careers most often formed through
ingenuity and desperation. The
LOOGY is the rare athlete who
could accept—and even embrace—
his physical limits, a player for
whom a major league lifestyle
would have been impossible if
not for a singular, extreme gift:
Night after night, with the game
on the line, he could get out the
opposing team’s best lefthanded
hitter, David slaying Goliath with
a 75 mph Frisbee.
That changes this season
(whenever this season may start).
As part of a series of rules put into
effect beginning this year, Major
League Baseball instituted a
three-batter minimum for pitchers.
The rule—which has exceptionsASK KELLY WUNSCH about the
four consecutive pitches that
changed his life 20 years ago,
and the lefthanded former relief
pitcher doesn’t hesitate.
Fastball away. Changeup.
Slider away. Slider away.
Strike. Strike. Ball. Strike.
Sit down, Barry Bonds.
“My parents were in the
stands, and I could hear my mom
squealing,” says Wunsch, who
played six seasons in the major
leagues and now is a real estate
agent and developer in Austin. Back
in spring training in 2000, though,
he was just another 27-year-old
career minor leaguer, a f lamed-out
former first-round pick desperately
trying to nab a bullpen role with
the White Sox. “One inning earlier,
I was sitting in the bullpen in
Scottsdale, wondering if my career
was over. If I didn’t get that call, if
I didn’t get to throw to the greatest
lefthanded hitter ever, if I didn’t
get him out, my world would be
completely different.”
Instead, Wunsch’s life as a
lefthanded one-out guy—a
LOOGY, in the inimitable parlance
of the game—had just begun.
Not only did he make the Sox’
roster, he also led the bigs in
appearances in 2000, with 83.Every LOOGY has an origin
story. Randy Choate put together
672 major league appearances
(amounting to just 408 innings)
after the failed former minor
league starting pitcher scrapped
his overhand arm slot, dropped to
a side-arm delivery, and started
dominating lefthanded batters.
Will Ohman was a walk-on at
Pepperdine when the southpaw
tried a slider grip during a game
of catch and threw as hard as he
could. “The ball took a righthand
turn,” says Ohman, who logged
483 appearances and 353 innings
over 10 seasons. “Things changed
for me after that.”
LOOGY’s have never been the
most gifted of athletes, their16 SPORTS ILLUSTRATED
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