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AMERICAN CENTURY CHAMPIONSHIPJuly 18, 2012Jamie MoyerSTATELINE, NEVADA THE MODERATOR: Jamie, thank you for joining us today. For those of you, for a little background on Jamie Moyer, Big League pitcher since 1986. That's a few years ago. Back with the Cubs, it was him and Mr.Maddox were known as the M and M Boys a few years back. This year he is renowned and known now for being the oldest pitcher at age 49 to win a game in the Major Leagues and probably more important for a pitcher to have an RBI. So, Jamie, we appreciate you being here. Played in last year's American Century Championship, finished 71st, maintained his amateur status. He also pitched for the Phillies years ago. And let's see, circumstances as they have occurred have allowed us to have you back and it's nice to be here. One thing Jamie did ask me not to mention but I will anyway is that his father‑in‑law's Digger Phelps. Questions? Q. Jamie, could you talk a little bit about all the no‑hitters and some perfect games we've had in the last couple three years, your theories for why we're seeing so many of these? JAMIE MOYER: I would think it would be quite the opposite, honestly, because of the way baseball has implemented the strike zone and the pressure that's on the umpires to call balls and strikes with the videos that they're being graded upon, I would have thought it would have been the complete opposite. But I think part of it‑‑ and I'm not a hitter‑‑ but I think part of it, the way hitting is being taught today and the styles of hitting that are being taught, a lot of the game is away. Guys are taking more pitches, trying to work counts, and I think that's‑‑ I'm not saying the no‑hitters are coming with the better arms, but arms are better, I think, as far as velocity goes. I mean, you look at a Verlander, I mean he's pretty special to watch. Here's a guy in a lot of his games that he's had success, real successful games he's had over the last couple of years, in the ninth inning he's hitting 99, hitting 100, 101. You don't see‑‑ think back over the last 15, 20 years, you didn't see that happen. So I think the arms are bigger. The velocity, I think, has changed a little bit. There's a lot more starting pitchers that have higher end velocity. And I think some of it is because of the way‑‑ the approaches that hitters are taking to the plate. Q. And if you could talk a little bit about the last few weeks, been kind of a whirlwind, I think, kind of few weeks for you. JAMIE MOYER: It's been great for me. I've enjoyed it. Q. Get to play some golf now. JAMIE MOYER: Playing some golf. I went from, make it real quick, I went from Colorado to Norfolk to the 51s, and obviously in Colorado things didn't work out the way I would have liked them to go. But it is what it is. It's part of the business. I had a great opportunity in Norfolk. I really thought I threw the ball quite well in Norfolk, and it was a situation in both Norfolk and the 51s, it was a situation where we'll bring you in for a couple of starts. If we need help, we'll call you up. If we don't need help, you can make a decision. You can either stay here and pitch in Triple A, which was not my goal to pitch in Triple A at 49 for the rest of the summer, or go home and try and find something else. And at this point there's really nothing else‑‑ then it came right to the break, and then there's a little bit of a lull. There's four days off. And right now there isn't a great deal of need, according to organizations. So I'm here. Q. So are you retired or are you still considering? JAMIE MOYER: I'm not retired. I'm not retired. I'm just kind of laying in the weeds and just trying to figure out what's going on. Q. Is there a goal of I want to be the first guy to pitch since Satchel Paige after the age of 50? JAMIE MOYER: I'm not really sure about that. I think I'm going to try to continue to assess what's going on here at this point in time this season. And then try to take a step back after the season is over or towards the end of the season and assess what's going on, see how I feel, and make some decisions from there. Q. As your life goes on and people start talking to you and you won a game at the age of 49, oldest guy, et cetera, et cetera, are your first words going to be, yeah, but that's not what I'm most proud of, it's the RBI? JAMIE MOYER: Have you been talking to him? Q. Listen to radio shows. JAMIE MOYER: The hitting side of it, that's all a plus. When you get a bunt down, when you get an RBI, a hit, it's all a plus. You're not really supposed to be able to do. If you can, it's a big help. Winning games and contributing, I think, has always been my goal on a team. And I've always enjoyed that. And that's what I strive to do every time I go out to pitch. Q. I'm curious, with the length of your tenure in Major League Baseball, how have you seen the locker room change in terms of‑‑ JAMIE MOYER: Great question. Q. Games and everything like that. JAMIE MOYER: The locker room has changed greatly. Back in the day, there were no phones. There were no‑‑ it started with a pager. Then it went to the phones. And now it's