No Need to Worry About Trachsel, He’s Doing Fine

Steve Trachsel doesn’t go home and pull the blinds shut or unplug his phone or wear dark glasses in public.

Practically everyone in America has seen No. 46 of the Chicago Cubs deliver the pitch to Mark McGwire that became baseball history. But the man who surrendered historic No. 62 and is now linked to other pitchers and famous shots from the past--Tracy Stallard, Al Downing and Ralph Branca to name a few--has not gone into hiding.

When he didn’t hear from some friends the day after McGwire set the record, Trachsel worked the phones himself.

“I actually called some people and they were like, ‘Well, we wanted to give you five or six days to calm down,”’ Trachsel said.

“And I went, ‘Calm down?”’ Everyone seems to think it’s more traumatic than what it is actually is. Or they assume I’m more upset about it than I ever was.”

McGwire’s line drive in St. Louis on Tuesday night just cleared the left-field wall. As he circled the bases with pandemonium in every corner of Busch Stadium, Trachsel stood on the mound while even his own teammates congratulated the Cardinals slugger.

Sammy Sosa, chasing McGwire for the home run lead, headed in from right field to hug his rival. All this as the Cubs are fighting for the playoffs.

Umpires came to the mound where the lonely hurler was standing. Teammates Gary Gaetti and Scott Servais went to offer comfort and share some humor.

Trachsel, appearing stunned the 341-foot liner actually made it over wall, cracked the first joke.

“I said, ‘Well that’s got to be the shortest one of the year.’ So I mean it was relatively easy,” Trachsel said. “He definitely had to earn it. It wasn’t like we threw him a meatball down the middle.”

Did Trachsel feel betrayed by his teammates, who high-fived McGwire as he ran the bases?

“No, not at all,” said Trachsel, who has watched the replay a dozen times. “All the guys on my team came up to me, too. My focus at that point was to keep pitching. My day wasn’t over.”

The Cubs still led after McGwire’s homer made it 2-1, but Trachsel gave up two more homers in Chicago’s 6-3 loss.

One night earlier, another Cubs pitcher, Mike Morgan, surrendered McGwire’s 61st homer on a pitch down the middle. Trachsel’s pitch was low and on the outside corner.

“I didn’t make a good pitch but Trachsel did,” Morgan said. “To everybody else in the game, that’s probably a double down the line. It just so happens with McGwire’s strength and power, it’s a solo homer.”

Servais said most of the Cubs had never been part of such a wild scene and were just reacting to something that had never happened. And Trachsel, he said, was caught in the middle.

“There is no reason to get upset about it or feel bad about it,” he said. “What happened is that this guy is having an unbelievable year. He was in a zone down there, he wanted to get it over with and he did.

“You just got to make light of it, try to enjoy it and have fun with it. That’s what we tried to do.”

Trachsel, 27, took a 14-8 record and 51-51 lifetime mark into Sunday’s start against Milwaukee. He was chosen the NL’s top rookie pitcher by The Sporting News after going 9-7 in 1994 and was placed on the All-Star team in 1996 when he was 13-9.

“The fact is at this point of his career, Steve Trachsel is a .500 pitcher and as a rule .500 pitchers don’t get a lot of a acclaim,” said Cubs broadcaster Steve Stone, a former Cy Young winner.

“But his name is going to be forever linked with that historic home run. I could think of a lot of worse things to be rememered for. It’s one pitch in a year of pitches, this one just happened to be a real big time for baseball. But I don’t think it should diminish Steve.”

Trachsel has put his sense of humor to good use.

“I’ve been giving my agent a hard time because a couple of guys came in and said, ‘You should be getting about 10 grand a month for the rest of your life in autograph signings.’ And my agent hasn’t gotten any calls yet,” Trachsel said with a laugh.

Trachsel insists he’ll be remembered for more than the homer.

“It’s just going to be a blip on my career and it will be a positive blip in my mind. It’s not like I was only here 10 days and that’s the only thing that happened,” he said.

“I’m hoping to have 10, 12, 15 years. It will be part of my list--rookie pitcher of the year, All-Star, gave up a home run to McGwire. Hopefully, there will be a World Series or two in there and maybe some more All-Star games.”

That McGwire hit the homer has made matters easier.

“If you had to pick somebody in the league to have to do it and represent baseball the whole time I don’t think it could happen to a better individual,” said Trachsel, adding he has one request from McGwire.

“I’d like a bat,” Trachsel said. “He couldn’t have done it without me.”