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Hall of Fame baseball writer Hal McCoy has retired from the Dayton Daily News after covering the Cincinnati Reds for 37 years. Hal's blog, though, will continue to be a must-read for Reds fans. He'll share his thoughts on the team this season and will file updates from Great American Ball Park. You also can catch Hal in print every Sunday in his popular Ask Hal column

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Home > Blogs > The Real McCoy | Cincinnati Reds baseball news > Archives > 2010 > March > 21 > Entry

Fossas: Been there and done that

By Hal McCoy | Sunday, March 21, 2010, 01:27 PM

As one might expect, Tony Fossas is a strong supporter of Aroldis Chapman, even an avid fan.

As a fellow Cuban, Fossas knows what Chapman has gone through and what he is about to go through.

Fossas has served this spring as Chapman’s confidante and interpreter with the media, doing a stand-up job. But the umbilical cord is about to be severed. After Chapman pitches Monday, Fossas leaves big-league champ to begin working with the Class A Dayton Dragons, where he is the pitching coach.

“They have some tough decisions now that they’re trying to make,” said Fossas. “They didn’t expect Aroldis to have the command he has, the control he has shown.”

The early plan was that Chapman probably would start the season at Class AA Charlotte or Class AAA Louisville. But so far this spring, Chapman stands head and shoulders, both physically at 6-4 and in results, over the other candidates for the No. 5 spot in the Cincinnati Reds rotation.

“They though he would have control problems, but he hasn’t,” said Fossas. “Even the pitches that are not strikes are close. He doesn’t throw pitches way out of the zone, way high or way wide. And I’ve noticed, too, that the spring training strike zone is very tight.”

In seven innings, Chapman has given up one run and four hits while walking only two and striking out 10.

And fans get a chance to watch Chapman Monday. The game will be televised by FoxSports Ohio at 1:05 against the Colorado Rockies, with Thom Brennaman and Jeff Brantley behind the microphones.

EMILIO ANTHONY Fossas Morejo came to the U.S. from Guanijay, Cuba in 1969 and landed in Boston.

“We used to sneak into Fenway Park to watch games when I was 10,” he said. “We would wait for school buses to pull up, then we’d get in the pack of kids going through the gates and walk right in with them. Then later I pitched for the Red Sox.”

Fossas went to the University of South Florida in Tampa, “And I promised my dad I’d be the first in my family to graduate from university,” he said.

But the Minnesota Twins drafted him his junior year and offered him $4,000. He thought about signing, but his coach at USF, Hall of Fame pitcher Robin Roberts, called him at three in the morning and said, “I hear you are going to sign with the Twins today for $4,000. Your agent gets 10 per cent and you’ll give some to your family and then what will you have left?”

Said Fossas, “Roberts told me to call the Twins and say, ‘I’ll sign for $15,000. If you can’t do that, don’t call me again.’” Fossas did just that, “And the Twins never called me again.”

But he graduated and the Texas Rangers drafted him, but it wasn’t until he was 31 years old that he made it to the majors.

“I didn’t think Roberts liked me,” said Fossas. “He kept telling me, ‘Just throw the ball down the middle, throw it over the plate.’ I didn’t understand that. I thought he wanted me to get killed.’”

It didn’t click with Fossas until 10 years later when Ferguson Jenkins, another Hall of Famer, became his pitching coach in the majors. “He was a disciple of Robin Roberts and he, too, wanted me to throw it down the middle. He said, ‘With your stuff, just try to throw it down the middle and it won’t ever go over the middle. It’ll move away from the middle.’ That made sense. Took me 10 years to understand.”

Fossas, a soft-throwing lefthander, spent most of his career as a guy who came in to face only one or two lefthanded batters - like Barry Bonds and Ken Griffey Jr. and Mo Vaughn.

THE REDS play split-squad games March 31, one in Scottsdale against the Oakland Athletics and one in Las Vegas against the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Manager Dusty Baker, of course, has a plan. He’ll go to Las Vegas, “Because my family will join me there and my son (Darren) has never been to Vegas. There are some guys who want to go and some who don’t.

“I’ll use to as kind of a reward for those guys who are ahead in their work,” he said. “Guys who are a little behind or need extra work will play in the other game because they can get in the extra work they need at the complex.”

And after the ones in Vegas work on their field game, they work on their table games.

FORMER REDS pinch-hitter deluxe Lenny Harris underwent emergency quadruple bypass heart surgery yesterday after collaping on a pitching mound. He was pitching batting practice for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

Good friend Barry Larkin talked to Harris today and said, “He’s doing much better. You know how strong and virile Lenny is? It was the first time I ever heard or saw him cry.”

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