All-Star Start Last Appearance for Tracy McGrady; Atlantic League Mound Visits to Shrink–Dramatically

Unlike the attention paid when Michael Jordan aborted his effort to play professional baseball, recent NBA star Tracy McGrady’s experiment to try pitching ended without great fanfare even though the Atlantic League gave him the rare platform of being the starting pitcher for host Sugar Land, TX in this week’s All-Star Game against the other seven teams in the league.

McGrady’s post-appearance interview, within minutes of the end of his four-out, one-run outing, appeared to catch home-team announcers Ira Liebman and Brett Dolan by surprise when he told the ESPN3 audience it was his last game, which included four starts but only 6.2 innings for the Skeeters.

“It has been a tremendous ride,” Dolan quoted the 35-year-old former basketball superstar, in a story for houston.cbslocal.com.  “I (had) informed the team this would be my last outing…I got a little emotional coming off the mound.  It feels good to be celebrated again.”  McGrady had allowed four hits and five runs in the regular-season games, but sometimes struggled with his control, which shouldn’t be surprising for someone who had not played the game since high school.

This Is Strict: Only 3 Mound Visits Per Game

The Atlantic League’s Pace of Play rules changes adopted during the All-Star break were pretty much along the lines we outlined in this space last week although it has now been specified only three visits to the mound–excluding pitching changes–will be allowed for each team for an entire game, with the penalty of having a ball added for the batter for each violation.  One extra bonus trip will be awarded for extra-inning games.

Executive Director Joe Klein, a member of the seven-man committee who recommended the changes to the league’s executive committee, told us he expects managers and players will resort to more signals to replace extra mound visits.  “If something (in the changes) doesn’t work we’re going to change it,” he added.

Klein said base umpires will be charged with keeping tabs on the rule requiring pitchers to throw within 12 seconds when the bases are empty.  Warm-up pitches between innings will be reduced from eight to six, catchers will be automatically replaced by a substitute runner once they reach base in order to prepare for the next half inning, hitters must receive permission from the home-plate umpire to step out of the batter’s box, intentional walks will be automatic without any pitches being thrown and umpires will be instructed to call strikes as high as a batter’s chest.

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Thinking of Delabar, One Year After His All-Star Outing

While shutout performances by Scott Kazmir and Max Scherzer gave Independent Baseball some nostalgic moments during the major league All-Star Game, it was difficult not to think about Steve Delabar, who recovered from a career-threatening broken elbow to climb from the Can-Am League (Brockton, MA) to a whirlwind of success and being on the American League All-Star team one year ago. He is now trying to find himself with Toronto’s farm club in Buffalo, NY.

“It’s going to probably be a little longer process than what he was hoping for,” Buffalo Manager Gary Allenson told The Toronto Star.  “It’s tough.  You’ve been an All-Star and now you’re back in the minor leagues.”  The right-hander, who has a save and a loss to go with a 5.63 earned run average for his seven appearances with Buffalo, told the newspaper “it was a gradual thing (developing bad habits).  But all of a sudden I was looking at video of myself going, ‘I don’t understand where we are here’.  (Going to Buffalo) is really what had to happen.”

Can-Am Star Still Hitting

Steve Nyisztor seems to be enjoying his first opportunity in affiliated baseball.  After hitting .257 last season with Rockland (NY) County, the Rutgers product improved by more than 80 points to .341 in 40 games for the Boulders this season before the Can-Am League team sold the infielder’s contract to the Arizona Diamondbacks early this month.

Nyisztor is hitting .400 (12-for-30) after his first eight games and getting on base at a .486 clip for Hillsboro, OR of the short-season Class A Northwest League.

(This is an excerpt from the column Bob Wirz writes on Independent Baseball.  Thirty-six columns are planned during 2014.  Fans may subscribe at newly-reduced rates at www.WirzandAssociates.com, enjoy added stories on the blog www.IndyBaseballChatter.com, or comment to RWirz@aol.com.  The authorhas 16 years of major league baseball public relations experience with Kansas City and as spokesman for two Commissioners and lives in Stratford, CT.)