The Jon Secrist Diary: Entry 1: "It could be five days or five months"
Last July, we wrote about the story of Jon Secrist, the Westlake Village knuckleball pitcher who eight years ago had a short-lived chance at playing for the independent league St. Paul Saints minor-league team, one that haunted him for years.
Secrist's stats for the 1999 Saints, at age 44: Two games, 8 2/3 innings, 0-1 record, 9.34 ERA, 16 hits, 10 runs (nine earned), five walks, two strike outs and three home runs allowed. He was so disappointed by his effort, he pretty much gave up on pitching any more. And he says he never even saw the $700 he was promised from a contract. Not that it mattered. He'd pretty much given up on baseball again.
After Saints owner Mike Veeck saw the story, he contacted Secrist in December and invited him to the team's spring training camp. Secrist, who turned 53 in January, convinced him he could do it, and since then has been getting back in shape and pitching in semi-pro games in the San Fernando Valley.
The Saints' open tryout camp is Thursday, April 24. Training camp begins shortly thereafter and the season exhibition opener is April 28, with the season opener May 8. The team appears to have 23 players on its roster, including 10 pitchers, but nothing is finalized yet.
Here's the first installment of Secrist's road trip back to St. Paul, Minn.:
"I'm just getting a lot of last-minute things done before I leave about 9 in the morning Friday in my rented car. I have a friend, Gary Merritt, who'll be traveling with me. He's a friend who used to live across the street from me as a kid growing up in Reseda. He just said he'd billing to go. I was able to take time off work since I'm self-employeed and really have no mortgage issues. I had to borrow some money from my family to do this, so I'm really going to be watching how much I spend.
"The plan is to get to Phoenix on Friday night in time to see the Diamondbacks play. The next day, we should make it Amarillo, Tex., or Oklahoma City. By the third day, Wichita, Kan., with the plan to get there no later than Tuesday. I'm keeping track of the tornados that are supposed to be going through the Midwest. The team says they've got a room at a Best Western reserved for me. I hope to get there by Tuesday and then spend Wednesday relaxing and getting acclimated.
"I had time to throw a bullpen session today. Maybe on Sunday, if I see some kids off the highway, I might pull over and ask 'em to play catch, just to stay loose.
"The Saints have an open trying that they want me to attend next Thursday, because they expect a lot of media members there. I usually do well in those kinds of tryouts because hardly anyone sees a knuckleball pitcher. There are few exhibition games between then and the start of the season.
"I think I've been throwing pretty well lately. The Pasadena Redbirds have been letting me throw three innings once a week for them, and last Sunday, we played the Dodgers' scout team at Brookside Park in Pasadena near the Rose Bowl. Their team is made up mostly of college-aged kids. I struck out the first guy, the second guy bunted back to me and I made the play, and the third guy grounded out to third. I only gave up one unearned run. Of the 24 innings I've thrown with the Redbirds, I only had one bad outing, thank goodness.
"I'm really pumped up and feel really good physically. I had a tired arm recently, I think just from overworking it, so I'm careful to keep conditioning my shoulder and scaling back when I'm tired. I figure, I could be in St. Paul for five days or five months. I hope I'm there until September. That's how I'm looking at it."
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