Commentary
Mulholland racing against Father Time It’s too bad Ponce DeLeon never found the Fountain of Youth. If he had, I personally would have driven Terry Mulholland to the site where he could take a king-sized quaff or even plunge in for a dip.
Mulholland is now, unfortunately, in the twilight of his professional baseball career, but not because of lacking ability.
No, he has now come against the one opponent that nobody from Cy Young down through the entire Hall of Fame pitching lineup could ever strike out.
Father Time is the only perfect hitter that ever existed, impossible to get out. Forever the winner, no matter the sport.
The Cleveland Indians reliever, by way of Uniontown and Laurel Highlands High School, has just completed his 17th season in the major leagues, 20th in pro baseball overall, and in the process added three more victories to his record.
Nobody has ever gone out of Fayette County and won more games in the major leagues than the quiet left-hander, who now has 119 victories overall. He finished 3-4 this year and owns a lifetime major league card of 119-131.
Over half of his wins (62) and almost half of his losses (57) came during five years with Philadelphia, including his three winningest seasons (16, 13, and 12 from 1991-93).
Terry went to Cleveland a year ago in a trade with Los Angeles, and while some might think that toiling in “The City By The Lake” (once referred to as the place where elephants go to die) is a sort of professional sports exile, Terry once smiled “I don’t care where I’m pitching, as long as it’s in the major leagues.”
Final figures have been posted for Terry’s 17th season, and to go along with his 119-131 record, he also has five saves earned over a span of 2,390.1 career innings (covering 592 games), and has struck out 1,246 batters while walking 630 (slightly over one per game).
For the season just completed, Terry worked in 45 games (3 starts, 42 relief), finishing 14. In 99 innings he allowed 54 earned runs, ceded 117 hits (22 doubles, one triple, 17 homers), walked 37, struck out 42 and made just one wild pitch.
From the time he was pitching at LH, Terry has had a good move toward first that has made him a tough pitcher to steal against. Most batters found, to their regret, that while they might take two or three steps lead off first against some pitchers, more than one against Terry left you in big danger of being picked off. Such was the case this year when only one base was stolen while he was on the mound.
Left-handers batted .252 and righties .317 against him.
One bright statistic in Terry’s favor this year was that of the runners on base when he came on in relief, only five scored and another 21 were left stranded. Which is a big indication of his value as a reliever.
You might say that Terry has a career in the majors that so many others dream about but never achieve – 100-plus pitching victories, a World Series win, pitching in an All-Star game, a no-hit victory that was also the record-setting seventh of the 1990 season (6-0 over the San Francisco Giants on Aug. 15).
If it could be found, I would join him in a big swig from that elusive Fountain.
– n –
How many of you read the recent story out of Springfield, Ill., about the high school quarterback who thought more about keeping his integrity than he did of owning an all-time record for his athletic conference.
If anybody ever deserves national recognition, it’s QB Nate Haasis of Springfield Southeast High. And if anybody ever deserves permanent abomination it’s his coach, Neal Taylor, who engineered a conspiracy, and opposing coach (Antwyne Golliday of Cahokia) who went along with him.
Seems that with Southeast losing anyway, 42-20, and a few seconds left in the game, the two coaches conspired to let Cahokia score, uncontested, and then allowing Haasis to do the same in completing a pass for a touchdown that gave him an all-time conference record.
But when Haasis heard what happened, he had other ideas about records. He wrote a letter to conference officials in which he said “it is my belief that the directions given to us in the final seconds of this game were made in the ‘heat of battle’ and do not represent the values of the athletes of the Southeast football team. In respect to my teammates, and past and present football players of the Central State Eight, it is my hope that this pass is omitted from any conference records.”
At last reports, the conference had done just that, with the added commendation by the officials to the quarterback for his integrity.
How many others would have followed the example set by Haasis? For that matter, how many parents and coaches would have chastised QB Haasis for the example he set, how many so-called “fans” would have been proud of what he did, and how many others likewise would have called him you know what? Today the object is to win, and all too often how you win doesn’t matter. Just win.
How often do we hear about how sports builds men? Here is one great example of what that old chestnut is supposed to be all about. The unfortunate point is that the manhood wasn’t built in the coach, the very one who is supposed to set the greatest example of manliness for the players.
Hopefully, both conspirators will be booted out of coaching for the rest of their lives. Even more hopeful is that parents will now hold QB Haasis up to their own youngsters as an example of manliness. But don’t bet on either happening.
Must be something in the Springfield water that begets integrity. Didn’t another “Honest” guy come out of Springfield?
Jim Kriek is a Herald-Standard correspondent.