MSL to MLB: Brian Schmack's Relentless Pursuit Leads to Detroit Tigers

NOTE: Brian Schmack is one of the MSL’s best success stories with his perseverance on the road from Rolling Meadows to Northern Illinois to a long minor-league odyssey and ultimately an 11-game pitching stint in the big leagues with the 2003 Detroit Tigers. He wound up helping the Tigers avoid breaking the modern-day Major League Baseball record of 120 losses by the 1962 New York Mets. A record that would be broken by the 2024 White Sox with 121 losses. We caught up with Schmack shortly after he was called up to Detroit in late August of 2003.

Persistent.

It’s the perfect word to sum up Brian Schmack.

There aren’t many people who would have gone to the lengths Schmack has to continue his baseball career.

He went from rarely used as a junior pitcher in high school all the way to a No. 5 starter as a senior at Rolling Meadows in 1991.

He was planning to go to an NCAA Division III school for college when he was spotted at a coaches clinic and wound up with a scholarship to Northern Illinois.

Then Schmack began an eight-year odyssey that started in the Frontier League. He was signed by the White Sox out of a tryout camp before making stops in the Texas Rangers and Detroit Tigers organizations.

“I’ve always said they would have to take the jersey from me,” said Schmack, who is a little more than two months shy of his 30th birthday.

Right now it would be the major-league uniform of the Tigers with Schmack’s name and number 53 on the back.

The call Schmack had been waiting for - and wondering if he would ever get - finally came Saturday night in Portland, Maine. It was less than 24 hours before the right-hander got called into his first big-league game and pitched a scoreless inning.

Naturally it was unexpected as the Class AA Eastern League’s leader in saves with 29 was in the bullpen in the second inning of one of the final regular-season games for the Tigers’ Erie (Pa.) affiliate.

The Erie strength coach told Schmack he needed to get to the dugout and bring his glove. His manager, Kevin Bradshaw, was coaching third base and called Schmack onto the field to give him the news.

“He said, ‘Hey, get out of here, you’re going to Detroit,’” Schmack said. “I said, ‘Come on, don’t play around with me.’

“I was floored. I kind of started shaking a little bit and I was so happy I was smiling ear-to-ear. Everything after that was kind of a blur. I couldn’t wait to get inside and get on the phone.”

He called his wife Cari and 2 ½-year-old son Kyle with the news. Cari then called Brian’s parents Bob and Mary, who were in a receiving line at a wedding on the south side.

“I just couldn’t believe it,” Mary said.

“All of sudden my wife’s face went blank,” Bob said. “She said Brian got called up … to Detroit. It really hasn’t sunk in.

“After eight years in the minors it’s kind of hard to believe. He’s at that age it probably had to happen this year, I think.”

Fortunately for Brian, he wasn’t forced to think about giving up his dream before it became a reality. Support never waned at home even though Schmack was no longer thinking about just himself.

“When you’ve got a family and bills start piling up at some point you’ve got to make decisions,” Schmack said. “The last couple of years with Texas I didn’t have the greatest years and I said, ‘What should I do?’ But you have to go out and as long as you have a jersey on anything can happen.”

Schmack didn’t listen to any naysayers. After all, he had never done it before.

“I don’t know if it’s ingrained in me that nothing is going to come easy,” Schmack said. “That probably helped me.”

After all, this isn’t the Mark Prior, prodigal-type career of a No. 1 draft pick. Schmack relies on a split-finger fastball and isn’t going to light up radar guns as he tops out around 89 mph.

He had to spend a summer with Newark in the Frontier League before going to a White Sox tryout camp with former high school teammate and current Elk Grove coach Terry Beyna.

The odds of being discovered at a tryout camp are miniscule at best. But Dewey Robinson, the White Sox minor league coordinator at the time, saw enough to give Schmack a contract.

Schmack spent five years in the Sox system before going to Texas in the Royce Clayton trade. After two years in the Rangers’ system he became a free agent and signed with the Tigers.

He was originally told he would go to Triple-A Toledo but wound up at Double-A Erie. But he didn’t sulk. He became an Eastern League All-Star and had a 3-3 record with a 2.05 ERA, 47 strikeouts and just 10 walks in 57 innings.

And he soaked up everything he could from pitching coach Britt Burns, who won 70 games with the White Sox from 1978-85. Burns talked about success hitters would have when it came to various counts and situations.

“He was the biggest part of what happened,” Schmack said. “My stuff hasn’t changed and I’m still throwing the same pitches. He simplified the game for me down to each batter and ways to go about it.”

It’s the same approach Schmack has taken to Detroit.

Of course, it was a little different when he went to the mound to pitch Sunday’s sixth inning at Comerica Park against the defending world champion Anaheim Angels.

“Once I got on the field and in the bullpen and the game started it was just baseball,” said Schmack, who flew out of Portland early Sunday morning for Detroit. “I’m glad it happened fast and I got in right away.”

Naturally there were some nerves in front of a good-sized contingent of family and friends. He allowed a single and a walk but left the runners there to make his first big-league outing a success.

“It was awesome,” he said. “I wouldn’t have had it any other way.”

Schmack isn’t sure what his bullpen role will be in the last month of the season. Having Schmack around hasn’t hurt as the Tigers won their first two games after he arrived.

First-year manager Alan Trammell and the Tigers are trying to evaluate Schmack and others to see how many big-league caliber pitchers they have as they try to avoid surpassing the 1962 Mets’ modern record of 120 losses.

Schmack knows this month isn’t just a tryout for the Tigers but for 29 other big-league teams as well. He made another solid impression Wednesday night when he entered a loss at Cleveland with two runners on and proceeded to throw 1 ⅔ perfect innings.

And now that he’s made it there he wants to stay there.

“I don’t want this to be the end of it,” Schmack said. “I want this to be the beginning.”