AJC > Sports > Columnists > Archives > 2007 > May > 25 > Entry
DEL.ICIO.USMoylan delivers the tonic to pick up bullpen
The Atlanta Journal-Constitution
Furman Bisher
Don’t let the word get around, but the Braves have a drug dealer in their bullpen. I mean the real stuff, cough syrup, aspirin, vitamins, muscle rub and such, but not a lot that would get Bud Selig’s attention. Remember when Rafael Palmeiro was the poster boy for Viagara, another drug store product?
Actually, Peter Moylan was a pharmaceuticals salesman for about three years, mainly to support his baseball habit in Australia. Baseball in Australia? The Melbourne Roos? The Brisbane Bombers? A lot of us had no idea the Aussies had taken up our national pastime. Just as likely to find baseball on Mars.
Well, let me tell you, they’ve been playing baseball in Australia since 1879, some form of it. They have their own version of the World Series, called the Claxton Shield. It was a long time developing. It had a lot of competition, and still has — Australian football, cricket, rugby, tennis, even our own U.S. golf champion is an Aussie. Baseball plodded along, but a few of their prize exports began dropping in on us in 1986, when Craig Shipley came up with the Padres after schooling at Alabama. A few others came along in driblets. The Brewers brought in a battery, Dave Nilsson, the catcher, in 1992, and Graeme Lloyd, the pitcher, the next year. Of the Aussies, only Nilsson finally made headlines back Down Under when he played for the American side in the All-Star Game in 1999.
But today we deal with the dealer. He isn’t the Braves’ first Australian pitcher. Damian Moss came before, won 12 games one season, then was traded to the Giants in the Russ Ortiz deal and has drifted out of sight. You need an atlas to track Moylan’s route to the Braves. If it had not been for that so-called World Baseball Classic two springs ago, we probably would never have heard of him. But this is not his first trip to the United States.
He was offered a full scholarship to Georgia Southern in his youth. You see, the Braves chief scout, on what is known as the Eastern Rim, is Phil Dale, who schooled at GSU. Instead, Moylan signed with Minnesota and spent two seasons in Fort Myers, a rookie league farm. That was in the mid-90s. He never surfaced again in this country until 2006, pitching, playing anywhere for Team Australia. In fact, Peter was an infielder first, then began moving all about. Down Under, you play anywhere they decide they need you. He did pitch one inning in the WBC against Venezuela, and struck out three major leaguers, including Bobby Abreu.
“Phil Dale had seen me pitch before, but he hadn’t seen me pitch against guys who could really hit,” Moylan said.
By this time, he had completely reconstructed his delivery, dropped his arm and developed a natural sinker. “I throw it 95 percent of the time. I had shoulder surgery that made it natural for me.”
It was in between seasons that he became a pharmaceuticals salesman. “Three years I did it, while I was playing club ball. Club baseball is what we play in Australia,” he said. “Our team was the Blackburn Orioles, and our colors were almost the same as Baltimore’s.”
He is a quite sociable sort who turns the Braves clubhouse into a personal refuge. It isn’t an easy life, with a wife and a 6-year-old daughter — and another offspring on the way — on the other side of the world. When the Braves offered him a shot at Richmond after the WBC, he jumped at it. The Australia National roster listed him as a first baseman, pitcher second. But he was a different pitcher now than the one who toiled in Fort Myers, with his readjusted sidearm delivery.
“I’m a pretty good hitter,” he said, quite modestly. He can put his bat away here. He has had one time at bat as a Brave. He struck out.
Coming out of the bullpen, though, he has given the Braves what they were looking for. “We were a little worried about his delivery against left-handed batters,” manager Bobby Cox said, but his concern has abated. “He throws that sinkerball, and it sinks just as much to left-handers as to right-handers.”
It got a few laughs when the word got around that the Braves had signed a drug salesman out of Australia. Well, the snickers have stopped. A shrinking earned run average will do that for a fellow. He’s 28 years old and the Braves seem to have discovered a worthy property. After all, you’re talking about an Aussie who has known what it’s like to play in the Claxton Shield.
Permalink | Comments (2) | Post your comment | Categories: Braves / MLB, Furman Bisher
Comments
By Coach
May 25, 2007 10:33 PM | Link to this
Anybody who comes from a country that can take a word like beer and turn it into BEEEEEEAAAAA is alright with me !
By Marc
May 26, 2007 12:27 PM | Link to this
Yay for Moylan!