I’ve had a bunch of people asking me when will I put out a MLB story. I’m doing so now with one of my most memorable games with the @Brewers. This was a day game that took place on May 1, 1991 @ County Stadium in Milwaukee against the @whitesox. It was one of those

days that you could see the smoke and could smell the faithful tailgaters cooking burgers and brats from the parking lot. I had pitched a few days earlier in Baltimore where I pitched into the 7th inning beating Cal Ripken and the Orioles, and today was supposed to be my bullpen

day until pitching coach Larry Haney and manager Tom Trebelhorn told me that we were going to be short with relief pitchers today. @Plesac19 and Chuck Crim were for sure not going to pitch, and they wanted to rest Edwin Nunez, so they told me to not throw my bullpen until the

8th or 9th inning, I was going to sit in the bullpen and be an extra backup in case of an emergency. Our starting pitcher would give up 3 runs in the 1st inning, 2 more in the 3rd, and when a couple of runners got on in the 4th, Treb brought in Julio Machado. It looked like the

White Sox were going to put us away, but in the bottom of the 5th we scored 6 runs to take a 6-5 lead. Now Trebelhorn was going to have to use our worn out bullpen pitchers to win this game. Machado was replaced in the 7th with Mark Lee. The White Sox tied the game in the 7th.

Lee would hold them down in the 8th & 9th innings. I was not throwing my bullpen, I was told to wait and do it after the game. Treb had to bring in a tired Nunez to pitch a scoreless 10th inning. In the 11th inning Treb brought in Darren Holmes who put up 4 scoreless innings, but

the White Sox relievers were putting up zeroes too. In the 14th inning I was told by bullpen coach Ray Burris that I was going to pitch the 15th inning. While warming up my arm was dead, sore, and tired, but if Treb needed me I was going to suck it up. My first batter in the 15th

was Sammy Sosa, he would reach base on a slow rolling infield hit, then Cory Snyder bunted, Surhoff three to second to get Sosa, but the throw was late. The next batter was Karkovice who bunted the runners to 2nd & 3rd. The next better was left handed hitter Ozzie Guillen, I

figured with 1st base open I would pitch around Guillen, so my first pitch was a ball outside off the plate 6 inches off the ground, somehow Guillen reaches out there and smokes a line drive up the middle so fast that I couldn’t react, the ball skinned off my wrist and hit me

square in the head by my jaw and ear, I went down, the bounced back to the 3rd base line scoring Sosa. Immediately our team Dr. Jacobs, our trainer, and Trebelhorn rushed to the mound where I was laying. They asked me if I was alright, the first thing I did was feel my ear to

see if it was still on my head, it was still there, then I checked my hand to see if it had blood on it, no blood. I got up to my feet and got checked out by Dr. Jacobs. Since I knew I was the last pitcher we had I told Treb that I could still pitch. I took a few warm ups and I

was ready. The next batter was Scott Fletcher who hit a sac fly to score Snyder. Tim Raines singled in Guillen, then another infield hit, and I would finally get Ventura out to end the inning, 3 runs scored where I gave up 3 infield hits with 3 sacrifices in the inning. In the

bottom of the 15th Greg Vaughn led off with an infield hit, Bichette doubled, Gantner a sac fly, followed by another sac fly by Surhoff, then with 2 outs Willie Randolph singled in Bill Spiers, we tied the game 9-9. Now I had to go out and pitch the 16th inning. Frank Thomas

ground out, Sosa strikeout, Snyder single, Karkovice ground out. I would put up another zero in the 17th & 18th innings. In the 18th inning I was throwing the ball as hard as I could just to hope to make it to home plate. After that inning I told Treb I could pitch only one more

inning. The 19th inning was probably my easiest inning in my MLB career. I got Ozzie Guillen to pop out to first on my 1st pitch, way out in front, probably because my fastball was so slow, then Cora grounded out to 1st on the 2nd pitch, and then I laid a nothing fastball right

over the plate to Raines who hit a line drive right to Bichette. 3 up 3 down on pitches. I was done, Treb had Gary Sheffield get ready to pitch the 20th inning. With 2 outs in the bottom of the 19th Willie Randolph singled home Jim Gantner for the walk off winning run. Everyone

was so happy, the guys were yelling, high fiving, hugging, etc. it was a big win, especially after playing for 6 hours and 5 minutes, 19 innings, and wiping out an already depleted bullpen. You have to win! In the training room I had ice packs on my shoulder, elbow, wrist, and my

jaw. Our General Manager Harry Dalton came in to congratulate me shaking my hand, he had the biggest smile on his face. He told me to take my wife Tami out to the best restaurant in Milwaukee and to bring him the receipt. For the rest of that home stand, then the next homestand

after our road trip Tami and I never went. Then after we returned from another road trip Harry came up to me and asked why I haven’t given him a receipt yet. I told him I haven’t gone that I felt too much time has past. Harry said “there is no statute of limitations, take your

wife out and have a great time.” That home stand Tami and I went out to a very nice restaurant and had a great time, it was kind of expensive. The next day when I arrived at the stadium I went to Harry’s office to give him the receipt, but he wasn’t there, I gave it to his

secretary. After the game ended that night Harry came up to me in the locker room and gave me a check from his personal check book. He wasted no time. Harry didn’t have to do that for me. It was very much appreciated and remembered. The 19 inning game was a highlight in my career