In one of those odd coincidences that happens in baseball, the pitcher who relieved Frohwirth in the game was Kent Tekulve, the pitcher whose delivery he copied in the first place.įrohwirth pitched in 10 games in his rookie season and didn’t allow a run in 11 innings. And then I end up with a win in my first game, which right now makes me more excited than I’ve ever been in my life.” I just wanted to throw strikes and I threw him sinkers and sliders. “And I didn’t have time to think it was Dawson. I just had to get in there and get loose while in front of the most people I’ve ever played in front of,” he told the Inquirer of his odd debut. “It all happened so fast, I didn’t have time to really think about what was going on. He struck out the eventual 1987 MVP on three pitches, with the tying runs on base. After a unexpected call to the mound, the first batter Frohwirth faced in the majors was Andre Dawson. Gross, who had pitched into the 5th inning with a 4-2 lead, was ejected after being accused by the Cubs of scuffing the baseball. He had 18 saves and a 2.20 ERA in 1985 with the A-ball Peninsula Pilots and racked up 22 saves in each of the following two seasons, advancing up to the AAA Maine Guides.įrohwirth made his MLB debut on Augwith 1-2/3 scoreless innings against the Cubs in relief of starter Kevin Gross. He continued to mystify batters through his stay in the minors. His first instructional league pitching coach, Mike Willis, had never seen a submariner pitcher up close, but he did approve of the way Frohwirth was causing batters to break their bats and hit easy ground balls. The Phillies, to their credit, didn’t seem to mess with Frohwirth’s delivery and make him more of a conventional pitcher. Every one of his 726 appearances (284 in the majors, 442 in the minors) would come out of the bullpen. For his entire 13-season career in professional baseball, Frohwirth would never start a single ballgame. He responded with 11 saves in 29 games, along with a 4-4 record and 1.63 ERA. Only four players taken in that round ever made the major leagues, and only one of them – Jeff Brantley – had a longer career than Frohwirth.įrohwirth reported to the Bend Phillies of the Northwest League, and he was put in the role of closer. He was selected in the 13 th round of the 1984 June Amateur Draft from Northwest Missouri State University. “Next day I tried it, and they couldn’t hit it,” He told Philadelphia Enquirer columnist Frank Dolson in November, 1984, after he had been drafted by the Phillies. It’s not an easy delivery to master, but batters who are used to seeing one release point can get thrown off their game with a pitcher like Frohwirth delivering the ball from almost ground level. Meaning, instead of the typical overhand motion, he released his pitches underhanded. Then one day, he saw on television the Pirates’ Kent Tekulve, an excellent reliever from the 1970s and ‘80s who threw with an uncommon submarine-style delivery. By 1979, he was playing for Milwaukee’s Messmer High School baseball team as a light-hitting second baseman. He pitched for the Philadelphia Phillies (1987-90), Baltimore Orioles (1991-93), Boston Red Sox (1994) and California Angels (1996).įrohwirth was born in Milwaukee, Wis. Here lies Todd Frohwirth, a relief pitcher whose submarine-style delivery made him one of the more recognizable relievers in baseball in the late 1980s and early ‘90s.
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