iPads, computers and Twitter and all that kind of stuff. So, again, I think it's allowed more access with the players and the fans. But for me personally I think it's created somewhat of a distraction for the players. And to me when you all go to work, when you're sitting at your desks or in front of your computer, you're working and you're writing your stories. For me it's always been the same way. If I'm at the ballpark, I'm there to work. I'm there to get better. I'm there to prepare, whether I'm pitching or not pitching. And I think that‑‑ it's kind of‑‑ this new age, new technology thing, I think it's kind of taken away a little bit from that. And I know there will be people that argue and say, yeah, but there's so much video, which there is. There's so much video of‑‑ if I were to go out and look at video on the team I'm facing, I can see pretty much anything I want to see. I can see fastballs that they hit. I can see fastballs that they missed. I can see curveballs that they fouled off, curveballs that were taken for strikes. You can punch in any kind of parameter that you want into a computer and it will spit something back out that you can see as a hitter. And vice versa, with hitters with pitchers. So those who want to go there and use that as information, I think it can be beneficial, but I also believe, I'm a big believer in baseball that there's paralysis by analysis. I think you can do so much in that way that you can lose focus on really what do I need to do and how do I go out and prepare with my own ability and my teammate's ability. And I think ultimately that's where this game comes down to. You have to play the game. There's all kinds of stats. You can‑‑ managers can pull up all kinds of stats. Hitters versus pitchers, pitchers versus hitters, but it still comes down to the stuff I have on a given day. Where my defense is put on the field, what umpire's behind the plate. There's so many variables that come into play in the game of baseball. There's just not one thing that you can look at, which to me makes it exciting. And technology has made it better but I think it's also made it worse. Q. What about pranks and things like that? JAMIE MOYER: You don't see that as much. Terry Francona, when I was with the Cubs, was a great prankster, RyanSandberg. But you don't see as much‑‑ as many pranks going on as you used to. I don't know if it has to do with the money. Everybody's kind of into their own little thing. That team‑‑ and when I was with the Phillies we had a great chemistry in our clubhouse. And I think that's one of the big reasons that allowed us to go on and win a World Series and be successful for the years we were successful, because there were players in that clubhouse that I think, not necessarily verbally held their teammates accountable, but by how they acted and how they approached their job, everybody in that clubhouse wanted to follow that lead, and I don't think it's that way in every clubhouse. Q. A lot of things happen in Major League Baseball starting about 48 hours before the trade deadline on July31st. And they sort of continue into early September. So you said you weren't retired. Is your agent sniffing anything out? You got anything that‑‑ JAMIE MOYER: Yeah, he's talked to a couple of clubs, but at this point nobody's really‑‑ everybody's relying on what they have from within. Q. And, of course, we'll hear that until about the 29th or the 31st? JAMIE MOYER: Right. And I've heard throughout my career we should have done this, we could have done this. Well, again, it's the organizations that‑‑ it's their responsibility and their choice to make their decisions with the best information that they have. Q. There's so much power pitching in baseball, and you mentioned it here. The velocity, the bigger arms, where does that leave a control pitcher's role anymore? Seems like we're seeing fewer and fewer of those guys. JAMIE MOYER: And I look‑‑ I've got now two sons in college. And I go to games, I go to high school games, and you see kids that, again, they're way greener or more green, I guess you can say. But when you get to the college level, you start to see polished guys. But the kids at the college level that are mid‑80s are not getting looked at anymore. They're not being given those opportunities. Even though they might be successful, they're not being given the opportunity that there once was, because of the power arm, and that's the direction baseball has gone. And hopefully it doesn't come back to bite them. But I think at some point somewhere down the road here it may. Q. Well, it also seems to me like‑‑ JAMIE MOYER: Excuse me one second. I thought of this, too. There's just as many injuries now as there were before. So you can't say, well, we've gone to more power arms and we're going to limit pitches. There's still as many injuries. Q. Wall Street Journal had a stat out last week that something like 50percent of all starting pitchers on opening day of this year have missed starts due to injury. So I look at that with power arms and what about pitch counts. I'd like your thoughts on the pitch counts. JAMIE MOYER: I don't agree with the pitch