Buehrle Won't be Overlooked Again

Stan McNeal - SportingNews.com

Mark Buehrle threw a fastball in the ninth inning of his perfect game Thursday that was clocked at 91 mph.

That's average by major league standards, but it's pretty much all the heat Buehrle can bring, as he readily admits.

Because Buehrle doesn't throw a 95-mph fastball, he has made all of us so-called experts look kind of silly. For years when the topic of baseball's best pitchers has been debated, he rarely has made the conversation.

Sporting News has been as negligent as everyone. Buehrle, a 30-year-old lefthander for the Chicago White Sox, didn't sniff our top 50 player rankings, as voted on by 100 former players.

He didn't make my top 50, either. He didn't even come up in the "close calls."

That should not have happened then, and certainly won't happen again --not in my world, anyway. Too bad he had to throw a perfect game to wake me up. This was not against a weak-hitting team, either. Buehrle was perfect against the American League champion Tampa Bay Rays, who have scored the third-most runs in the majors.

With Thursday's gem in the books, let's update his resume:

• Buehrle is the sixth pitcher in history to throw two no-hitters, with one of them a perfecto. He is the only active pitcher under the age of 45 with two no-hitters.

• Buehrle has pitched most of his career in the bandbox known as U.S. Cellular Field yet he has a 3.78 ERA.

• Since his first full season, 2001, Buehrle has more wins than any pitcher in the A.L. not named Roy Halladay. With Thursday's victory, Buehrle has now reached double-digit wins for nine consecutive seasons. He also is on pace for his ninth consecutive season of 200-plus innings, including two when he led the league. He never has been on the disabled list.

• Buehrle has helped the White Sox win a World Series and he has saved a World Series game. He is a four-time All-Star, and started and won the '05 All-Star Game.

• He also is a baseball writer's best friend because he works fast. He once pitched beat the Mariners 2-1 in an hour and 39 minutes. Thursday's perfecto was complete two hours and three minutes. He takes the ball and he throws it. He once told me he goes entire games without shaking off his catcher.

At his postgame news conference, Buehrle said he didn't shake off Ramon Castro on Thursday, and this was the first time Castro caught him.

Earlier this season, Buehrle was taking so little time between pitchers that the Indians' Victor Martinez looked out from the batter's box, smiled and stepped out, as if to say, slow down big guy.

So how does the 30-year-old from St. Charles, Mo., defy all those who think you have to throw 95 to dominate?

He relies on smarts, command and a variety of pitches. Against Tampa Bay, he found his curveball and changeup were working so he hardly used his cut fastball.

"If I throw 100 pitches, 30-35 (usually) are cutters," Buehrle said. "I probably threw five today."

The key against the Rays, according to manager Ozzie Guillen: "He throws strikes."

Best of all, if Buehrle were any more of a regular guy, you'd have to call him Beaver Cleaver.

Traditionally, teammates stay as far away as possible from a pitcher when he's working on a no-hitter. Not with Buehrle. He said he was walking around the dugout and joking throughout the game, most often with his regular catcher, A.J. Pierzynski, who was given the day off. Buehrle said he just wants to stay out of camera's view.

Most starting pitchers make themselves off limits to the media on days they work. Not Buehrle. He is as approachable and as friendly as your next-door neighbor. His laid-back ways work in his favor because he never tightens in a big moment.

Before the 2009 All-Star Game in St. Louis, Buehrle was asked if he thought President Obama, a White Sox fan, would single him out when he visited the clubhouses. Buehrle responded by saying he wondered if the president even knew who he was.

Well, Buehrle got his photo taken during the president's visit.

Thursday, Buehrle got a congratulatory phone call. Let's hope the president realized he was talking to one of the game's best pitchers, even if he doesn't throw 95 mph.

Stan McNeal is a staff writer for Sporting News. E-mail him at smcneal@sportingnews.com.

----

More baseball news

More sport news

Sports home

Copyright 2009 by SportingNews.com