|
From Sat Daily Herald.
Baseball Way Back: The 'second father' who taught Sutter his split finger fastball
When the Cubs needed relief in the late 1970s, the North Siders turned to Bruce Sutter.
When Sutter needed guidance, he turned to Fred Martin.
As a Cubs minor league pitching coach and instructor, Martin had a direct hand in the development of Sutter. He also developed two other relievers: Dennis Lamp and the Donnie Moore, who, one out away from sealing the California Angels' first pennant in 1986, would give up a costly home run to the Boston Red Sox' Dave Henderson. Moore committed suicide only three year later.
In 1977, Sutter told Dave Johnson of the Evansville Press he nearly quit baseball four years earlier.
"I probably would have given it up if Fred Martin hadn't gotten hold of me."
Sutter was with Quincy of the Class A Midwest League in 1973, when Martin taught Sutter the split-finger fastball.
Gripped with the index and middle finger separated widely and the thumb set directly under the ball, the pitch looks like a fastball to the hitter but drops suddenly.
Sutter remembered during his 2006 Hall of Fame induction speech, "He told me to spread my fingers apart and throw it just like a fastball."
In his 1977 interview with Johnson, Sutter said Martin "has been like a second father to me," adding that he named his pet springer spaniel Fred Martin Jr. "But I guess the best thing about Fred is that he's a great confidence builder. He never tells you you're pitching bad. Even if you go out and get bombed, he'll try to find something positive in what you're doing."
Sutter said when he was with Wichita and Martin was coaching with Evansville, he would call Martin almost every night.
Martin taught the split-finger pitch to Moore and Lamp, but in the case of Lamp he taught him another pitch the right-hander used to help propel the Chicago White Sox and Toronto Blue Jays to division championships.
After Martin's death in 1979, Lamp told sports writer David Condon, "If he hadn't taught me the sinker pitch I wouldn't be in the big leagues now."
Lamp echoed Sutter when he said, "His coaching ability was tremendous. But his help went above and beyond teaching the game. His greatest aid to me was as a father away from home. A player could discuss any of his problems with Fred, and the problems became Fred's."
In a sense, Martin was enjoying vicariously the major league pitching success that eluded him.
Debuting at age 30, after seven years in the minors, including a 23-6 1941 season with Houston of the Texas League, and four years in the Army during World War II, the Oklahoma native went 2-1 in six games, including three starts, with the eventual World Series champion St. Louis Cardinals in 1946.
But in May of that year, he and two other teammates, Max Lanier and future fellow Cubs coach Lou Klein, jumped to the outlaw Mexican League, earning them a five-year ban from the majors by Commissioner A.B. "Happy" Chandler.
Martin and Lanier filed a $2.5 million lawsuit against baseball to have the ban lifted. But in 1949, Chandler lifted the ban, and Martin and Lanier dropped the suit.
Resuming his career with the Cardinals in 1949, Martin went 6-0 with a 2.44 ERA and 4-2 in 1950, his final season, before drifting back to the minors.
In 1961, Martin joined the Cubs College of Coaches, and in 1963 was named pitching coach.
He worked his magic on Cubs starter Dick Ellsworth, a 20-game loser in 1962. During spring training in 1963, Martin worked long hours with Ellsworth, helping him develop his slider.
Martin's tutelage paid off, as Ellsworth went 22-10 in 1963.
In 1964, Martin had similar success with Larry Jackson, who bounced back from a 14-18 1963 campaign to post a league-leading 24 wins in 1964.
At the end of the 1964 season, the Cubs hired Mel Harder as pitching coach, but Martin remained a coach within the organization working with minor league players.
Martin would continue working in the organization.
Martin once again became a major league pitching coach in 1979, when Bill Veeck and Manager Don Kessinger tabbed him to shepherd the White Sox pitchers.
With the Sox, he helped Francisco Barrios develop an effective changeup and also worked with two other promising young pitchers, Ross Baumgarten and Tex Wortham.
But Martin's season was cut short and his life claimed by lung cancer on June 11, 1979.
In his 2006 Hall of Fame induction speech, Sutter summed up Martin's impact on the game and his career.
"It was a pitch that didn't change how the game was played, but developed a new way to get hitters out. Everybody who has thrown a split-finger fastball owes a great deal of thanks to Fred Martin, because he was the first one to teach it. I would not be standing here today, if it were not for that pitch."
|
Login
Register
FAQ
Search