count. I honestly don't. I grew up in the time or the world you throw the baseball. You don't‑‑ you don't go out and throw it 50 times and say, okay, I'm good for today. You create a regimen, but it's like running, long distance runner. They pace themselves but they build themselves up. Well, we do the same thing in baseball. But we all of sudden limit‑‑ we build up to only a certain amount, 105, 110 pitches. I know early in my career, it was 125, 130, 140. When I played in Boston, Roger Clemens was throwing 160, 170 pitches. That wasn't too long ago. Mike Mussina and Ben McDonald in Baltimore in the mid‑nineties, we threw a lot of pitches then I can remember throwing 125, 130 pitches. I think it's all about how you're trained and the mentality that you have, and I just‑‑ you see so many young kids come up in today's game with great arms, but it's going to be interesting to see what happens with Strasburg here towards the end of the season.  That's one that jumps out at me. He's having a great year. He's a great pitcher. What's going to happen to Steven Strasburg when they get to mid‑September if not before and he reaches his innings plateau, how do you take a guy who has pitched for you all season out of your rotation or limit him to what he's doing? It takes away from the team goal of getting to the postseason. Q. When we talk about power arms versus control pitchers, it seems like in baseball a pitcher's role used to be to upset a hitter's timing; but with all power arms, cutters and fastballs, it seems like there's a different philosophy happening there? JAMIE MOYER: Yeah, and I don't know if I can explain the philosophy. Because it doesn't make sense to me. I mean, I watch games from the beginning of the season or now on TV and you see a lot of guys, they'll throw a fastball by somebody or foul it off, and you can tell they're behind it. Then they'll throw an off‑speed pitch. To me that doesn't make sense. You've sped their bat up, now you're going to slow their bat down, their bat's already slow, you're going to throw something slow into their bat speed. I can remember Nolan Ryan, a great teammate of mine, and just a great person. He was a guy that if he faced you for the first time early in your career, he wasn't going to throw anything but fastballs until you proved, until you put his fastball in play. Once you got the fastball in play and got your hit, he would more or less, he wouldn't do it but he would think it: Okay. Now I'll tip my hat to you. Now you're going to see a breaking ball now you're going to see a changeup. And I liken it back to the‑‑ I'll never forget this, my life, Bo Jackson came to the American League. And it was mono e mono, Nolan Ryan versus Bo Jackson. It was probably 10, 14 at‑bats and Bo was swinging like he was going to hit a ball a country mile and Nolan was throwing it harder and harder. You knew when he squared one up, it was going to go. He did. And after that he pulled balls foul, he fouled them straight back, he fouled them off down the right field line. He finally hit a ball in old Arlington Stadium, to left/center field into the bleachers. And after that he saw the curveball and saw the changeup. But it took 12 to 14 at‑bats for that to happen. But now we're trying to trick everybody. And I think what ends up happening is the guys with the good arms, and maybe not the top end guy, but the guy 90 to 92 all of a sudden starts throwing a slider and a cutter, all of a sudden he starts to lose the velocity with his fastball because he's going to more offspeed pitches. Not only loses command with his fastball and he loses some velocity, now his whole game changes and he doesn't even realize it until it's too late. Q. You mentioned about having a couple of your kids who now have moved along the line and are now playing college ball. I was curious if you could kind of take a look at what your youth sports experience was like compared to what your kids' youth sports experience was like, and the ways you've seen a change. JAMIE MOYER: I mean, I think in today's world we try to create everything for the kids. We try to create everything‑‑ we try to make it happen instead of let the kids allow it to happen. Let the kids be creative in their own little world. I know growing up in my lifetime, you know it was whiffle ball, it was Nerf ball and golf, and it was baseball, football, and basketball, whatever, if you could kick it, hit it or throw it, we played it; that's what we did all summer long. Now, it's, well, I gotta have my son or my daughter in their sport and what ends up happening is by the time they get to become teenagers they either have injuries and some are major injuries, based on the sport, or they lose interest. And all of a sudden now at 14, 15, 16, the parents are upset because their child has lost interest, and because it's been turned into such a job and it really shouldn't be. Your childhood years your youthful years should be the most fun years of your life. And that's where you learn about yourself, and when you play a lot of sports, I think you get a better idea of what your likes are instead of being forced to play a sport because