Still Going, Even as the Glory Fades

PORT ST. LUCIE, Fla. — He began to consider in a curse. Then he trusted in a unique form of future. Baseball has a manner of toying with feelings. Ask Mike Montgomery.

Individuals nonetheless do. They at all times will. There are worse issues to be recognized for than saving Recreation 7 of the World Collection, as Montgomery as soon as did for the Cubs. That was lengthy earlier than he discovered himself in minor league camp with the Mets this spring, after a dizzying season that took him to the baseball hinterlands and made Chicago really feel like a dream.

“I bear in mind I received a automotive from a dealership there, like, ‘Hey, please drive our automotive,’ and it was like a $100,000 Lexus,” Montgomery stated final week over wings at a sports activities bar right here, recalling the afterglow of the 2016 title. “I actually felt like I might just about run stoplights, not need to comply with the principles of the highway, and if somebody pulled me over and I advised them who I used to be, they wouldn’t care. They’d be like: ‘Oh, don’t fear about it. No matter you need, Mr. Montgomery!’”

He laughed and shook his head.

“I do miss that,” he stated. “It doesn’t matter who you might be, you need that. It fizzles out over time, however I believe the legacy, as time goes on, won’t ever fizzle out.”

Montgomery pitched in 5 of the seven World Collection video games towards Cleveland, together with the Recreation 4 loss at Wrigley Area that put the Cubs down, three video games to at least one. Throughout that sport, a line drive tore Montgomery’s glove off his hand, which had by no means occurred earlier than. It was unsettling, he thought, an indication that one thing wasn’t proper.

Perhaps, Montgomery puzzled, the Cubs actually had been cursed. Despondent that their season had been pushed to the brink, he retreated to his Wrigleyville condo and performed hockey on Xbox for hours. When his hockey workforce trailed, 3-1, and got here again to win, 4-3, Montgomery had an epiphany — the Cubs, he was now sure, would do the identical.

Tales like these, and the pitch he threw to clinch the Cubs’ first championship since 1908, will enthrall followers without end. The second is a touchstone, a cherished spotlight for hundreds of thousands that can give Montgomery a small measure of perpetual fame. Like a baby star of a beloved tv present, his profession peaked early in a manner few others have skilled.

When Montgomery received that ultimate out, towards Cleveland’s Michael Martinez, he turned solely the eighth participant to throw a golden pitch, outlined by the Society for American Baseball Analysis as a pitch that would both win or lose the World Collection. It’s an exquisitely uncommon scenario, doable solely in Recreation 7, on the highway, within the backside of the ninth inning or later, when the season might finish — a technique or one other — on one swing.

Montgomery received the decision within the tenth inning, with two outs, a runner on first, and the Cubs forward, 8-7. Cleveland was out of bench gamers, and Supervisor Joe Maddon guessed accurately that the light-hitting Martinez couldn’t deal with Montgomery’s curveball. Positive sufficient, Martinez tapped weakly to 3rd baseman Kris Bryant, who slipped whereas fielding the ball however gathered it cleanly. Anthony Rizzo caught Bryant’s throw at first base, Montgomery flipped his glove within the air, and a celebration that lengthy appeared unimaginable was underway.

Think about the adrenaline rush from a second like that. Nothing else can examine.

“You possibly can’t unsee one thing,” Montgomery stated. “You possibly can’t undo what you’ve been by means of. I can’t sit there and attempt to throw max speeds in bullpens, since you simply can’t get that very same depth of even a regular-season sport in comparison with a World Collection.”

At 32, Montgomery is without doubt one of the oldest gamers on the prospect facet of the Mets’ advanced. He likes seeing the hope in gamers not but jaded by the sport. Simply the opposite day, he stated, a younger teammate requested about Recreation 7, about Jason Heyward’s speech that rallied the Cubs throughout a rain delay. Montgomery would relatively not reside up to now, however he’s completely satisfied to share, if requested. The outdated feelings invigorate him.

Even with Jacob deGrom sidelined indefinitely and Max Scherzer nursing a sore hamstring, Montgomery is probably going headed for Class AAA Syracuse and a spot within the rotation there. He had the identical likelihood final 12 months, however when the Mets reduce him from main league camp, he requested for his launch and signed with the Yankees, believing they’d provide a greater alternative.

The minor league season began late, and morning bullpen classes in Moosic, Pa., for the Scranton/Wilkes-Barre RailRiders didn’t stoke Montgomery’s competitiveness. After 4 begins, he took a cope with the Samsung Lions in Daegu, South Korea, for the prorated $1 million most contract.

Trying again, Montgomery is aware of he ought to have stayed with the Mets, who wound up utilizing 19 totally different beginning pitchers. And whereas he loved South Korea along with his spouse, Stephanie, and their 2-year-old son, Max, the season was disjointed, with a break for the Olympics, a quick coronavirus-related league shutdown — and a suspension that didn’t precisely endear him to the umpires.

“Put it this fashion, they weren’t serving to me, particularly after I threw the rosin bag on the man,” Montgomery stated. “However I didn’t even throw it at him for strikes and balls. I threw it at him as a result of he stated I had a delay of sport once I clearly didn’t.”

It was a misplaced season — throughout two continents, Montgomery made 15 begins and was 3-7 with a 5.90 earned run common — and a painful lesson in how shortly the sport can go away a participant behind. The Mets had been the one workforce to supply Montgomery a job this spring.

“It was prefer it wasn’t even actual generally, what we had been dwelling by means of in 2016 — like, ‘That is the right setup; this isn’t regular,’” Stephanie Montgomery stated. “However regardless of how a lot you inform your self, ‘That is unimaginable, respect each second,’ when it begins to go in a unique route, it’s nonetheless a shock.”

The couple met, not directly, by means of a pitcher Montgomery hopes to emulate: Jamie Moyer, the left-hander who had 218 wins after turning 32. Montgomery was a rookie for Seattle in 2015 when Moyer tagged him in a tweet. Stephanie preferred Moyer’s submit, Montgomery seen, and the connection grew from there.

Moyer’s tweet has particular resonance for Montgomery now: “left-handers often mature later!” he wrote, with a hashtag: #nevergiveuponalefty. The Mets haven’t given up on Montgomery, and he’s in no hurry to cease.

Over the winter, Montgomery labored at a brand new Driveline coaching middle in Phoenix to higher perceive his pitches. At Syracuse, he ought to profit from lastly resuming a traditional routine as a starter — not a swingman, as he was for the Cubs. He won’t ever be an influence pitcher, however possibly he can discover the outdated snap on his curveball, the pitch that introduced pleasure to hundreds of thousands and can comply with him for the remainder of his life.

“I don’t received to be the perfect pitcher to ever reside,” Montgomery stated. “However I’ve been in the perfect second that’s arguably ever existed in baseball historical past, and I’m simply going to outlast everyone. That’s the aim. Simply keep wholesome so long as I can and play till they received’t give me a jersey anymore.”