FoundSF

Historical Essay

by Matt Sieger

Scott Garrelts

Photo courtesy of San Francisco Giants

Scott Garrelts pitched for the San Francisco Giants from 1982-1991, compiling a 69-52 won-loss record with a very respectable 3.29 earned run average. He was a key starting pitcher in 1989 when the Giants made it to the World Series. This article is based on my interview with him at Candlestick Park in 1990.

As a boy growing up in Illinois and a Chicago Cubs fan, Scott Garrelts never dreamed he would be standing on the mound at Chicago’s Wrigley Field, ready to pitch against the Cubs in the first game of the 1989 National League Championship Series.

The 28-year-old San Francisco Giants pitcher beat the Cubs in that game, helping to propel his team into the World Series. Though the Giants fell to the Oakland Athletics four games to none in the earthquake-interrupted Series, 1989 was the best year of Garrelts’ career.

The 6-4 righthander compiled a 14-5 won-lost record and led all National League starting pitchers with a 2.28 earned run average (the average number of runs scored against a pitcher in a nine-inning game).

But things haven’t always gone so smoothly for Garrelts. Between an All-Star season as a reliever in 1985 and 1989’s heroics, life in the big leagues has been a roller coaster ride for the hard-throwing pitcher.

In 1988 he had a season that most pitchers would like to forget.

“I had a 6.21 ERA the first half,” Garrelts says of his efforts as a relief pitcher that year. “I was blowing saves and struggling."

When the local media and fans started to criticize his performance, the situation went from bad to worse.

“I kept trying to prove to the Giants, to prove to everybody, what I could do,” Garrelts recalls. “And I kept spinning my wheels, kept getting deeper and deeper.”

As the frustration grew, Garrelts took a step back and talked with two of his closest friends on the Giants, pitchers Dave Dravecky and Atlee Hammaker.

Like Garrelts, Dravecky and Hammaker are born-again Christians. They had also struggled with trying to please everybody when they pitched.

“We talked about what am I really playing for,” says Garrelts. “I stopped trying to pitch for everybody, and when I did that, I could accept myself and just do my best. I realized that my main audience was God. And it made all the difference in the world. I knew whatever I did, as long as I did the best I could, that was good enough.”

It was soon obvious that the talks with Dravecky and Hammaker had helped. In his last 20 games of 1988, Garrelts allowed just four earned runs in over 32 innings (a 1.20 ERA), recording four saves and two wins, salvaging a season that had almost become a nightmare.

Even as a boy growing up Buckley, Illinois, a town of 600 people, Garrelts didn’t attain instant success in baseball. But he always loved the game, and his father helped him develop his pitching skills.

“He always got me out in the backyard,” Garrelts recalls, “and he used to get down on his knees and catch me. Even in the wintertime, he’d come home from a hard day’s work and go out and play catch.”

Garrelts says he was average in size and in ability as a young boy.

“I was nothing spectacular,” he says. “My first two years in high school were not that big of a deal. My sophomore year I actually pitched terrible. I got beat up all over the place.”

But in his junior year, he began to improve.

In one memorable game for Buckley-Loda High, he struck out 22 batters in the seven-inning contest. If you know a little baseball and a little math, you realize those numbers don’t compute – unless the catcher dropped a third strike, allowing the batter to advance to first base.

“Actually, he dropped two,” Garrelts explains. “There was one guy who put the ball into play. He bunted it back to me in the air.”

After that eye-opening no-hitter, the scouts started showing up. When Garrelts graduated from high school in 1979, the Giants made him their number one selection in the free-agent draft.

After six seasons of minor league ball (including three short stints with San Francisco), he burst onto the Giants’ scene in 1985 with an outstanding season.

Used as a reliever, he posted a 9-6 mark with a 2.30 ERA and 106 strikeouts in 105 innings. He was the only Giant selected to the National League All-Star Team.

Garrelts was promoted to a starting role in 1986. But he didn’t win consistently and was moved back to the bullpen by July. He did better as a reliever, and the following year he led all National League relievers with 127 strikeouts.

Then came the nearly disastrous 1988 season.

“Without Jesus in my life,” says Garrelts of that year, “I don’t know if I could have made it. I was struggling, the people around me knew I was struggling, yet there was still that comfort that I had. I was still at ease.”

Although Garrelts attended church with his family throughout his youth, it wasn’t until his years in the minor leagues that God became real for him. The pivotal time was during a trip to the Dominican Republic to play winter baseball.

“The year before,” Garrelts recalls, “a guy that used to play in the Giants organization, Mark Calvert, had met a Christian woman and she had led him to the Lord. I saw the change that he had, so I started asking questions.

“In 1984, we were down in the Dominican, and we had no TV, no telephone, no radio, no anything, and I had taken my Bible down there. I was reading one night in the book of John, and I knelt down beside the bed and prayed to receive Christ.”

Garrelts says that although he grew in his faith, progress was slow until 1987, when Dravecky arrived in a trade with the San Diego Padres. The following year, center fielder Brett Butler came to the Giants from the Atlanta Braves, and the three of them plus Hammaker formed an accountability group. The teammates began to meet weekly to study the Bible, share needs, and pray. In 1989, another Christian, Bob Knepper, was traded to the Giants from the Houston Astros and also joined the group.

“It really helped me to get into good habits like reading and praying daily,” says Garrelts. “When you have Christian brothers, it’s easy to be encouraged and to be loved. Getting into the Word, having fellowship – it’s been tremendous.”

When the season ends and the players go their separate ways, Garrelts stays in touch with the other men in the group by telephone.

In 1989 the Giants decided to try Garrelts as a starting pitcher again. He got off to a good start and secured a spot in the rotation.

After a minor injury caused him to miss a few pitching turns, he came back in mid-July and won eight games in succession, the last of them a crucial victory over the second-place San Diego padres in mid-September. He had become the Giants’ most consistent starting pitcher.

Garrelts credits his study of the Bible for the change in his performance.

“Throughout my minor league career, I always felt like I was a .500 pitcher. I’d win a game, lose a game, win two, lose two – because I always had that feeling that I’m going to lose. It wasn’t until I got into the major leagues that I realized that God doesn’t want you to lose. He wants you to be successful. And it wasn’t until I realized that, that I was able to overcome the fear of being a .500 pitcher and to excel and to be more than that. It helped me not to think on the negative things. It helped me concentrate on what I had to do.”

Garrelts says Living on the Ragged Edge, a bock by Charles Swindoll, has also influenced his view of life.

“Reading that book opened my eyes quite a bit,” he says of the study in the Old Testament book of Ecclesiastes, “just realizing what Solomon had, and still he was not happy. You can go on in life, you’ll keep struggling, you’ll keep fighting, you’ll keep searching for things, and you won’t find it unless you find Jesus.”

Monetary success hasn’t seemed to spoil Garrelts. He credits his upbringing for his attitude toward money.

“I always really respected my mother and father and the hard work that they did,” he says. “A lot of times we had to do without. But it really taught me some good lessons, and one is, if you want something, you have to work for it. I remember working on a farm as a kid, making a couple of bucks an hour. I really respect the American farmer.”

In fact, he and his wife have bought a 160-acre farm in his home state of Illinois. Although he’s not sure what he’ll do after baseball, he enjoys farming and is considering that possibility.

“I’ve been really trying to keep baseball in perspective,” he says. “I’ve tried not to get caught up in it too much.”

Even in the midst of success.

This article first appeared in Teen Quest in March 1991.

Matt Sieger, now retired, is a former sports reporter and columnist for The Vacaville Reporter. He is the author of The God Squad: The Born-Again San Francisco Giants of 1978.