of the talent levels. And I think there's so much emphasis that's being put on winning and not development. And when I say development, I'm not saying development for a sport, I'm just saying development as a person, mentally and physically. I think your better athletes are better athletes because they played a lot of sports and they don't get burn out on their sport. I see it with my sons who are now in college. Their younger years they played ice hockey, soccer, basketball and baseball. When they got to become teens they were more or less forced, if they wanted to play baseball, to play baseball. Q. In your mind what is the age that competition makes sense? In other words, what is the‑‑ when do you start moving kids from everybody's going to play, everybody gets a chance? JAMIE MOYER: I don't think there's a magic number. I think say you live in the inner city versus the country, you're dealing with two different animals. You're dealing with maybe two different types of opportunities. I think you just get a feel for it. Instead of forcing things to happen, you just allow them to happen. And I think you read your children. I think that‑‑ where you communicate with your children and just say, hey, how are you liking this opportunity, let's have fun with it. Let the kids be kids. We've already had our chance to be kids as parents. So let the children be children and let them be kids and let them grow and let them try to establish what they want to do. And, again, the other thing, I grew up in a small town out of Philadelphia. We rode our bikes. We could ride our bikes and go play all day, come home for lunch or dinner, and come home at dark. We don't live in that kind of society anymore, unfortunately. It's pretty difficult to do that everywhere in our country. Q. Back to baseball, if you come back this year, are you looking just to be a starter or would a lefty specialist out of the bullpen‑‑ JAMIE MOYER: I don't really know how much advantage I have or how much I would be able to help a club. I'm surely not a specialist. I'm not a closer. I'm not a setup guy. I'm not a specialist. It's either a long guy probably or a starter. And that's what I've done most of my career is start. So if I have any value left, I think that's where it might be. Q. And two teams that come to mind I'm going to ask you about, the Phillies, any bullpen help, maybe a long man, and the Mets. JAMIE MOYER: We've talked to them, talked to the Mets over the winter. Talked to the Mets at times during the season. They just don't seem to have any interest at this point in time. And the Phillies, when I was in my stint between Norfolk and the 51s I happen to go through Philadelphia with our foundation we had an event, Ping‑Pong event, and ran into Ruben, and he knew the whole situation. And I don't think they really seemed to have any, a great deal of interest as well. Q. What did your fastball top out at at the height of your career, and where is it now? JAMIE MOYER: I'm going to say 83, 84‑ish. But again I say back then, it sounds like it's 100 years ago, it's almost 100, but not, the radar gun, there weren't radar readings in the stadium. There was a scout that had a radar gun but he was scouting for another club. So that stuff wasn't as prevalent. It was, again, based‑‑ what do we see? The manager was basing his decisions on what he's seeing. Now the velocity is down, we should get him out of the game. See what I'm saying? We're not basing it on our instincts of what are we seeing out there, we're basing it on what either stats tell us or what a number on a board off of something computerized and maybe a little inaccurate, might be a mile off, two miles off, you don't know. If I'm managing, I'm basing it off of what I'm seeing with my‑‑ what reaction am I getting from a hitter and I'm going to be communicating with my pitcher between innings. And my catcher, yeah. Q. Which statement is more accurate: I'm a better pitcher or my father‑in‑law is a better basketball coach? JAMIE MOYER: I'm a better pitcher. (Laughter). That didn't take any time. I'm a better pitcher. Q. You come up to Tahoe, obviously playing in the tournament. What would you say is your favorite thing to do in Tahoe Reno/Tahoe area when you're not playing golf at the tournament and how often do you make it up here? JAMIE MOYER: I've been here twice now. And the only thing I've done here was play golf and hang out with my family and hang out with some of the celebs, guys at night, things like that. It's great seeing the guys. Some guys I've played with. Actually had dinner last night with David Justice, and Vince and then Kenny Lofton and David Welsh showed up and the stories started flying. David Justice and I have a great story that goes back a few years when he was in Cleveland and I was with Seattle. We were up pretty big, and it was like the sixth or seventh inning, he kept fouling balls off. Good at‑bat we both had going. I finally got tired of it. I threw a pitch; he fouled it off. I walked up towards home plate. I said: David, what do you want? He looked at me like‑‑ he goes a fastball. I go okay. Here it comes. I went back, threw a fastball, and