MSL to MLB: Look Out Below, Mike Myers' Career Moves Up After Dropping Down

NOTE: Mike Myers’ willingness to try something different and become a submarining lefty led to a long big-league career where he pitched in nearly 900 games in 13 seasons. I got a chance to catch up with him at Milwaukee’s old County Stadium before a Sunday afternoon game against the White Sox on July 18, 1999. Myers came in and struck out 2 of the 3 hitters he faced as the Brewers won 5-4 in the bottom of the ninth inning. I also covered the game for the Daily Herald’s Sox beat writer Scot Gregor because of a post All-Star Game scheduling quirk where the White Sox had wrapped up a 3-game series in St. Louis on Saturday night.

Sadly, the most memorable aspect of the trip there was it came just four days after the crane accident on the construction of the new Miller Park where three ironworkers lost their lives. It was pretty eerie to sit in the press box that afternoon, look out behind the right-field stands at County Stadium at all the twisted metal and think about the tragedy that had occurred just a few days earlier. The accident would delay the opening of the new park a year until 2001 and the name was changed to American Family Field in 2021.

The story on Mike Myers ran a month later on August 20. By that time, Phil Garner had been fired as Brewers manager about a week earlier and replaced by ex-Cubs manager Jim Lefebvre.

The dream is to be the next Randy Johnson or Roger Clemens.

Not of being a left-handed relief pitcher whose primary job is to face lefty hitters.

The dream is to be able to simply blow away any hitter with 95 mph fastballs.

Not using an unorthodox delivery where deception is the key to success.

For Mike Myers of the Milwaukee Brewers, facing reality was the only way to make his major league dreams anything but fleeting.

So Myers, who was born in Arlington Heights and went to Hersey for his first two years of high school, changed for the better.

And now in his fourth full big-league season, the 6-foot-4 lefty has mastered a submarine delivery that appears as if he’s aiming directly at lefty hitters.

“I think it actually saved my career,” said Myers, who turned 30 in June.

Saves don’t come Myers’ way too often. Six of his 12 career saves came as a rookie with Detroit in 1996. He doesn’t have any in 52 appearances this year with Milwaukee. He had just 1 in 70 appearances with the Brewers last year.

But Myers is rarely hurting for work. He pitched in a record 88 games for Detroit in 1997 and broke the team record he set a year earlier by five. After all, a good lefty rarely goes to waste.

“If you look at the top 10 hitters average-wise and the top 10 hitters in home runs, you’ll probably find that six or seven of the 10 are left-handers,” Myers said. “So I’m likely to face the top guns on a daily basis.

“It’s fun coming in with the game on the line … whether it’s one or two hitters and knowing I contributed to the team’s success.”

Myers probably wouldn’t be doing that at the big-league level if it wasn’t for Jeff Jones, who was the bullpen coach with the Tigers in 1995 when Myers came over in a trade from Florida.

Myers, who graduated from Crystal Lake Central High School before going to Iowa State University, started 79 of the first 82 games he pitched in the minors from 1990-94. He threw primarily overhand to three-quarters in the 87-91 mph range.

He got through his first 2 big-league relief appearances with the Marlins unscathed in 1995. Then he spent most of the year in Triple-A before coming to the Tigers and pitching in 11 September games.

Jones, who pitched with the A’s from 1980-84, and then-manager Sparky Anderson thought Myers might need a special delivery.

“When we first got him from the Marlins we were in Toronto,” said Jones, who is currently in his second stint as the Tigers’ bullpen coach. “Sparky asked me to take him down to the bullpen, have him throw and give him an opinion.

“Sparky said, ‘What do you think?’ I said, ‘He throws the ball OK.’ At that time we were looking for somebody to get left-hand hitters out, so Sparky mentioned to try dropping him down and see what he looks like.”

Surprisingly, it wasn’t a struggle to adjust to the drastic change that makes Myers look like a fast-pitch softballer.

“The first couple of times he threw he took to it like a duck to water,” Jones said.

“I wasn’t getting people out on a consistent basis,” Myers said. “I picked it up naturally … and it’s kept me in the bigs this long. Hopefully, it will keep me around at least another five years.

“For some guys it’s hard to find the release point. For me it comes natural and feels comfortable. Until I need to make a drastic change I’ll stay with it.”

Jones said he’s tried to make the same switch with a couple of guys in the minor leagues.

The results weren’t the same as with Myers. But Jones wonders why others with similar ability don’t try something that looks drastically different.

“He wanted to do something to help keep him in the big leagues,” Jones said. “There’s a spot for situation lefties in the big leagues.

“I never understood why a guy who didn’t throw really hard or didn’t have a great breaking ball didn’t really try it.”

The drop in velocity makes Myers look as if he’s throwing slow-pitch softballs. What left-handed hitters see isn’t something that can be accurately measured by a radar gun.

“It comes at a completely different angle than what guys are used to seeing,” Myers said. “My breaking ball has different movement than everybody else’s breaking ball. At 81-82 (mph) it looks faster just by hitters’ reactions.”

The different motion has also turned Myers into a workhorse who can pitch nearly every day. Former Brewers manager Phil Garner said there were times he used Myers four times in five days or seven out of 10.

Sometimes it might be just a couple of pitches to one batter. Other times it’s a couple of innings.

But guys such as Myers, who is 2-1 with a 4.91 ERA, 26 strikeouts and only 8 walks in 33 innings, are hot commodities in an era where starting pitchers don’t work as much as they once did.

“It’s imperative today that you have at least one guy - and hopefully two guys - that can pitch that often,” Garner said. “It’s valuable to be able to use a guy that often.”

Myers figures he’ll be back in the Milwaukee bullpen next year because he’s still one year away from being eligible for free agency. Regardless of what happens, it shouldn’t be tough for Myers to find a place to pitch.

“Quality left-handed relief is a big need,” he said. “Almost every team needs one or two guys.”

Especially those who can check their ego at the clubhouse door.

“One thing a lot of people look at is the guy getting the save as the hero of the bullpen,” Myers said. “But there are a lot of guys before that and we have as much a part in that save as they do. They get the last three outs of the game but that’s fine. I’m not looking for any glory or limelight.”