Last edited Thu Jul 24, 2025, 12:23 AM - Edit history (1)
I didn't even think of rehab games. Sa Tommy John once. The Modesto A's (California League) were in Salinas, so he flew in, pitched three innings, signed ome autographs, then flew up to Oakland. It was scheduled as a regular mid-week night game, but was switched to a day game to accommodate his schedule. There were only like two days' notice of this, so the attendance was like 300.
In '86, I think, we signed Steve Howe to like 30-day contract for his fifth or sixth attempt to come back from drug abuse. Baseball America contacted the ball club to see if they could get photos from his first appearance, which meant me. Among all the shots of him pitching, I got one of him looking up and out of the end of the dugout, as if someone in the stands had caught his intrest. The sky was overcast, so the lighting was very even, and he looked positively angelic. Baseball America ran that one two columns -- my only national publication.
(Later, in he harsher light of the clubhouse, you could see in his face the effects of his cocaine abuse. It was like he was suddenly 10 years older.)
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