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Tuesday, July 28, 1998
Catcher Doug Witt stays cool warming up Rangers
pitchers
By T.R. Sullivan Fort Worth Star-Telegram
ARLINGTON, Texas - Cliff Johnson and Fran Healy couldn't stand
each other.
They were reduced to being backup catchers on the New York
Yankees in the mid-1970s and neither was getting much playing
time behind All-Star Thurman Munson. Their primary job was to
warm up pitchers in the bullpen, but neither wanted to do it.
They insisted that the other guy squat, and often had to be
separated by teammates or bullpen coach Elston Howard before their
squabbles turned into fistfights.
Reliever Sparky Lyle, writing in his best-selling book Bronx
Zoo, a diary of the 1978 season, said, "I hope nobody breaks
it up. A big fight could end our problem right here. The loser
catches.
"This stuff has been going on all year in the bullpen.
You'd never guess this was the big leagues, the Yankees, the world
champions. You'd expect something like this in Little League."
The Yankees solved the problem by hiring a minor-leaguer, who
had been released from Class A, to be their bullpen catcher.
The bullpen catcher isn't exactly the most glamorous job in
baseball, but it's a necessary one. The Rangers found the right
person for the job seven years ago in Doug Witt, and he remains
an integral part of the ballclub.
"It's a great job but it's not exactly easy when you're
squatting hour after hour," said Witt, younger brother of
former Rangers pitcher Bobby Witt. "I know people think it's
easy, and it is easy because I've been doing it so long. But when
other people say it, I tell them, here, I'll give you my mitt
and see what you think."
Witt, 29, is back on the job after a nearly three-month layoff.
Doctors had found a blood clot in his right shoulder that forced
them to remove a rib. That sort of injury will definitely slow
a catcher.
Witt's job goes beyond warming up relievers during the game.
It starts during batting practice when pitchers do their side
work with pitching coach Dick Bosman. At least two pitchers throw
every day in the bullpen, but sometimes there are as many as seven
wanting to work.
Witt must also warm up the starting pitcher. If that pitcher
is "on" during the game, Witt will have an easy night.
There was one in particular he remembers well.
"Kenny Rogers' perfect game," Witt said. "He
didn't have anything warming up. In the bullpen, he had some of
the worst stuff I've ever seen. You can see by a guy's facial
expressions and body movements that they don't feel they have
it, and he was that way."
Then there are the nights when the opposing team is hammering
the ball and manager Johnny Oates is working the bullpen, trying
desperately to find the right matchup. On those nights, Witt can
spend the final two hours of a game in a crouch. On the average
90-degree-plus summer night in Texas, with 90 mph pitches bouncing
in the dirt, that can be a tough way to make a living.
"I get nailed all the time," Witt said. "Chest,
shoulder, everywhere. But the pain goes away. It hurts a couple
of minutes, then goes away. I get mad at them but they're not
trying to do it."
Not all pitchers inflict such pain.
"There are guys you enjoy catching because they make my
job easier," Witt said. "I love catching John Burkett's
side work. He's always five (pitches) on the corner, five in,
five out. He gets his work in and everything is pinpoint. That's
fun.
"I'm there every day doing what needs to be done. I get
tired, but it's a job to me, and I've got to do it. As long as
we win, it doesn't bother me."
Witt puts in long hours to earn a relatively small salary from
the Rangers and tips from the pitchers after the season.
Witt started catching for the Rangers in 1992. He was a third
baseman in high school but did some catching at Framingham (Mass.)
State University. He was working out with his brother after the
1991 season when manager Bobby Valentine and pitching coach Tom
House asked him whether he had plans for the coming season.
He said no.
Witt started as a bullpen catcher with some ambition of playing
professionally, perhaps in an independent league. Those thoughts
have long since died, but he wants to stay in baseball, possibly
as a scout or a coach. He paid his way to baseball's scouting
school at the end of last year.
"I'm going to keep doing this until something else comes
up," Witt said. "I want to stay in the game of baseball,
and scouting would be good. I think I've got the knowledge of
what it takes to play at this level. I don't want to catch forever.
There's not much money in scouting, but it's a chance to move
up."
Until then, the Rangers have no worries about backup catchers
getting into fights.
---
Distributed by The Associated Press
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