Mark Connor, a baseball lifer to his core, had managed to avoid the itch for two years.
As a special assistant in the player development department of the Texas Rangers, he was doing what he loved most: working with young pitchers, tutoring coaches and being around the game. A return to a big league dugout wasn't overly enticing -- until he found himself at Ameriquest Field in Arlington, Texas, late last October for Game 4 of the World Series.
"During the course of two years, that was the only time that I really thought about it and wished I was there," said Connor, who went to the game with his 25-year-old son, Ryan, who had never been to a World Series. "Sitting there and seeing that team in that dugout, that got your blood flowing a little bit."
When his old friend, Orioles manager Buck Showalter, came calling this offseason with an offer to reunite once again, Connor had to think long and hard about it. For a while, he avoided Showalter's calls. But the lure -- both of working again with Showalter and applying his influence to a young big league pitching staff -- proved too great.
Of all the new additions the Orioles made this offseason, the hiring of Connor to serve as the pitching coach could perhaps become one of the most important ones. The 61-year-old, who has worked with Roy Halladay, Randy Johnson and Curt Schilling, has inherited the difficult task of trying to mold the Orioles' cadre of young pitchers, the backbone of the organization's rebuilding effort, into a championship-level staff.
Four games into the season, Orioles starters have allowed just two runs and 12 hits in 26 innings, the staff as a whole has set a team record and tied a major league mark by allowing one or zero runs in each of the first four games. Not one to get carried away with a small sample size, Connor has said all along that the development of the young starters remains a work in progress.
Showalter was pleased with the work of former Orioles pitching coach Rick Kranitz, whose staff last year was at the forefront of the team's late-season turnaround. However, his bond with Connor, who has been his pitching coach at all four of his major league managerial stops, is deep, and his trust in him is unshakeable.
"He's like the grandfather of time for pitching," said Showalter, who first met Connor when he was a player for the New York Yankees' Triple-A affiliate in Columbus, Ohio, and Connor was their pitching coach. "I loved Kranny. I would have brought him back. I just know where we are as an organization from a development standpoint. You look at that Texas staff, that's Mark. He just likes to impact young pitchers. He'll have a great relationship with these kids. He's just very calming, and he cares a lot."
About a month into spring training, Connor and bullpen coach Rick Adair summoned the Orioles' young starters into a conference room for a lengthy closed-door meeting in which back-and-forth dialogue was encouraged. He discussed the ups and downs of several of his high-profile former students, like Halladay, who was demoted from the majors to Single-A ball at one point under Connor's watch. He stressed accountability and urged the young starters to mature together and seize the opportunity at hand.
It's a message that the Brooklyn native, nicknamed "Goose" -- he got the moniker while throwing batting practice near Goose Creek when he was the pitching coach for the Yankees' Single-A affiliate in Greensboro, N.C. -- has delivered as an advocate for so many pitchers throughout baseball.
"I haven't met anybody that doesn't like Goose," said Rangers bullpen coach Andy Hawkins, who pitched for Connor with the Yankees and later replaced him as the Rangers' interim pitching coach. "As a coach, he's outstanding, and as a person, everybody holds him in high regard. Goose is a guy that needs to stay in the game as long as we can keep him."
A strong resume
The Orioles' new pitching coach's list of success stories includes Tommy John, who added about three years onto his career after Connor suggested a change in his delivery, and Halladay, who rebounded under Connor from a ghastly 2000 season in which he had a 10.64 ERA in 19 games. The Philadelphia Phillies ace has since won two Cy Young Awards, and he publicly thanked Connor, his former pitching coach in Toronto, after throwing a no-hitter in his playoff opener against the Cincinnati Reds last season.
It includes Randy Johnson, who won consecutive Cy Young Awards with Connor in Arizona; C.J. Wilson, the Rangers' top starter who still talks to Connor regularly; and lesser-known pitchers like Josh Rupe and Ryan Drese, who signed minor league deals with the Orioles this offseason to work again with Connor.
"I talked to a lot of guys this offseason, and they said, 'Man, I wanted to sign over there, too.' I talked to five or six guys that wanted to be here because of them and because of what [Connor and Adair] bring to the table on and off the field," said Rupe, a former Ranger who made the Orioles' Opening Day bullpen after a fine spring. "They are great men. I really think him and Rick are the complete package. They know how to treat older guys, they know how to deal with younger guys. They just do a really good job of controlling multiple personalities and going about their things the right way."
