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Can't keep Arnsberg down

Published March 25, 2004

 

 

DUNEDIN ? There's still a hint of an early morning breeze as an elderly couple on bicycles make their way through the Toronto Blue Jays' minor league complex.

 

"Beautiful day," the man tells his wife. "Who's over on Diamond 1?"

 

The tall fellow there in the middle of a group of kid pitchers? Black jersey. Number 38 on his broad back?

 

That would be a good man putting his shattered career back together.

 

"This game is supposed to be fun, boys," Brad Arnsberg says in that unmistakable rasp. "Relax and enjoy yourselves out there. Let your stuff work for you."

 

Fifteen eager faces gather around the new pitching coach of the Triple-A Syracuse Chiefs, soaking up every bit of knowledge he is willing to share. Which, of course, is every last drop.

 

"I've seen the best in the world," Arnsberg tells them, the words tumbling out rapid fire. "I'm talking about guys like [Edgardo]Alfonzo and [Jim] Edmonds."

 

Fifteen dreamers nod in unison. They stand in rapt attention.

 

"Take that persona out there, boys," the former Marlins pitching coach says. "You give up a bomb, you get your a-- back up on that mound and stand tall."

 

A little more than 10 months ago, Arnsberg got knocked out of the box in a way he'd never experienced before. His May 10 firing, along with that of Marlins manager Jeff Torborg, made national headlines.

 

A.J. Burnett had undergone reconstructive elbow surgery less than two weeks earlier, and the pundits were blaming his handlers for that. Josh Beckett had just landed on the disabled list with elbow problems of his own, and that turned out to be the last straw.

 

"I knew we were gone after that," Arnsberg says.

 

Word quickly spread that Arnsberg hadn't just been fired. He had gone out with guns blazing in a late-night shouting match at his apartment with Marlins General Manager Admin Beinfest.

 

"Bordering on violent," Beinfest called him the next day.

 

It was the sort of phrase that had "blackball" written all over it. Back home in Texas, Arnsberg waited and wondered along with his wife, Shelley, and their sons, Kyle and Kaden.

 

"It was a pretty big deal when it happened," says Blue Jays pitching prospect David Bush, who was in the Florida State League at the time. "You hear about that stuff."

 

Arnsberg turned 40, the season ended and he was still without a job. For a while it looked like the San Diego Padres would hire him at Triple-A Portland, close to his boyhood home, but an expected opening evaporated.

 

Finally, about five months after his dismissal, Blue Jays farm director Dick Scott let his old friend know there was a job waiting. Nothing was announced until all 30 clubs had their big-league pitching coaches in place, but the lifeline had been extended.

 

"I just think it's going to benefit our pitchers to have somebody that's been in the big leagues, especially recently," says Scott, who played three seasons with Arnsberg in the Yankees organization back in the mid-'80s. "I think he's got a very good knack of reading pitchers and also has excellent communication skills."

 

Scott didn't even ask his old friend about the circumstances of his firing.

 

"I know what we're getting," Scott says. "That doesn't concern me at all. That's old history as far as I'm concerned."

 

Back in the minors for the first time in five years, Arnsberg hasn't just been handed a blank canvas with the Jays. He is being entrusted with some of their finest young arms.

 

Bush, Dustin McGowan and Jason Arnold are just a few of the highly touted pitchers who will attend finishing school at Camp Arnie. If there is any apprehension on their part, it has yet to surface.

 

"Even with all the stuff that came down last year, most of the players still said good things about him," Bush says. "They were upset with the fact he was let go. The fact he got hired this quickly afterward speaks to the fact he knows what he's doing."

 

Indeed, Arnsberg remains close with a number of Marlins pitchers. Burnett has called him several times this spring to ask him questions about his comeback from Tommy John surgery, which Arnsberg himself underwent a decade and a half ago.

 

When it came time to divvy up postseason bonuses, Marlins players voted Arnberg a quarter share, or about $50,000 after taxes. After Beckett's clinching victory in Game 6 of the World Series, one of the first calls made from the raucous clubhouse was to Arnsberg's cell phone.

 

He still hasn't seen the game, having gone out to dinner with Shelley and some friends that night. In fact, Arnsberg didn't watch a single one of the Marlins' 17 postseason games.

 

Too painful, he says.

 

"It's been a great ego boost to join an organization like this," he says. "Everything about it is run in a professional manner. You know how sometimes you have to take a step back to go forward? Well, I took about three steps back in Florida."

 

Now he's back up on that mound, standing tall.

A REAL interview would ask tough questions and ask about what happened that night. I am sure Berardino knows but is unwilling to divulge the details for some reason. I dont know why this jackass is so bent on depicting the Marlins as evil, and I am sure he was cut out of the loop with the Torborg mess last year. But Loria has remained friends with Torborg. I dont get this obsession with doing pieces on former Marlins and always trying to get a jab back at the Marlins. Arnsberg took 3 steps back with Florida? Right, he had a great opportunity there - perhaps one of the best in all of baseball for a pitching coach - and for whatever reason he blew it.

Exactly, that writer is horrible.

thats pretty lame ... he says hes still close to some of the marlins pitchers yet he didnt watch a single postseason game ... woah ... screw you Arnsberg. :censored

He's not a horrible writer, in fact he is good wordsmith, he just happens to be a writer with an agenda, who with his own words, has painted himself into a corner with the Marlins FO and is at war with them.

 

Personally I blame both sides although the most visible manifestation comes from Berardino. The Marlins should have resolved what happened (Mike being frozen out of the story) quickly and admitted their wrongdoing. Instead they issued an edict that said in so many words to employees of the front office, "if you speak with Berardino, you're fired".

 

I'm not being an apologist for Berardino, he has gone way overboard in dissing the Fish. He has, with forethought, sought to embarrass and humliate the franchise every opportunity he's had, in fact he's invented opportunities, like this one, just to make the Marlins look bad. Does anyone in South Florida really care, or even think about Arnsberg anymore?

 

Blame also should be laid at the feet of his editor who continues to allow him to focus his anger in the way he does. Obviously the Sun-Sentinel at least tacitly approves of what Mike is doing.

 

So there's plenty of blame to go around - the Fish, the Sun-Sentinel and Berardino himself. It's a shame because a year ago Mike was the biggest Marlins supporter in the media, now he's their biggest detractor.

I do not see this so negative. There is no denial of the " bordering on violent " comment. There is no denial of the fact that the pitchers did not progress under his watch (note how they progressed under rosenthal). And there is no denying the fact that a few of the pitchers got hurt on his watch.

 

Can anyone with half a brain blame the Marlins for him not getting a big league job?

I'm not being an apologist for Berardino, he has gone way overboard in dissing the Fish. He has, with forethought, sought to embarrass and humliate the franchise every opportunity he's had, in fact he's invented opportunities, like this one, just to make the Marlins look bad. Does anyone in South Florida really care, or even think about Arnsberg anymore?

i really doubt that many people in south florida even know who Arnsberg is.... i do agree that its a cheapshot at the marlins organization ... the article really has no point.

I do not see this so negative. There is no denial of the " bordering on violent " comment. There is no denial of the fact that the pitchers did not progress under his watch (note how they progressed under rosenthal). And there is no denying the fact that a few of the pitchers got hurt on his watch.

 

Can anyone with half a brain blame the Marlins for him not getting a big league job?

 

gobucks, I think the more significant comment was the implication that the Marlins attempted to "blackball" him. It's unsaid but implied.