Patrolling the Comiskey Park outfield during batting practice, Mike Pazik didn’t quite seem at home–not yet, anyway. After three and a half years serving as White Sox general manager Ron Schueler’s special assistant, Pazik returned to uniform last week as the team’s pitching coach–the third person to hold the hot-seat position this long, troubled season. He has a hunched-shoulders appearance, and last Saturday night–his second day on the job–he could still be seen introducing himself and shaking hands with pitchers shagging flies during BP. A left-handed pitcher during his career, he wore his glove on his right hand with an air of distracted discomfort–the way a stockbroker in a three-piece suit might carry an umbrella on a sunny day. Nevertheless, when he came off the field he was cheerful and pleasant and eager to talk about the craft of pitching in general and the White Sox in particular.
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Indeed it might. At the time, Pazik was sitting in the afterglow of a new job and an excellent outing the night before by de facto staff ace Alex Fernandez. Fernandez had gone seven innings and given up only two Oakland runs to earn his sixth win against eight losses. Though the bull pen struggled a bit–Kirk McCaskill surrendered three late runs as the Sox lumbered home 13-5–Sox pitchers allowed only three walks for the game. Considering that the Sox were first–that is last–in the majors with 440 walks in 836 innings going into the game, this was a marked improvement that for a day made Pazik look like a genius. Saturday night, however, retread Dave Righetti allowed two walks in five innings (and ten hits, including five in a row in the third inning) and reliever Jose DeLeon followed with three in an inning plus, as the A’s swamped the Sox 8-2. Welcome back, Mr. Pazik.
How can a pitching coach be aggressive? “You’re more aggressive in how you approach your pitchers, as far as when you talk to them you have to be honest,” Pazik said. “You can’t say things and turn around and say something else to them. So I have to be honest so they know what’s going on. And if I don’t think some things are right I’m going to tell them some things aren’t right.”
“In all seriousness, I learned the most from other pitchers,” Pazik said. “No one in particular, just watching guys and how they deal with the opposition and how they go about their business.” If there was one pitcher who helped Pazik along it was Ray Bare, a journeyman with the Saint Louis Cardinals and the Detroit Tigers in the 70s. “He really simplified the game as far as pitching is concerned, mechanics,” Pazik said. “He made it very simple. He made it easy to understand. He helped me a lot as far as using what I had. So I try to use some of his basic, fundamental principles when I talk to kids.”