he hit a home run. He laughed all around the bases but the at‑bat was over and I moved on. We ended up winning the game. So we joke about that, yeah. We have fun with that. Q. To take the subject off baseball a bit, you answered some of my questions last year about Camp Erin, could you tell everyone about the foundation and all the work that Camp Erin does. JAMIE MOYER: Thank you for the question. My wife and I have started a foundation called the Moyer Foundation in 2000, and one of our biggest initiatives are bereavement camps for children, free bereavement camps for children ages six to 17. And as of today we have 40 camps, bereavement camps, 40 throughout the country. Our goal is to put one in every major league city. We've been able to accomplish that. What these are, these are weekend bereavement camps for children ages six to 17. As I said, they're free. Very traditional camps. But while at the camp they're with kids like themselves who have lost somebody near and dear to them. And at these camps, as I said, they go through many traditional camp activities, but there are also professional grief counselors there as well. And they are dealing with their grief and learning coping skills to hopefully move forward in their lives and remember their loved ones in a positive way. So we're very honored to be able to create this camp. It's something that we feel is very important in our society that's kind of been overlooked dealing with a loss. As adults, it's difficult for us to deal with a loss. But imagine as a child, as a 9‑, 10‑, 11‑year‑old child and you've lost a mother, a father, a brother, a sister, a grandparent, somebody that's close to you, how do you deal with it, where do you go, who do you talk to? Nobody really understands. They say, oh, I feel sorry for you, and they try to help, but they are not in the shoes of that child. These camps allow these kids to come to a camp and every kid at the camp is going through the same thing. They may be at different stages but there's six‑year‑olds hugging a 17‑year‑old or a 15‑year‑old hugging a 10‑year‑old. It's pretty cool to see how these kids can come to a camp on a Friday afternoon and maybe be a little timid or be a little intimidated and by the time they leave on a Sunday afternoon, they're all hugging each other. They've all created great memories. Memories, and they relive a lot of the memories of the person they've lost. But they've created a lot of new friendships with the people that they've met. And in some cases life‑long friendships. And the coolest thing that‑‑ one of the coolest things we've been able to see with these camps is that some of our kids have come to this camp as a teenager and outgrow the camp but then come back as a counselor, that's when you know you've hit home. Q. So what motivated you to start this? JAMIE MOYER: My wife and I we're involved with a grief camp when we lived in South Bend, Indiana. We moved to the Northwest. We thought we would try to find something similar to that. And there was nothing of the sort. So we created our own camp. So we created our own blueprint. And as we had two or three in the Northwest, we thought, wow, why are we just doing it here when we can have a larger impact in our society. And that's what we've been able to do. We had a capital campaign and we raised enough monies to create a camp in every major league city and beyond. So our goal is to continue to grow these camps but obviously you need money and you need exposure and you have to create awareness, and that's what we're trying to do. Q. What are your fundraising efforts? JAMIE MOYER: We've done a lot of things in Seattle. We've done golf tournaments. We're actually having a golf tournament in November in Las Vegas. So if anybody has any more interest or wants to learn more about what we do or what we have done, what we're currently doing or where we're going, it's moyerfoundation.org, and we have‑‑ our founding office is in Seattle. Last summer we opened up a new office in Philadelphia. And just felt that it was better to create an office on each coast dealing with the time changes and trying to reach out to more people. Now that we have camps throughout the country, we thought it would be a better fit. Q. Are the kids still getting quilts? JAMIE MOYER: The kids are getting quilts. The cool thing is we have so many volunteers for these camps, and it's not just volunteers at the camps, as was mentioned, we always seem to find a lot of women's groups that will make quilts, teddy bears and each kid that comes to the camp will go home with a quilt and/or a teddy bear. And it's really‑‑ I've had the good fortune to be at a couple of camps. My wife Karen has been to many camps. But to see the impact that you can make in somebody's life and somebody who is in a less fortunate situation or in a distressed situation, you know, really allows me, my wife, our family, to put the baseball world kind of keep it humble and allows you to remember where you came from. And I think that's important. THE MODERATOR: Thank you very much. FastScripts Transcript by ASAP Sports |
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