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Bustoff -> Madewell makes good in 6-0 victory over Nashville (1/23/2008 6:20:49 PM)
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I thought I'd try a bit of "spot reporting" just for fun. Grantland Rice it ain't, but I enjoyed writing it.
Nashville, April 29 (PSPN)—When the game ended, 38,253 people were on their feet, cheering the man who had just pitched the most remarkable game of his career, a three-hit shutout. As his teammates carried him off the field, the pitcher removed his cap and tossed it into the crowd. A young girl, catching the cap on the fly, promptly placed it on her head and gave the pitcher two thumbs up. It was a very special moment indeed.
What makes this moment even more special is that the pitcher, Marty Madewell, wore a Chicago Gators uniform and the cheering fans had just seen their home team, the Nashville Sounds, lose their fourth game in a row, 6-0.
So why were they cheering? “What an amazing performance,” Sounds Manager Jake Whitman said. “That kid's got guts. We never thought he’d make it past the fourth or fifth inning. He’s a reliever, not a starter…well, I guess he showed us.”
Yes he did. Marty Madewell, who had never pitched more than 4 innings in a game, went the distance on this cold, blustery April day and sent the Sounds packing on a miserly 85 pitches, facing only 30 batters in nine innings. He struck out four and walked only one.
With the temperature in the mid-40s, the granite-gray skies threatened rain all afternoon, and a strong breeze coming in from center field provided an added challenge. “It was pretty raw out there,” Madewell said. “I had trouble keeping my arm loose. The ball was so cold. I made some bad pitches…but I guess I made some good ones too.”
Gators Manager Tony Springer couldn’t say enough about his star hurler. “He really stepped in when I needed him. Damn, what a game…what a guy. To hear the Sounds’ fans cheering him like that when he just made their team look like a buncha rookies…man, it doesn’t get any better than that.”
Madewell got the call literally by default. Two of the Gators’ starters, Jim Powell and Darrell King, were sidelined by minor injuries earlier in the week, which played havoc with the rotation and caused a massive drain on Chicago’s normally powerful bullpen. With no starter fresh enough to go and the bullpen in tatters, only one man was rested enough to take the mound—Marty Madewell. “I didn’t have much of a choice,” Springer said. “I’ll be honest. I wasn’t very optimistic the situation. But I had a nice chat with Marty before the game. I just told him to go out there and pitch as long and as hard as he could, because I didn’t have anybody who could relieve him. He really came through, didn't he?”
Madewell got some great help from his teammates, both offensively and defensively. Shortstop Angel Morton scooped up ground balls like a Shop-Vac and helped turn a slick double play to end the fourth inning. Right fielder Ron McCurdy made a great over-the-shoulder grab of a line drive that had “three bagger” written all over it, and stroked in 2 runs as well. Albert Woods added two doubles, and McCurdy, Morton and George Gonzales each added their own two base hit.
“Listen, this was a team effort,” Madewell said. “Everybody did their part. These guys were with me all the way. They made me look good.”
By the time the seventh inning stretch rolled around, the crowd knew it was seeing something special. And when Madewell trotted out to the mound, they let him know it. “Wow, the applause…I didn’t even know it was for me.” Madewell laughed. “I thought somebody in the cheap seats was doing a striptease or something. Those people are the best. I owe them my thanks.”
And what better way to show it in the cold foggy dusk at game’s end than to tip his hat to them and toss it into the stands. “It was the greatest day of my career,” a grinning Madewell said. “So far, at least.”
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