Shoemaker striving for new highlights as a pro

By Karen Westeen

For Tacoma Weekly
Published on: August 28, 2008

The first time Rainiers’ pitcher Scott Shoemaker stood on a big league mound he wasn’t a professional. As a member of the San Diego State University’s team, he was the first person to throw a pitch at Petco Park before the Padres began playing there in 2004. Not only did he start the March 11 game, he finished it as well, pitching his team to a 4-0 complete game win over the Houston Cougars in the Petco Classic. Shoemaker struck out fourteen and gave up just three singles. He also recorded the game’s final out, catching an infield pop-up, then fell over backward after a collision with his third baseman.

“No doubt that game was the highlight of my career so far,” Shoemaker said. Lots of his family and friends were among the 40,016 who watched that game (the largest crowd ever to see a college baseball game, topping the previous record of 27,673 set at the Superdome on April 10, 2002 in a game played by LSU and Tulane). Many more saw it on TV.

“My mom taped it,” Shoemaker added, “but I’ve never watched it yet. It will be fun to have to show my kids someday.”

Those children are yet to be born to Shoemaker and his wife, who were married after last season. They continue to live in the San Diego area.

Larry Lucchino, the president of the Boston Red Sox since 2001, had previously held the same position for the Padres. He threw out the ceremonial first pitch at that game. Perhaps he recognized the talent that took the mound after him, and filed the name away for future reference. Shoemaker wound up with the Red Sox later in 2004.

Drafted three times (by the Giants, Mets and Blue Jays), Shoemaker did not sign. Instead he returned to college each of those years.

“I waited for the right opportunity,” he said. “I wanted to be ahead of the game. If you sign as a high round pick you get more attention, and are treated better.” Because he was a fifth year senior he finally signed as a free agent with Boston before the 2004 draft.

Boston assigned him to Lowell, about as far away from San Diego as a person can go in baseball miles. There he played for the Lowell Spinners, Boston’s affiliate in the short season Single-A New York-Penn League. Shoemaker pitched mostly out of the bullpen, finishing the year with a 1-0 record, three saves and a 2.48 earned run average. In 32.2 innings he struck out 52.

Shoemaker described his first spring training in 2005, following the Red Sox’ 2004 World Series win, as pretty exciting, saying after the greatest comeback in baseball, it was pretty cool to be there. There were fans all over the spring training at Ft. Myers, and many of his teammates from the previous season were there as well.

This was his first season to be primarily a starter. He spent the season traveling all over the East Coast, beginning with Single A Greenville, S.C. There he pitched 79.2 innings and had a record of 6-3 in 15 games, ERA of 3.50, before being promoted to Wilmington, another single A-team. Then it was on to his first look at Double-A with Portland, Maine, winding up the season with two games in Triple-A Pawtucket, RI. His overall record for the season was 7-7, with an ERA of around eight.

It was back to Wilmington at the beginning of 2006, where he split time between starting and relieving. He began the season hurt and had to stay in extended spring training for an extra two weeks. When he started the regular season he went to the bullpen to keep his innings down. He made a few spot starts as well. After stops at Portland and Pawtucket, he ended the season with an overall record of 11-3 and a much more respectable ERA of just more than 4.

The 2007 season brought a big change to Shoemaker’s career. After starting the year with Boston’s Double-A team in Portland, Maine, he was traded to the Rangers on April 19.

“I had thought I’d spend my whole career with Boston and wind up with the big team but you come to find out really quick that trades are a part of the game” he said about that transaction.

Again he was at three different levels with Texas, including seven games with the Triple-A Oklahoma City RedHawks in the Pacific Coast League. His record for the year was 7-3 with an ERA just north of 5. Most of his 34 games were as a reliever.

Shoemaker went back to Texas for this year’s spring training, but was cut on the final day of the Rangers’ camp. Within a couple of days he had found a new home with the Mariners’ organization. He has been on the Rainiers’ roster the entire season. Again he has pitched both in relief and as a starter, making nine starts in 30 appearances. His record is 3-3, with 56 strike outs and an ERA of 5.98.

Shoemaker likes Tacoma and said he would enjoy being back with the Mariners’ organization next year. He prefers starting to coming in as a reliever but obviously can do both.

“It’s good to know when you’re going to pitch, but part of me likes having the surprise of going in unexpectedly. As long as I throw strikes it doesn’t matter, but it’s tough if you come in from the pen and give up a couple runs and push the ERA up.”

More a fly ball than ground-ball out pitcher, Shoemaker said he is working on getting more ground-ball outs.

“It’s tough to keep fly balls from going out in many PCL parks, like Colorado Springs and Albuquerque, where the altitude makes homeruns out of hits that would be caught in Tacoma.” He said his outpitch is mostly his slider, but that it ultimately depends on the batter. “This year I feel I’ve struck just as many out on fast balls as sliders, and I’m throwing my slider early in the count so it gets away from being my outpitch. I’m going to work on getting an outpitch that’s just that. It will probably be my good hard slider.”

In the winter Shoemaker stays in shape by working out at San Diego State, under the supervision of his former college coach, hall-of- famer Tony Gwynn.

“Tony loves it when we come back,” Shoemaker said. “There are lots of professional players to throw and run with there.” He also helps with baseball camps and clinics and works as a campus supervisor at Granite Hills High School, his other alma mater. If he can pull himself away from baseball, Shoemaker enjoys golf and fly-fishing. He graduated from college with a criminal justice major and said that he might look for a job in that field once his playing days are over.

But no matter when that time comes, Scott Shoemaker’s most memorable baseball moments will include his first time on a big- league mound. As Gwynn said in a San Diego Union-Tribune article by Kirk Kenney following the Petco Park game,

“They will remember this night forever. It’s huge all the way around.”

NEXT UP FOR THE RAINIERS

There’s good news and bad news for the Rainiers. Thanks to another winning week (7-2) they are still mathematically in the hunt for the playoffs. With a record of 74-62, they are holding on to second place in the PCL’s Pacific North division, five games behind Salt Lake as of Aug. 25. But since no games remain between the Rainiers and the Bees, Tacoma can only narrow this gap by winning as often as possible and hoping Salt Lake will lose at the same time.

Rainiers’ catcher Rob Johnson was recently named to the PCL Post-Season All Star team. Part of the Rainiers from 2006 to the present, he made his Major League debut in Sept. 2007 with the Mariners. Johnson is currently hitting .311 with nine home runs and 45 RBI.

On Aug. 25 the Mariners optioned right-handed pitcher Mark Lowe to AAA Tacoma. To take his spot on the Major League, 25-man roster, they brought up right-handed pitcher Randy Messenger from Tacoma.

The team is currently in the middle of the last home stand of the 2008 regular season. The final game vs. the Sacramento RiverCats is Aug. 28, followed by four against the Portland Beavers Aug. 29-Sept. 1. All games except Aug. 31 and Sept. 1 begin at 7 p.m. Sunday and Monday games start at 1:30 p.m. Fireworks follow the games on Friday and Saturday, Aug. 29 and 30.

As of Aug. 25, RHP Andy Baldwin is second in the PCL with two complete games.

And the bad news? Well the regular season ends on Labor Day.

Shoemaker striving for new highlights as a pro

By Karen Westeen

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