Old Way Of Doing Things Still Works

At 45, Moyer Will Try To Put Phils in NLCS

CHICAGO, Oct. 3 -- The circumstances Friday afternoon -- with a great moment one day away, with a resplendent career hanging low in the sky -- just about commanded Jamie Moyer to reflect on everything. And so Moyer, because it's his nature, never mentioned all the places he has been; he only talked about the people he has seen. The 45-year-old, memory as sharp as his command, started name-dropping. He mentioned his mentors and his role models; he referenced Nolan Ryan and Charlie Hough and Cal Ripken and Fernando Valenzuela. For a moment, Moyer worried he might be aging himself.

The concern lingered for just a moment, until he realized the main lesson of his 2008 season could apply just as well to his reminiscing. "Age," Moyer finally said, "doesn't matter at this point."

On Saturday, Moyer, baseball's oldest player, starts for the Philadelphia Phillies in Game 3 against Milwaukee, thus elongating a career that already stretches from Fielder to Fielder; both Cecil and Prince have tagged him for homers. The proper nouns, more than anything else, enrich Moyer's 22-year career -- and he knows it.

He has pitched to Bruce Bochy, Buddy Bell, Bob Brenly, Phil Garner, Ozzie Guillén, Bob Melvin, Mike Scioscia and Dale Sveum, all of whom have since taken managerial jobs. He has struck out both Aaron and Bob Boone, and walked both Ken Griffey Sr. and Ken Griffey Jr. In his major league debut on June 16, 1986, Moyer defeated childhood idol Steve Carlton, who was a onetime teammate of Dick Schofield, who was a onetime teammate of Enos Slaughter, who lost three years of his career to serve in World War II. When Moyer's current manager, Charlie Manuel, waxed nostalgic on Friday about a World Series performance by Gil Hodges (1943-1963), Moyer couldn't resist the one-liner.

"I think I faced Gil Hodges in that series," he said.

When Moyer first surfaced in the major leagues, he already had the cerebral approach that would define his career; hoping to pair the rookie with a mentor, then-Cubs general manager Dallas Green gave Moyer a Wrigley locker right next to that of veteran Rick Sutcliffe, but Sutcliffe soon realized the humbling truth: "He knew more about pitching than I did -- and I had been in the big leagues for 10 years."

But Moyer also had the velocity that led most to believe he'd be out of the big leagues before his fastball hit the catcher's mitt. There's some debate about whether Moyer -- who, by ex-teammate Greg Maddux's appraisal, might have "the worst velocity ever" -- lost speed as he aged. Not true. Moyer still carries with him the original scouting report, a product of Cubs scout Billy Blitzer, to prove it.

Said Moyer on Friday: "I've had a couple people say this year, 'Back when you were younger when you threw 88 to 90 . . . ' I said, 'Wait a minute, I never threw that hard.' That's when I pull it out, and I say, 'You want me to prove it?' And it's 82, 83. It more or less just says, you know what, he's got average stuff, he likes to compete, he's learning how to pitch, and he's left-handed, so you never know what can happen."

This season, Moyer won 16 games, the final one coming last Saturday against Washington, when Philadelphia clinched its division and Moyer spent the next hour on the field, T-shirt soaked in beer. Indeed, the last years of his career have been the sweetest. In his first six years in the big leagues, Moyer hadn't yet developed his pinpoint command, which enables his survival. He often worked himself to the point of torment: "If he was pitching a night game, he'd come out to the ballpark at noon and go out and run two miles just to take the edge off," Sutcliffe recalled. Three times, Moyer was released. In 1992, the Cubs sent him home from spring training, advised him to retire and approached him about a coaching job.

Moyer refused, and instead accepted a contract with the Class AAA Toledo Mud Hens. One year, $12,000.

"Everybody had this guy pegged wrong," said former Chicago teammate Davey Lopes, now a Philadelphia coach. "Everybody but himself."

Slowly, Moyer headed into the late '90s with the craftiness that would shape his legacy. At 38 years old, he became the oldest first-time 20-game winner. Since turning 40, Moyer has made one all-star team and pitched 1,224 innings. For his career, he's played for seven teams, thrown 3,746 2/3 innings, won 246 games, twice won 20 or more games, and issued 464 home runs, including 10 to Manny Ramírez. He's earned $62 million, and raised $14 million for charity. Next month, he turns 46. On Saturday, he will try to send Philadelphia to the National League Championship Series.

"This is a great opportunity to pitch, period," Moyer said. "And whether it's the postseason or even during the regular season, at 45, I try to respect where I am and the contributions that I can make to a ballclub but also try to respect my teammates and the team across the field. And to me at this stage it's an honor to come here every day just to put the uniform on, just today to come here to work out. I look at that as a huge honor."