Phillies: A Fesh Face in the Bullpen

by Mark Bechtel, Sports Illustrated

CLEARWATER, Fla. -- Sportswriters tend to be a cynical bunch, with baseball beat writers being especially jaded. I guess covering the same guys for 162 games is going to breed a little contempt. So it was quite refreshing to roll into Phillies camp and hear the scribes who follow the team talk about what a fun team this is to cover.
The Phils are a young, mostly mediocre bunch, but they play as hard as any team in the majors, and their clubhouse chemistry is fantastic. They've got a talented kid at every position except left field, where they're trying to groom the top pick from the 1998 draft, slugger Pat Burrell , to take over. However, their starting pitching, with the obvious exception of Curt Schilling, is awfully suspect, meaning that Philly won't pose a serious threat to the Braves and Mets in the NL East.

One guy looking to make the staff as a lefthanded setup man is a 26-year-old named Sean Fesh. He missed most of 1996 (in the Padres minor league system) after having Tommy John surgery. Then he was dealt to the Mets, who released him following the 1997 season, which he spent at Double-A. No major-league team showed an interest in him, so Fesh found himself faced with the prospect of finding real work. He was living with his parents in Connecticut, and he started calling any team that would listen to him. He offered to fly anywhere at his own expense just to get a tryout. He explained that he had started throwing sidearm, and that his new motion had increased his velocity and movement. Still, no one was willing to give him a chance.

Fesh started giving pitching lessons at a local batting cage to high school kids and 40-year-old men. Every day he would come home and immediately look at the answering machine. "It seemed like there were always three messages: two hangups and a courtesy call," he says. "You know, 'Thanks, but no thanks.' "

Then last May, Fesh and his father drove to Scranton, Pa., to see a few of Sean's former minor league teammates, who were playing for Ottawa. Fesh spotted Dallas Green, who had recently returned to the Phillies front office, and walked up and asked for a tryout. Green told him he'd have to call the Phillies to see if it was OK, and to come back in the seventh inning. When Fesh returned, Green gave him his chance. A few days later, Fesh worked out for the Phils, and on Mother's Day the team offered him a minor-league contract. Fesh responded by posting a 1.36 ERA at Double-A Reading with nine saves and 41 strikeouts in 33 innings. The Phils added him to their 40-man roster in October, and he will probably start the season in Triple-A.

Fesh struggled in the Arizona Fall League, but this spring I've seen him repeatedly make hitters look silly during live BP. With the Phillies' pitching as thin as it is, there's a decent chance he'll make his first major-league appearance sometime this season. Why the perseverance? "I'm not going to stop playing this game until they rip this jersey off me," he says.

It's hard not to root for a guy like that.