8702160342
DETROIT FREE PRESS
870930
Wednesday, September 30, 1987
METRO FINAL CHASER
1G
MITCH ALBOM
Copyright (c) 1987, Detroit Free Press
TANANA IS THE TIGERS' LATEST COMEBACK STORY
The small comeback story sits inside the big comeback story. Frank Tanana
was throwing so badly two weeks ago Sparky Anderson took the ball away from
him. No one knew when he would pitch again. Yet, there he was Tuesday night,
pitching again, pitching well, allowing just three hits in eight innings. And
winning -- his first win in seven weeks. Seven weeks? Bad to good. The small
comeback story.
"I looked up on that scoreboard and saw a '14' after my name," said Tanana,
after Tuesday's important 10-1 win over Baltimore, "and I said to myself,
'Boy, it's been a long time between win No. 13 and No. 14.' I'm real glad.
I've found my groove again."
That's it? That simple? Hadn't Tanana gone eight starts without a win?
Pitched so poorly that he only lasted two-thirds of an inning against Boston
two weeks ago? And now he's found his groove? So much so that Anderson says he
may start him Sunday in the final regular-season showdown against Toronto?
Well. Why not? Hasn't the whole Tigers season been like this? Someone gets
hot, cools off, someone else gets hot, cools off. The Tigers start the season
losing, climb back into it, lose three to the Blue Jays over the weekend, yet
are suddenly just 1 1/2 games out. Hasn't the whole year been like this? Small
comebacks inside the big comeback?
Yes. And for Tanana it is doubly sweet. Here is a guy who was the Tigers'
best pitcher the first half of the season. Then things went sour. One bad
outing. Another. Another. So unreliable had he become, that Anderson removed
him from the rotation after the Boston start. "It had to happen," Tanana
admitted. "If I were a manager I'd have taken myself out, too."
He keeps 'em guessing
Who knows how things sour? Who knows how they turn around? A few days after
his removal, Tanana called to catcher Dwight Lowry during a warm-up. "I wanna
see something here," Tanana said. He started throwing. Suddenly, it felt good.
Suddenly, after six bad weeks, the arm was doing what it was supposed to.
"It's funny," Tanana said, "when things go bad, a pitcher becomes like a
hitter. You try different things, you toy with this idea, you toy with that
idea, next thing you know, you've gotten completely away from what you should
be doing."
What Tanana should be doing is what he did Tuesday night. Keep batters
guessing. Fool them with slow stuff, changeups. "I wasn't doing that. For
whatever reason, I started to throw across my body more than I had to . . .
"Then I tried to compensate by overthrowing. And that's foolish. If I try
to throw harder, how fast am I going to get it? Eight-five miles an hour?
That's useless. I actually needed to throw softer."
He rediscovered that light touch in the practice with Lowry. Anderson says
it was simply "rest. His arm was dead." Tanana says it was more than that. He
needed to break the downward spiral. And, once done, he needed to get back in.
Anderson obliged. Tanana went seven good, meaty innings in last Friday's loss
to Toronto.
And Tuesday, he finally got his dessert.
Finally, a win
Frank Tanana, as most people know by now, is a thin man with a cheerful
personality, the kind of guy you hope does well. He makes no secret of his
strong religious convictions, and during his brief exit, he truly needed
them. "I told myself if I never get another start, it's not the end of my
life," he said. "That helped me."
"If you hadn't been taken out of the rotation," he was asked, "do you
think you would have come back to win on your own?"
He shrugged. "We can only go with what is -- and what is says it's the best
thing that could have happened."
The flashy news Tuesday night was the scoreboard. The flashy news was Jim
Walewander's baserunning, and Chet Lemon's three- run homer, and the score in
Toronto. But the quiet news, maybe the best news, was the satisfied look on
Tanana's face when the game ended. A win. Finally, a win.
'What did I learn from this?" Tanana said, rubbing his chin. "Well . . .
that these things are gonna happen. Let's face it. I pitched myself out of a
job. But I kept a good frame of mind, and I was given a chance to come back."
How very familiar. Already this season we've seen hot streaks by Jack
Morris, Kirk Gibson, Darrell Evans, Bill Madlock. And cold streaks by Jack
Morris, Kirk Gibson, Darrell Evans, Bill Madlock. We've seen rookies named
Walewander and Lusader come from nowhere and help win. We have seen fifth
place and first place and everything in between. And come Sunday, in perhaps
the biggest game of the entire season, we could see Tanana out on the mound.
The small comeback within the big comeback. The Tigers are very much alive
in this crazy AL East race. They can only hope now for a happy ending. And do
every damn thing to ensure they get it.
Sorry about the damn, Frank.
FRANK TANANA;DTIGERS;COLUMN;PITCHER;REACTION;GAME;RESULT;
BASEBALL;Detroit Tigers