Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, August 8, 1993 TAG: 9308080044
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: E6 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: Ray Cox
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
One guy can tell you about how the bus broke down on a 100-degree day near Butte, or another how he battled an epic case of athlete's foot and discourteous fans in Elizabethton.
Salem Buccaneers pitcher Eric Parkinson's travelogue is better than most.
Parkinson can tell you about the time he and some guys he'd just met at the airport in Washington, D.C., flew eight hours to the strangely wonderful city of Amsterdam, tried to sleep off the jet lag, then played baseball that night. Won, too, with a worn out big-leaguer on the hill.
Parkinson can tell you about the night when he sat watching as his teammates - professional ballplayers all - were mowed down by a 17-year-old amateur from Baltimore.
He can regale you with accounts of the Dutch druggies approaching him and his pals on the streets to peddle their wares, fearless unafraid of legal ramifications. The players quickly learned to steer clear.
"Seems like everything is legal there," said Parkinson, a right-hander in his fifth year of professional baseball. "They told us before we went over there to be smart and use our heads. You don't see some of the stuff that goes on over there every day here."
Nor do many baseball players get to see the castles, canals and windmills of the Netherlands - at least not during the season.
And the Dutch don't get to see many skilled American pros, which is one of the reasons Parkinson's team was picked under the auspices of major-league baseball to participate in a 10-day tournament earlier this summer.
Parkinson got the word that he had been selected when he was on the Carolina Mudcats' first trip of the year to Orlando, Fla. That was early in the spring.
He and an outfielder named Tom Green were chosen from Carolina. They were asked if they were interested, which they definitely were. Confirmation of travel arrangements came in May.
Parkinson just wanted to play, regardless of the continent. He hadn't been pitching for Carolina. The Mudcats had put him on the disabled list, even though he wasn't hurt. It was a little roster chicanery, so they could take an extra pitcher with them when they broke camp. After a month or so of that, Parkinson was sent back to Salem, where he had toiled each of the previous two years, to get in some work.
He wasn't here long before he shipped out for the Netherlands. The U.S. team - headlined by Dutch native and former major-leaguer Bert Blyleven - would be playing squads from Canada, Aruba, Baltimore and the host country.
The American pros went 6-2 and beat Aruba in the final. It was pretty much business as usual, except for stumbling against the 17- to 19-year-olds from Baltimore and their crafty left-hander.
"I think we took them a little lightly," Parkinson said.
As for our hero, he pitched twice, once in relief and once in a five-inning start that earned him a victory that he wrote about to his new bride, Jennifer.
A young wife whose husband's vocation is getting people out has it tough sometimes. The frequent partings are a nuisance. But Jennifer is a good sport and she loves to come to the ballpark when the Bucs are in residence. She has an appreciation for the game and played high school softball herself.
At 24, Eric Parkinson is one of the eldest Bucs, as well as one of a small number who is married. But he shrugs off any notion that he might be the clubhouse elder statesman.
Guys are in Class A baseball because they're just getting started. The same is true for Parkinson, the fact that he was signed as a 23rd-round draft pick in 1989 notwithstanding. In the intervening years, he has plied his trade in orderly mediocrity - 20-37 career record, never an earned run average lower than 4.35 while bouncing from the starting rotation to the bullpen and back.
This year is a crossroads for the pitcher and, so far, it has been a relatively fruitful one. The numbers are 1-3 and a 4.21 ERA in 11 appearances, but the strikeouts are up (27 in 36 innings) and the walks (11) are down.
More importantly, Parkinson has developed a quiet professionalism, partly the product of renewed self-confidence.
"Pretty much all my pitches are working now," Parkinson said of his arsenal of a fastball, curve, change-up and slider. "And Spin Williams [the Carolina pitching guru] taught me a sinker that I've gotten a lot of groundball outs out of."
Parkinson guesstimates that he's hurling the sinker up to 40 percent of time. No way he'd be doing that if he wasn't throwing his other stuff for strikes, though.
Said he: "Just learning how to pitch, I guess."
by CNB