![]() In 1986, Mike Scott was the dominant pitcher in the majors. I just discovered a better way to teach it.” Some people say I discovered the split-fingered fastball. When I was still pitching, guys like Elroy Face, Lindy McDaniel and Diego Segui threw the pitch, and it was called a forkball. All he had to do was spread his forefinger and third finger apart on the ball.”Ĭraig has always been self-effacing when others praise his role in teaching the devastating splitter, especially to those with the ability to master the unhittable missile.Ĭraig, in 1986: “It’s really not very hard to learn. In the article, “Scott says he was surprised by how easy it was to throw the pitch. Second, I had to throw it exactly like a fastball, and third, if I wanted to control the pitch better, I had to put my fingers closer together on the ball.” He said first I had to make sure I threw it over the top. “Then he said, ‘Today we’re going to talk about The Pitch.’ He meant the split-fingered fastball, and he gave me three things to remember. “We went over to Grossmont Junior College in San Diego and, after watching me throw, he said my mechanics were fine. “Roger was great,” said the then-30-year-old Scott, in a June 8, 1986, L.A. Scott, coming off a 5-11/4.68 1984, went to then-Detroit pitching coach Craig.Īccording to Scott, in a February 4, 2002, interview with The Astros Daily’s Ray Kerby, “Rosen arranged the meeting I spent a week in San Diego with Roger Craig for about an hour a day.” Then he said, “Today we’re going to talk about The Pitch.” That brings us to Roger Craig, the Astros’ pitching coach in 1975 and ’76. Heep didn’t develop and now is gone as a free agent.” The Day He Created a Monster New York Times scribe, Murray Chass, looked back ruefully in this February 1, 1987, article : “The Scott-for-Danny Heep exchange was a deal that wasn’t good for either side until Scott developed a split-fingered fastball. We didn’t want to give up Scott but the Astros insisted upon including him in the deal.” Mets GM, Frank Cashen, offered his perspective, at the time of the trade: “(Heep’s) a pure hitter. “He has been used by the Mets as a starter throughout his career, but we will have a better knowledge of his abilities after observing him during spring training.” “We feel that Scott is just what we need in terms of a strong-armed right-hander,” Rosen continued. “But we were anxious to shore up our pitching.” He is a pure hitter,” said Rosen, at the time, according to a 12/10/82 UPI article. He was one of the finest minor-league hitters. Riding the bench for most of his Houston tenure from 1979-82, Houston GM Al Rosen swapped Heep for Scott during 1982’s December Winter Meetings. “We feel that Scott is just what we need in terms of a strong-armed right-hander.”-GM Al Rosenĭanny Heep was a left-handed Texas native, an OF/1B drafted by the Astros two years after Scott was tapped by New York, in the same overall draft position as the pitcher, 37th. Scott’s combined strikeouts per 9 IP was 3.76 with the Mets, a K/9 he’d almost triple (and bedevil his former mates with) a scant four years later with Houston in 1986. ![]() At the time, Scott’s repertoire was limited to a near-95-mph fastball, curve, and slider.Ī 14-27 four-year record clouded a decidedly humdrum New York tenure, coupled with his 4.67 combined ERA, and a. The Splitter and the Damage Doneĭrafted in the 2nd round of the 1976 Amateur Draft (37th overall) by the Mets, Scott made his MLB debut on April 18, 1979, a relief appearance in Montreal. Joining the by-now legendary Ryan was a Mets castoff who might have thought his career was over four years before this series, plus two lefties-one a former Yankees draftee, and the other, a 32-year-old who may have wondered if his career was on the wane. MLB Network ranked the clinching Game 6, 16-inning, 7-6 Mets win as the fifth greatest game in 50 years. Like most memorable team moments in baseball (the ’27 Yankees and the ’17 World Champion Astros, for example), this 1986 Houston rotation, who led the Astros to the NL Championship Series, didn’t just appear out of nowhere.Īnd, while the Astros lost that franchise benchmark series to the New York Mets, 4-2, it remains locked into Houston sports lore, over 30 years later. Mike Scott was the stopper, and rounding out that remarkable staff were southpaws Jim Deshaies and Bob Knepper. But, on the 1986 Houston Astros, who won the National League Western Division that year, he not only wasn’t the ace, he was happy to be a member of a starting rotation that arguably boasted four. ![]() Nolan Ryan was used to being the ace on a pitching staff. ![]()
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