it starting in the majors.’
“It’s one of those things where at first you think you misheard or something. But you know your manager would never kid you about something like that. I think I just stared at him for a second. Finally, he said, ‘You better get going, you’re starting in New York tomorrow.’ ”
And so it was, twenty-four hours later on a chilly September evening, he found himself on the mound at Citi Field pitching thefirst game of a twi-night doubleheader against the Atlanta Braves, who were fighting for a playoff spot. “The whole thing was surreal,” Schwinden said. “One minute I’m wrapping up the season in Buffalo; the next I’m on the mound in New York pitching to Chipper Jones. It was pretty amazing.”
As Teufel had predicted, he finished the season as a starter in the majors. He started four games and didn’t pitch horribly or wonderfully—his ERA was 4.71—and went 0-2. That was good enough to
As soon as he signed, the Mets sent him to play for their short-season A-league team in Brooklyn—which was usually a sign that they considered a player a prospect. The Mets’ majority owner, Fred Wilpon, had grown up in Brooklyn worshipping the Brooklyn Dodgers, and he had built a ballpark for the minor-league team in order to bring baseball back to Brooklyn in some form.
“Pitching there wasn’t the typical rookie-ball experience,” Schwinden said. “You were playing in front of eight thousand or nine thousand people every night. You knew everyone in the organization paid attention to how the team was doing and to the players on that team. It was fun for me. I liked the crowds and the buzz and the attention.”
He pitched well in the summer of 2008—his ERA was 2.01—and began a steady climb up the Mets ladder. He had made it to Double-A Binghamton two years later and had been used primarily as a starter the second half of the season. But he hadn’t pitched especially well in that role, and the following season began with him headed back to Binghamton—as a reliever.
“It was discouraging,” he said. “My entire baseball career hadalways been about moving forward. This didn’t even feel like a lateral move. It felt like a demotion.”
Baseball luck—bad for Boof Bonser, who was in Triple-A Buffalo’s starting rotation, good for Schwinden—intervened. Bonser hurt his elbow in his first start of the season, and because he had starting experience, Schwinden was called up from Double-A Binghamton to Triple-A Buffalo on April 17 for a spot start. He pitched well enough to earn a second start. He pitched well again. That earned him a spot in Buffalo in a starting role after Bonser had to undergo Tommy John surgery. Schwinden’s second go-round as a minor-league starter went much better than the first one had. In 2010, as a starter in Binghamton, his ERA had been 5.56. This time, in a league where any ERA under 4.00 was considered good (small ballparks, wide strike zones, generally speaking), his ERA was 3.87.
He knew his pitching had been solid throughout the 2011 season and was thinking he might have earned himself an invitation to the Mets’ major-league camp in the spring of 2012. On the final weekend of the season, soon after he had made his last start of the year, he was getting dressed when Ricky Bones, the pitching coach, walked over to his locker and said, “Skip needs to see you for a minute.”
Schwinden was baffled for a moment, wondering if perhaps Tim Teufel wanted to see if he might be able to come in out of the bullpen on the last day of the season.
“I really was clueless,” he said. “But then, as we were walking into Tim’s office, Ricky said to me, ‘You’re going to need some better clothes.’ I sat down and Tim said to me, ‘Well, Chris, you’ve had quite a year. You started it pitching relief in Double-A. You’re going to finish it starting in the majors.’
“It’s one of those things where at first you think you misheard or something. But you know your manager would never kid you about something like that. I think I just stared at him for a second. Finally, he said, ‘You better get going, you’re starting in New York tomorrow.’ ”
And so it was, twenty-four hours later on a chilly September evening, he found himself on the mound at Citi Field pitching thefirst game of a twi-night doubleheader against the Atlanta Braves, who were fighting for a playoff spot. “The whole thing was surreal,” Schwinden said. “One minute I’m wrapping up the season in Buffalo; the next I’m on the mound in New York pitching to Chipper Jones. It was pretty amazing.”
As Teufel had predicted, he finished the season as a starter in the majors. He started four games and didn’t pitch horribly or wonderfully—his ERA was 4.71—and went 0-2. That was good enough to
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