Adair, who worked with Connor in the Rangers' organization, received interest for potential pitching coach jobs this offseason, but he agreed to come to Baltimore and be the bullpen coach, largely because of his respect for Connor. The two vacation together in the offseason.
"He's been a mentor to me," Adair said. "We were never apart. We've always talked. Even when I was [pitching coach] in Seattle and he was doing his thing in Texas, I called him about things that had come up that had never come up before. He's a great resource and a great person."
Jeremy Guthrie was the only Orioles starter born when Connor got his first pitching coach job in 1980 with the Greensboro Hornets. But those who know Connor suggest that he is a perfect fit for the Orioles and has the right temperament to mold a young and largely unproven staff.
They say he can be both demanding and reassuring. They praise his ability to adapt, working with pitchers on their strengths rather than trying to conform them all to one style. They talk about the way his firm countenance can morph into a grandfatherly one that prompts pitchers young and old to call him in the offseason to ask whether he could watch their bullpen sessions, view tape or even just meet for lunch.
"There is no doubt in my mind that Mark has accepted this challenge because he's comfortable and it's an opportunity for him to really do something special," said Los Angeles Dodgers pitching coach Rick Honeycutt, who pitched for Connor at the University of Tennessee. The two remain close. "Guys accept what Mark brings to the table every day because one, his experience, and everywhere he's been, he's successful. That tells volumes about the type of person that he is and the type of job that he does. With Buck, you're kind of starting a new image of the Baltimore Orioles, and Mark is going to be the guy to take their pitching to another level."
Handling a young staff
For the first couple of weeks of spring training, Connor decided that he and Adair would observe more than lecture. They didn't want to send the wrong message and come on too strong, and they were interested in seeing which pitchers would seek them out. Some did, and Connor gradually started to suggest changes to the others. He helped Zach Britton and Chris Tillman refine their deliveries. He showed Jake Arrieta the grip Halladay uses for his changeup and worked with his foot placement on the rubber. He counseled Brian Matusz on mechanical changes.
It was fully expected that there might be some immediate struggles as the young pitchers worked to break old habits and start new ones. However, the changes were meant to benefit the pitchers in the long run.
"In my short time working with him, he's already been able to pick out some key things in my delivery and in my windup, things that will really enable me to continue to make strides in my progression," Arrieta said. "He's just got a ton of knowledge from his long career as a pitching coach. He's worked with a lot of great pitchers. You really know what he's telling you carries a lot of weight. I value his input, and I really try to work hard on everything that he sees and would like me to maybe change or adjust."
Said Matusz: "He picks up on things real quick, and he has a good way of not trying to force it upon me during a game, but letting me know afterward. He is so knowledgeable, comfortable talking about the physical and mental side of it. He's just been through so much. He has been around the game forever."
Connor's professional playing career lasted two minor league seasons before he suffered an arm injury that left him unable to pitch. It also prompted him to start studying throwing mechanics with the goal of finding ways to keep pitchers healthy.
"There are a lot of variables as to why guys get hurt, but I think having a solid delivery and working your delivery around what your arm does can prevent a lot of stuff that happens," Connor said. "It's the worst thing for a pitching coach, to have a guy get hurt."
Connor has been called "old school" by some, a label that Adair doesn't agree with -- "He's always thinking outside the box. He's got a very creative mind," he said -- but Connor doesn't fight it. His basic pitching principles are pretty much the same as those you would hear in 29 other clubhouses -- "Get strike one, keep the ball down, change speeds, work fast, those kind of things," he said -- but he does firmly believe in getting more out of his starters. He said it bothers him that some are taken out after hitting the 100-pitch mark.
What better way for a young Orioles starter to learn than to stay on the mound late in the game in key situations?
"A lot of times, we as pitching coaches think we make a big difference," Connor said. "We can make a little bit of a difference, but the experience of going out on that mound is the biggest teacher going. It's not the pitching coach. It's the game and the situation, facing major league hitters in front of 30 [thousand] or 40,000 people on national TV. You can't teach that."
twitter.com/jeffzrebiecsun