(#19)
During the 1989 season at Hinds, a converted side-winding closer named Mark Anders from Ouachita Christian High School in Monroe, Louisiana, pitched in 35 of our 54 games, won eleven games (11 wins and 2 losses), saved a HCC record nine games (a record broken by my son Josh twenty years later), had an earned run average of 1.75, and helped lead the Eagles to divisional, state, regional, and district championships, and a berth in the JUCO World Series in Grand Junction, Colorado.
Hinds was the first Mississippi team to win the Eastern District Tournament, the first Mississippi team to play in the JUCO World Series and the first and still the only Mississippi team to do all five things (division, state, region, district, JUCO World Series) in a single season.
In the Eastern District Tournament in Greenville, South Carolina, Anders pitched in all five tournament games, with four of the five being elimination, must-win games.
This included game 2 of the tournament when Mark, the closer, was called on to save the third inning in an elimination game against the host team, North Greenville. He pitched 6 1/3 innings, allowing no hits, no walks, no runs and picked up a 4-3 win to keep us alive in the tournament.
Mark was one of the many players on the ’89 team who had career years which made all those championships happen.
He became a side-armer and a closer after I heard the legendary LSU head baseball coach Skip Bertman speak at a coaches clinic. He said, “Before you give up on a pitcher, try dropping his arm angle a few slots first.“
Mark threw about about 78 mph from his original three-quarters delivery and was just not going to get many starts during the season. At best, he would play a marginal role.
Unlike most others who drop their arm angle, Mark looked like he had been pitching that way his whole life. He was a natural and his velocity actually increased to about 84 mph. He also developed a lot of late movement in the new slot. The pitches sizzled and he broke a lot of aluminum bats.
One thing’s for certain, he would not have been the closer if he had not complied and been coachable.
But without that arm angle adjustment, the 35 appearances, the 11 wins and 9 saves, and that perfect 6 1/3 innings against Greenville, we simply could not and would not have a chance to accomplish the history making things this team achieved.
He told me years later that he had rotator cuff surgery and never pitched again. I told him that most pitchers would never experience the success and accomplish the things he did in the spring of 1989.
I told him the fact that he and his wife Christy had five children proved that we didn’t “hurt the essentials.” He reminded me they only have three kids. I said, “Whatever! You’re missing the point.”
The moral: 1) Things happen for a reason. Be coachable and do anything to help your team win. 2) If you wear out a pitcher in the Eastern District Tournament, he might not be able to pitch in the JUCO World Series. 3) But if you don’t win the close games in the Eastern District Tournament, if you don’t work you way through the loser’s bracket and win four straight elimination games, if you don’t do everything you can, you won’t even be in Grand Junction, Colorado and certainly won’t be playing and pitching in the JUCO World Series.
We did it! We did it first!
Thanks Mark. You definitely made a difference. You sacrificed your rotator cuff for your team. You left your mark in the history of our baseball program at Hinds and you have those memories and those arthroscopic scars on your shoulder to remind you of Hinds.
Rick Clarke's Diary of a Mad Baseball Coach 