Two of my favourites have birthdays today.
Dustin McGowan turns 43 today.
Dustin was a first-round pick back in 2000, 33rd overall. Although not the Blue Jays’ first first-round pick, we had the number 18 pick that year, and we chose Miguel Negron, an outfielder who never made the majors, having a career line of .263/.326/.358 in 1019 minor league games. Dustin was a supplemental pick for the loss of free agent Graeme Lloyd.
Dustin did well in the minors until needing Tommy John surgery early in 2003.
The Jays called Dustin up at the end of July 2005 when Ted Lilly suffered an injury. Dustin made his first MLB start on July 30th, allowing 2 hits, 1 run, 3 walks and 6 strikeouts in 5 innings. After that, he’d make seven middling starts (well, six middling ones, one terrible one, giving up 12 runs in 4.41 innings to the Tigers) and was moved to the bullpen when Lilly returned to the lineup. He pitched in 13 games, 7 starts, and had a 6.35 ERA.
2006, he spent the season moving up and down between Triple-A and the majors. He pitched in 16 games, 3 starts with a 7.24 ERA. In 2007, the Jays called him up to the majors to stay at the beginning of May. He made 27 starts, had a 12-10 record, and a 4.08 ERA. In 169.2 innings, he had 144 strikeouts.
We had a pretty decent rotation. Roy Halladay and A.J. Burnett were at the top of the rotation, and young pitchers McGowan, Shaun Marcum, and Jesse Litsch filled the other spots. The future looked bright.
In 2008, Dustin made 19 starts and had a 4.37. He came out of the game after four innings of his start on July 8th. He had an MRI the next day and would have surgery to repair a frayed labrum. They expected him to return in 2009, but his recovery was slower. Then, when he could start throwing, he hurt his knee. In 2010, they found a torn rotator cuff.
He would pitch in the majors again in September 2011. He made five starts, had a 6.43 ERA, and we thought he might return from the endless injuries. Unfortunately, there were more shoulder troubles at the beginning of the 2012 season after signing a 2-year contract extension for $3 million.
Dustin made it back to the majors again in June of 2013. It was a pretty emotional moment. I remember standing and cheering at home. He would make 25 relief appearances with a 2.45 ERA with 12 walks and 26 strikeouts in 25.2 innings. We were hopeful again.
McGowan started the 2014 season in the Jays’ rotation. He made 8 starts and had a 5.08 ERA, but they decided he should return to the bullpen. He made 45 relief appearances and had a 3.35 ERA, holding batters to a .215/.284/.405 batting line. We thought we had a closer future.
After the season, the Jays declined his $4 million option, an understandable decision, and he left as a free agent. He bounced around, Dodgers, Phillies, Marlins, Rays, and Marlins again. From 2015 to 2017, he pitched in 132 games with a 4.29 ERA. In 168 innings, he allowed 80 walks and had 148 strikeouts.
Dustin pitched in 10 seasons and had a 4.50 ERA in 290 games, 69 starts.
He’s among the hundreds of pitchers for whom we wonder, ‘What if?’.
Happy Birthday, Dustin. I hope it is a good one.
Former Blue Jays pitcher/TV and radio analyst/author Dirk Hayhurst turns 44 today.
Dirk made 15 appearances for the Blue Jays in 2009 and pitched 22.2 innings, posting a 2.78 ERA. His ERA is misleading, as he gave up a .274/.351/.417 batting line, but he wasn’t all that bad for a non-prospect.
More interestingly, after writing several posts for Baseball America titled Non-Prospect Diary, he authored four books.
The first was the Bullpen Gospels. Hugo gave it a rave review back in 2010. From the review:
The Bullpen Gospels is hilarious, touching, unflinching in its honesty, and unapologetic in its basic decency. Major league athletes are expected to be confident to the point of arrogance – in fact, we think of it as essential to their success — but in Gospels, the author turns a hard, narrow focus on his own self-doubt. The hilarious minor-league antics and touching tales of stepping out of his uniform to act like a real person, I had come to expect from Hayhurst’s “Non-Prospect Diary”, but I wasn’t prepared for the raw honesty regarding offseason life back in Ohio or the nagging self-doubt that regularly accompanied the pitcher everywhere, including the mound.
If you haven’t read it, you really should. It remains one of my favourite baseball books of all time.
2012’s Out of My League was similar, with perhaps even more ‘raw honesty.’ We reviewed it back here, and there is some stuff about his family (they seem to be people you wouldn’t want to meet). Plus, there are some about his soon-to-be wife (he married above his level, like many of us) and a fair bit about the depression of having a significant league dream come true, only for it to go poorly from the review.
Perhaps the funniest bit in the book is the conversation he and his mom have when she phones him, waking him up and telling him how proud she was to see him on ESPN SportsCenter’s highlights. The highlight? He gave up a big home run to Manny Ramirez. She does not understand why he’s not thrilled to be on national TV. It is hilarious: a proud mom, excited that she saw her son on TV and a son who wishes he could curl up and die.
His third book, Bigger Than the Game, focused on his second season in the Blue Jays organization. I said in my review that it was my favourite of the three. He talks about the depression that goes along with rehabbing an injury, how teammates reacted to his first book coming out, and, as always, is filled with his terrific sense of humour.
The books could be turned into a good movie.
After leaving the game as a player, Dirk worked as a TV analyst (sometimes alongside Gregg Zaun). He was good in the role, but his honesty ruffled some feathers. J.P. Arencibia, in particular, wasn’t a fan. So after the TV job ended, he worked in radio for a couple of seasons, but now he is out of broadcasting. Again, I don’t think Dirk did well in the political end of broadcasting.
Happy Birthday, Dirk. I hope it is a good one.