It was a victory for Dan Plesac. He got pounded in his home park and nobody booed.
Jim Lefebvre’s Cubs beat Jim Lefebvre’s Cubs 8-3 Wednesday afternon in front of a scattering of folks in HoHoKam Park. Lefebvre, in a shocking lapse of intrasquad protocol, managed both teams instead of assigning each side to a coach.
“I walked out there,” said Lefebvre, “and Tom Trebelhorn (one of the snubbed coaches) says, `Anything to say?’ I said, `Yeah, I want to win this one.’ “
He also lost one, of course, and Plesac, the second pitcher for the Losing Lefebvres, gave up seven hits in a six-run third. Another run scored in the fourth.
None of it really mattered.
“I’m not worried about Dan Plesac,” said Lefebvre. Neither is Dan Plesac.
For four seasons, Plesac was one of the game’s dominant closers after breaking in with the Brewers in 1986. He slipped in 1990, and followed with a thoroughly unhappy 1991, when arm problems dropped his fastball into the mid-80s, his earned-run average stayed above 4 and the normally placid burghers really letting him have it.
“It’s part of the territory that comes with being a relief pitcher, especially a closer,” he says now, without anger. “Bobby Thigpen’s going through that with the White Sox. It’s inevitable.
“I don’t blame them, but it was a tough thing to deal with, because it never really happened in Milwaukee.”
While Milwaukee was pretending to be Philadelphia, Plesac only got worse. By the end of the ’91 season, Plesac was in the starting rotation by default. When a trade to the Dodgers fell through that off-season, Plesac again was a Brewer in 1992.
Now, Doug Henry was established as the closer. Plesac, a starter early, went back to the bullpen as support. And whether it was the starting regimen or just less work, the arm came back.
As a reliever, his ERA for the year was 2.17. After July 5, it was 1.23, as the Brewers made a terrific run at the Blue Jays before being eliminated in the final weekend.
“It was fun for me the second half of the season,” he said. “I didn’t have the closer’s role, but it was fun to be healthy and fun to be productive again. That was really what got me excited about the ’93 season.”
That-and signing as a free agent for the team he watched as a kid growing up in Gary. As he talked about the signing, he was that kid again.
“I can remember like it was yesterday,” he said breathlessly. “I have the race horses (nine standardbreds), and I was going up to Maywood Park to watch one of my horses race, and my agent called me on my truck phone and told me (Cubs General Manager) Larry Himes had called and wanted to set up a meeting next week, when the winter meetings started.”
He took a breath.
“Boy,” he said, “my heart was beating a hundred beats a minute. When they made me an offer, it took me about two seconds to agree to it. That’s how badly I wanted to play here.
“The day baseball, Harry Caray, the fans and Wrigley Field. . .”
Still, he won’t be the closer. At 31, mellowed by events, he can deal with that.
“I signed here because I really wanted to play here,” he said. “Hopefully they’re as happy to have me as I am to be here.
“And wherever I fit into the puzzle-I just want to do well.”
It’s early.
