Felix Hernandez may be the only thing worth rooting for in this dismal M’s season. That’s how Jeff Sullivan of Lookout Landing sees it, anyway: “Trying to win as many games in 2008 as possible may indeed do more harm than good. However, every five days I make the Felix Day Exception. Every five days, I root for this team every bit as hard as I did a year ago when we were gunning for the playoffs.”
Sixteen years ago, during another Mariners season that started with high expectations and ended in flames, the situation was eerily similar: the only bright spot was a 22-year-old pitcher.
That 22-year-old, Dave Fleming, is now a 38-year-old math teacher in Connecticut, and the subject of a profile by ESPN’s Jeff Pearlman (better known as the guy who did the John Rocker interview).
Turns out that Pearlman is, like Fleming, a graduate of Mahopac High in Putnam County, NY, and idolized Fleming throughout his exceptional college career at Georgia (Fleming cinched Georgia’s 1990 CWS title) and his early success with the Mariners.
After throwing a 1-0 shutout over defending world champion Minnesota on June 19, 1992, Dave Fleming had a 10-2 record in his first full season. “He changed speeds and moved the ball in and out. It just shows that you don’t have to throw like Roger Clemens to be successful,” said Kirby Puckett. “If this game doesn’t get him in the All-Star Game,” M’s second baseman Harold Reynolds said, “then there is no justice.”
Fleming didn’t make the All-Star team (instead, Edgar Martinez got the first of his seven career selections), but he did finish the season 17-10 for a team that lost 98 games. The M’s were 19-14 when Fleming pitched, 45-84 without him.
He also threw 228 innings, throwing more than 110 pitches 20 different times. USS Mariner speculates that this overuse contributed to Fleming’s breakdown later in his career–he was out of the majors for good after the 1995 season. He later discovered he’d been pitching with a rotator cuff tear.
Fleming tells Pearlman: “I wanted to keep going as long as I could. I certainly tried. But there comes a point where there’s nothing left. I reached that point.”
And he has something else to say, something that we’d all do well to remember–he wishes he’d enjoyed his success more than he did: “The problem with dreams is what happens after they come true. I had always wanted to pitch at the highest level — that was my dream. Well, I made it. I accomplished something big. But then I wanted more. I wanted a long career and the playoffs and World Series. You don’t really settle for less — you crave bigger.”
You can buy that 1992 Dave Fleming Mariners Mothers’ Cookies card for 15 cents at CheckOutMyCards.com.
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