Baseball has its own Rudy.
There was an inspirational football movie made about Rudy Ruettiger, an undersized, down-and-out kid who followed his dream to Notre Dame, became a human scout-team dummy and was rewarded by getting a uniform in his final game and tackle in the final moments.
Baseball ought to have an award named after Rudy Seanez, who at 5-feet-11 is an undersized, hard-throwing reliever for the San Diego Padres.
You thought Rudy overcame long odds in the movie? Seanez missed the entire 1992 season after a bone scan using radioactive material found what an X-ray missed: spondylolysis, a deterioration of the prongs connected to the spinal column.
That wasn’t the worst of it. The worst was getting released by the 1993 Rockies and 1997 Royals before throwing a pitch for either team.
“No, the worst was when I was traded to Kansas City that year, I was traded for a player to be named later,” Seanez said Friday from the visiting clubhouse at Coors Field, “and it turned out the player was already playing in Japan.”
Mike Fyrie eventually returned stateside to post a 2-11 record in a major-league career that ended in 2002. Seanez kept getting put down, knocked around and moved on.
Since the Indians drafted him in 1986, Seanez has changed organizations 15 times. After making it with the Indians, he pitched for the Dodgers (twice), Padres (three times), Braves (twice), Rangers, Red Sox, Royals (in 2004) and Marlins. He also signed with the Mets, Cubs and Rockies but pitched only for their minor-league teams.
And don’t even start with the minor leagues. Just last season, at 35, Seanez opened in Omaha. The season before that he started in Oklahoma City before ending in Des Moines with Pawtucket in between. There was Lake Elsinore in 2001, Greenville in 2000, Richmond in 1998, Norfolk in 1997, hot-blasted Albuquerque for all of 1996 and San Bernardino in 1995.
Nothing like buses and budget hotels for a bad back.
“I’d like to know how many parks I’ve played in,” Seanez said.
When Seanez harkens back to Single-A Pulaski, he doesn’t immediately recall the no-hitter he threw in 1986. He remembers walking off the field and having nowhere to go.
“The ballparks they had in Pulaski and Bluefield in that Appalachian League, I don’t know how the players do it,” Seanez said. “It was just a ballpark and that’s it. No clubhouse, no showers, no nothing. They had a place where you dress and shower at the hotel, but … I can see it if it was way back when, but not in the ’80s and ’90s.”
Today, in 2005, the strikeout leader among major-league relievers is not Eric Gagne, Francisco Rodriguez or Brad Lidge. It’s Rudy Seanez with 62 strikeouts in only 39 1/3 innings.
“I’d hate to think where we would be without Rudy,” Padres manager Bruce Bochy said.
With Rudy, the Padres lead the otherwise-sorry National League West. Without him, the Padres might join the other West teams below the .500 line.
“He’s been one of our unsung heroes,” Bochy said.
An unsung hero named Rudy? Baseball’s real-life Rudy is decorated in tattoos and has been on the disabled list 10 times. Seanez considers the injury transactions more an inconvenience than a badge of honor come winter when he’s trying to find another job.
“Five of those injuries had to do with groins,” Seanez said. “Teams don’t know most of my injuries had nothing to do with my arm. The only thing I had with my arm was a ‘Tommy John,’ another surgery to clean up a bone spur on my elbow and another minor one to clean up my shoulder. But that’s about it for my arm.”
And another surgery to fix a herniated disc. But that’s about it. Having professionally survived his battered body parts, trades and releases, Seanez is having his best season.
“I hope I can stay in the league for a while this time,” he said.
In the movie, Rudy was carried off the field. Hollywood probably wouldn’t be interested in baseball’s Rudy. It’s too real.
Mike Klis can be reached at 303-820-5440 or mklis@denverpost.com.
