A ‘Team Player’ to the End, Regrets Are Few As Andy Weimer Prepares to Step Off the Mound

It is most likely Andy Weimer will pitch in his final professional baseball game later this month. The same will be true for a lot of other players in Independent leagues, as it always is this time of year. What a great thing it would be if everyone could walk away with the same refreshing attitude this 28-year-old Bridgeport (CT) Bluefish side-arming reliever has.

The record will show that Weimer, who hails from New Hartford, NY and is taking over as the Utica (NY) College head coach, pitched professionally for seven seasons. He has not played above the Class A level even though he set some records along the way and has had a terrific ’09 in the Atlantic League with an All-Star Game appearance and an earned run average barely above 2.00. He even had a pro career-long outing of 7.1 innings in an 18-inning marathon last weekend, which we will get into a little later.

I gave this trim, 6-foot-2 right-hander every chance to talk about regrets and disappointments during our lengthy interview. Was he bitter that two major league organizations had released him? How much frustration had built up over not getting to the major leagues, the goal for every player?

“Not any serious ones,” Weimer said, when I asked about regrets. I have seen him enough times through the years to know how much he has wanted to pitch at higher levels. He has been one determined guy. “I was very much a team player,” he shot back, in his usual quiet manner. “I’ve pitched when I’ve been sore. I’ve never been on the DL (disabled list).”

The biggest disappointments he cited were “No. 1, not getting a legitimate shot with Cincinnati (in 2006, after a ‘great’ spring training)” and “not getting a phone call (from a major league organization this season)” even with the All-Star appearance in Newark, NJ and the fact his earned run average never climbed above 2.38 all season. It currently stands at 2.05 with wins in his only two decisions and three saves during his 34 appearances for the playoff-hopeful Bluefish.

Everything else Weimer had to say would tip any scale for a positive attitude in his direction, which is pretty good considering he came out of high school as a shortstop and overhand starting pitcher but was not highly enough on LeMoyne College’s radar that he was even awarded a uniform during his freshman fall season at the Syracuse, NY school.

So, Andy, what about the highlights of your pro career, which started with two seasons in the Tampa Bay farm system after the Rays selected him in the draft’s 15th round in 2003?

“Being drafted”, he started. “It is very, very exciting.”

Weimer also cited two seasons as the closer for the now departed New Haven County (CT) Cutters, where he saved 20 games two years running (2006-07) and set Can-Am League records for appearances (48) and games finished (47) two summers ago. With another 12 saves for Nashua, NH early last season before moving to Bridgeport, it is believed he also has the most career saves in that league, which started up five years ago.

“This year has been very memorable,” he added, explaining that he feels “much better focused” as well as throwing more strikes.

‘Character’ Stands Out in 18-Inning Game

Of all the memories Andy Weimer will walk off with at the end of the season, it would be difficult to imagine anything topping the 7.1 innings he worked between the 11th and 18th innings in the longest game in Atlantic League history (six hours, 42 minutes, finishing at 2:05 a.m.) last weekend, a 9-6 win for his Bridgeport Bluefish over the dominating Southern Maryland (Waldorf) Blue Crabs.

“A wonderful pinnacle to my career,” Weimer called it. Only twice this season had he been asked to pitch three innings or more with the longest outing for 10 outs. He got 22 outs this time in the longest outing of his pro career, and the longest of his life “unless some high school game went extra innings.”

“That (outing) made our team stronger,” Bridgeport Manager Willie Upshaw commented to The Connecticut Post. “I really learned a lot about your character,” coach Terry McGriff told Weimer. The sidearm hurler only allowed three hits in his scoreless outing, and of the three Blue Crabs who reached base in the final six innings, two were erased in double plays.

Weimer won’t definitively say he will never pitch again, but “I haven’t had any reason not to (retire). I am extremely grateful for the opportunity (to play).” Given the opening, he said he would tell other players in the future “to take the Independent route, if it is offered.”

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Alexandria Claims Third Title in Four Years

Alexandria, LA seems to be putting its name in the hat to be Baseball City, USA after the Aces claimed their third Independent league title in the last four years, this time winning the Continental League crown with two consecutive wins in the championship series over Big Bend, TX. The Aces won United League titles in 2006, 2007, then lost in the finals last year.

Four Return to Majors So Far

While there probably will be others once affiliated minor league seasons and playoffs end, four former Independent players have benefitted from the expansion of major league rosters September 1. All of them are returning to teams they were with earlier this season.

Right-hander Chris Jakabauskas, who surprised many observers when he stayed with Seattle out of spring training and was there virtually all season, is back with the Mariners to the delight of those who remember him from the American Association (Lincoln, NE), Golden League (Fullerton, CA, now home to the Orange County Flyers), and the Frontier League (Florence, KY and Ohio Valley). Southpaw Alberto Castillo (Atlantic League with Camden and Newark, NJ and the traveling Road Warriors as well as Schaumburg, IL of the Northern League) has returned to Baltimore.

Catcher Eliezer Alfonzo (St. Paul, MN, then of the Northern League and now the American Association) is back with San Diego. And the player most likely to be in the spotlight is changeup artist Edwar Ramirez, who is once again in the bullpen of the postseason-bound New York Yankees. Ramirez, who pitched for Pensacola, FL and Edinburg, TX before those teams joined their current leagues of the American Association and United League, respectively, struck out 62 International League hitters in 51 innings during his time in the minors.

(These are excerpts from the column Bob Wirz writes on Independent Baseball. Fans may subscribe at www.WirzandAssociates.com, enjoy his blog, www.IndyBaseballChatter.com, or comment to RWirz@aol.com. The author has 16 years of major league baseball public relations experience with Kansas City and as spokesman for two Commissioners and lives in Stratford, CT.)