Make no mistake, Kent Mercker, is a baseball fan.
As if he won a contest to go to a fantasy camp, the 45-year old from Dublin, Ohio had the best seat in the world to watch newly elected Baseball Hall of Famers, Greg Maddux and Tom Glavine pitch for the Atlanta Braves.
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Mercker won the baseball lottery but contrary to his own assesment, "I was fortunate, lucky and lefthanded," he was also blessed with baseball talent.
Drafted in the first round of the draft by the Braves in 1986 two years after Glavine and Maddux were drafted in the second round by Atlanta and the Chicago Cubs respectively, Mercker had pitching talent a lot of it. He rose to the big leagues with the Braves as a 21-year old.
Glavine was already with the Braves. Maddux signed with the Braves as a free agent after the 1992 season, his first 20 win campaign and the fifth of his unfathomable 17 straight seasons with 15 or more wins.
Mercker became a fan of the duo and remains so to this day. He just didn't imagine at the time that his two buddies would be inducted to the highest honor in baseball in their first year of eligibility.
"We were so much alike and such good friends, we were just enjoying the moment," Mercker said. "I never imagined in 1994 that 20 years from now, they would be in the Hall of Fame. You never even knew they were anything special."
Looking back Mercker appreciates not only what they accomplished but how they accomplished it.
Glavine was quiet and didn't say a lot as he went about his business. The son of a construction worker. Glavine studied hard.
"He was a blue collar as they come," Mercker said. "He didn't throw 97 but he didn't have to. He had a very simple delivery because he didn't try to throw 97. He had less margin for error so he prepared and knew hitters and what they were going to do."
Maddux wore glasses off the field and looked more like an accountant than a professional athlete. They look gave him a aura of intelligence that Maddux denied.
"People think I'm smart," Maddux told Mercker one day. "It is amazing how smart you appear when you can throw the ball where you want to."
Baseball has fallen in love with the power pitcher but neither of the two threw particularly hard.
"They didn't have any flaws in their mechanics. Their deliveries were so simple," Mercker said. "They would have eventually been drafted in this age but much lower because they didn't throw that hard. Glavine had an OK slider but he basically got by with a fastball and change up."
Glavine parlayed his limited skills into an amazing 305 wins. Maddux won a whopping 355.
Once considered the criteria for a Hall of Fame pitcher, 300 wins has become increasingly harder for starting pitchers to reach. Sometime in the 70's managers began using a five-man starting rotation instead of a four man rotation. The expanded use of relief pitchers further cut down the opportunity for starting pitcher to get a decision. Both pitchers overcame the new facts-of-life for starting pitchers to put up nearly unbelievable records.
Perhaps a handful of Hall of Fame voters failed to consider the new realities of the number when six people somehow left Maddux off their ballots.
"I don't understand how six guys could leave Maddux completely off the ballot," Mercker wondered. "I was with Maddux on the Cubs in 2004 when he was matching Cy Young's record. It is hard to imagine winning 15 games for 17 years in a row."
Mercker shared two stories about how precise Maddux was with his pitches. Perhaps the six would be enlightened if they heard them.
"Before they added the Central Division, we would play two teams on the road, then come home and play the same two teams," Mercker explained. "Maddux was facing the Cubs back-to-back. Their thirdbaseman was Jose Hernandez. The book on him was to wear him out inside, to keep pitching inside. We had good success with him by doing that. When Maddux got home to face the Cubs for the second time, he came up to me before facing Hernandez. He told me, 'Watch this. They might have to take the firstbase coach to the hospital. Maddux threw Hernandez a pitch up and outside. Hernandez lined it off the sternum of the firstbase coach. He knew that Hernandez had to cheat to hit the ball inside and that if he swung at the pitch the only thing he could do with it is line it foul past first. The coach was O.K. but I called him on it. 'You said they'd have to take him to the hospital,'"
Cox was a great manager because he set an example and let the players play. He made strategic decisions sure but he trusted his players abilities and their ability to make the right decisions.
"One night there were runners on second and third and the hitter at the plate, handled Maddux pretty well. When I was on the mound and he wanted me to walk someone, he'd whistle," Mercker said.. " Bobby always asked Maddux. Leo Mazzone was on the bench and looking for Bobby. 'We're going to walk him aren't we,' Mazzone asked. 'I don't know,' Cox said and went out to talk to Maddux. 'He said he was going to get the guy to foul out to Chipper (thirdbaseman Jones),' Bobby told Leo. Sure enough the hitter pops up to Jones. Maddux came off the field mumbling under his breath. 'Why are you upset?" Mazzone asked Maddux. 'I told Bobby I was going to get him to hit a pop foul to Chipper. It was two feet fair."
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"Bobby was the best," Mercker said. "It was so much fun playing for him and with those two guys. We all watched Bobby. We watched how he did things and just did what he did. Especially, with the press."
Cox knew what reporters wanted to know and told them after games. He didn't hide anything. He went over the decisions that he made and why he made them. Most of the time the media didn't even ask a question. Cox had already covered it. The Braves clubhouse was easy to work because of it. Players managers, and coaches were never defensive. They exuded confidence and win or lose let the fans in on what happened during the games.
"You couldn't tell whether Glavine was pitching a shut out or getting beat up on the mound," Mercker said. "He was exactly the same everyday of the week and they would help you anytime. Maddux never asked you if you wanted help but if you came to him he would talk all day long. I would ask him a question and he would say, 'Merck I have been waiting for you to ask me for two weeks. This is what you need to do.' My change up was a cross between Glavine's and Maddux's."
Mercker pitched 18 years and had a nice career. He won 74 games and was also eligible for the Hall of Fame for the first time this season. He does have an accomplishment that neither of his now enshrined teammates did. On April 8, 1994, Mercker pitched a no-hitter against the Los Angeles Dodgers.
"They were the first two out to greet me," Mercker said. "They just never thought of themselves as special. Maddux just thought that he was doing what he supposed to do."
On a day when two teammates and his manager were awarded the highest honor in their profession, Mercker was as happy as if he had been elected.
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