PEORIA, Ariz. – Joel Pineiro remembers “the talk” from several years ago, when he was a teen-ager.
So does Gil Meche.
And so do dozens of young men who have experienced a yearly event so important around the Seattle Mariners’ spring training camp that the club waits for just the right time to have it.
It’s the annual facts-of-life speech given to the Mariners’ minor league pitchers by the club’s patriarch of pitching, Jamie Moyer.
The Mariners’ veteran left-hander made the trip to the other side of the clubhouse again this week, spending an hour with ballplayers who hope to be in his shoes someday.
“He’s absolutely tremendous. I’d get him here every day if he could do it,” said Pat Rice, the Mariners’ minor league pitching coordinator. “I like to have him do it as close to the time before we leave here because after Jamie talks to them, the guys are ready to get the season going.”
About 80 minor league pitchers, ranging in age from 17 to 31, listened to Moyer. Some heard him for the first time; others have attended this session a half-dozen times.
And all of them were riveted.
“The older ones who have heard him before were just as locked in to what Jamie was saying as anyone else,” Rice said.
Moyer told them more than how to grip a circle changeup or what pitch to throw Alex Rodriguez with the bases loaded and one out.
“I just tell them to do what they’ve done to get here, to stay within themselves,” Moyer said. “I talk to them about the mental side of things, to listen to the people around them and not be afraid to experiment.”
He talked about pitches.
He talked about preparation.
He talked about being a professional on and off the field.
He talked for an hour and probably would have made it two had Rice not stopped him for his own good.
“He had his own work to get in,” Rice said.
Meche heard Moyer’s message in 1997 when he was a prospect preparing for his first full season with the Everett AquaSox.
“He knows it takes a lot of hard work to get to the big leagues,” Meche said. “And he tells them that once you get to the major leagues, you have to work harder.”
Pineiro, the Mariners’ No. 2 starter this year, heard Moyer for the first time in 1998.
“Everything he said made sense,” Pineiro said.
In honesty, Moyer isn’t telling the youngsters much more than they’ve heard already from coaches in the organization. But, like listening to their own mothers, the message means more sometimes when it comes from someone else.
“We can talk until we’re blue in the face, but when they hear it from Jamie it sticks,” Rice said. “They have grown up seeing him pitch.”
This year’s talk was similar to the past, with a few added touches, Rice said.
“He talked about preparation and trusting who you are,” he said. “He talked about trusting your stuff and not being afraid to use it.”
Moyer altered this year’s presentation to spark more two-way conversation, adding a Q-and-A segment.
They asked about his workout routine between starts. They asked about his pregame preparation. They asked, of course, about his changeup.
And none of the young pitchers appeared glassy-eyed or fidgety as the hour moved on.
“Sometimes you talk to kids for an hour like this and they start to nod off,” Rice said. “But Jamie has them all locked in listening to every word he says. It’s great for the organization, it’s great for the coaches, it’s great for the kids.
“They’re not awe-struck, but that’s because of the way he talks to them. He’s just Joe Everyday Guy and I think kids relate to that.”
Meche remembers.
“He’s the one guy who can talk for an hour on one topic and it’s all interesting,” Meche said. “You’ve got to be a pretty educated person first of all, just to be able to talk for an hour, period. I know I couldn’t do it.”
Meche said young pitchers listen to Moyer not only because he’s a veteran major leaguer, but also because they know of the difficult road he traveled to reach the major leagues and stay there.
“You’ve got a little more respect for guys who’ve been to the big leagues 15 years like that, especially a guy like Jamie who made it the way he did,” Meche said. “You’re going to listen. You want to get in his shoes and have a 15-year career. If you want to follow his footsteps, you’re going to pay attention to what he’s saying.”
Meche is still paying attention now that Moyer is his teammate with the Mariners.
“During the year if we’ve got problems, we can talk to him about it,” Meche said. “He’s very easy to talk to and he’s very easy to understand.
“When he goes down and talks to the minor leaguers, it proves that he cares about other people and not just about himself.”
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