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Wednesday, August 6, 2008

Hampton wins, remains uninjured!

By David O'Brien | Wednesday, August 6, 2008, 03:49 PM

The Atlanta Journal-Constitution

San Francisco — Twelve hours after recording his first win in three years, Mike Hampton’s body was still intact, with no apparent strains or pulls or contusions.

As Tim Hudson said last week, miracles happen (just not the one Hudson was hoping for; Hudson will have Tommy John elbow surgery Friday in Pensacola, where Dr. James Andrews has his new clinic).

But in regards to Hampton, the day he and the Braves had waited so long for finally arrived Tuesday, when the lefty looked a lot like his old self in pitching seven strong innings (four hits, two runs, one walk) in 90 pitches.

It’s been a while, folks. Nine days shy of the third anniversary of his last win. But that happens when you go 35 months between starts, as Hampton did while recovering from two elbow surgeries and blah blah blah (look up the injury history if you need to).

Everyone I talked to last night and this morning sounded genuinely pleased and relieved for Hampton. They really do like the guy, who was never anything remotely like a clubhouse cancer or even a problem, which some outside observers have speculated he’d become due to his long and winding recovery road, that included three setbacks this season, each time just before what would have been his first start.

Anyway, the players and coaches who’ve seen him working out these past three years, and talked to him about the heat he’s taken from many including some of us in the media, say Hampton was just unlucky.

“He certainly didn’t try to hurt,” Kelly Johnson said. “He’s taken so much heat for his contract, which is ridiculous.”

By ridiculous, Kelly meant the heat he’s taken for the contract, not the contract itself, though that eight-year, $121 million deal that Colorado gave him back was ridiculous, too. That was back when $121 million was $121 million. (That sentence was written with sarcasm.)

Anyway, some have asked, so to clarify: Hampton is a free agent after the season. That option year on his contract for 2009 was bought out, with Colorado picking up the $6 mill buyout as part of the complicated three-team trade that sent Hampton to the Braves after the 2002 season.

(My guess is that if he makes it through the rest of the season healthy, he’ll end up signing a one-year contract with someone, perhaps with an option year attached, and probably for something like $1 mill. But I’m just guessing. Maybe if he pitches like he did last night for the next seven weeks, he could get more, but after three years of injuries and two elbow surgeries, I kind of doubt it.)

(Oh, and will the Braves try to re-sign him? Don’t know. You won’t get an answer from them on that, not right now. Nothing to be gained by saying if they feel strongly one way or the other on that one, not when he’s still got eight or nine starts to potentially make the rest of this season.)

Anyway, when I told Hampton after last night’s win that it was time to negotiate a new deal, he laughed and said, “I ain’t going to go there yet. Just gonna get ready for the Diamondbacks and go from there.”

Make no mistake, this is a guy who’s not looking ahead past his next start, and he says that’s the way he’ll be from now on, given what it’s taken to get back.

“There’s always been some doubt, with all the stuff I’ve been through, with all the health issues, you definitely start doubting a little bit,” he said. “But I kept pushing and kept working to get to this point one day.

“That’s all I could do. Pretty much three years of rehab that I’ve went through has been for this day. And now that it’s come and gone, I can kind of refocus and set some new goals.”

I asked him when he could remember a win that was as important as last night’s.

“They’re all important,” he said. “That’s one thing I’ve learned through this whole process — don’t take anything for granted. Cherish each one of them. And I’ll do that from here on out.”

So anyway, when we went to check on Hampton this morning, to make sure the limbs were intact and he was still planning to pitch again Sunday against Arizona, I also had to ask him about his hitting.

Dude has two doubles and three RBI in his past two games (not to pile on Francoeur, but the right fielder has two extra-base hits, both doubles, in his past 15 games).

Hampton was regarded as the best-hitting pitcher in baseball during his heyday, and has a .243 career average with 21 doubles, five triples, 15 homers and 71 RBI in 670 at-bats.

But how could a 35-year-old pitcher maintain any semblance of a hitting stroke during three years away from major league games, three years in which the only hitting he did whatsoever was a few at-bats in spring training and in a couple of rehab starts this season.

“Just lucky. Just see it and swing at it,” he said. “We’ll see the next start. If I can get a hit off that guy, I need to be playing every day.”

He was referring to Arizona ace Brandon Webb, who he’s scheduled to face in Sunday’s series finale at Phoenix.

“Seriously, if I get a hit off him, I’m gonna suggest I play every day,” Hampton cracked. “That guy’s dirty.”

Then someone reminded Hampton that him playing every day would be a recipe for disaster in terms of injuries. “Yeah, I’d just need someone to tag and run for me,” he said. “Didn’t Babe Ruth do that?”

OK, we’ve got a game to play, folks. And as we start this series finale on this gorgeous, sunny, 62-degree day by the Bay, let’s have a tune. A baseball tune, about one of my boyhood heroes, Jim “Catfish” Hunter, who used to toe the slab on the other side of San Francisco Bay, in Oakland.

”CATFISH” by Bob Dylan

Lazy stadium night

Catfish on the mound.

“Strike three,” the umpire said,

Batter have to go back and sit down.