It was a late summer day in 1984. Hours before the game scheduled that night at Smith-Wills Stadium, a player was taking ground balls at shortstop, scooping them up and firing to first base with a beautiful rhythm. A visiting radio broadcaster in the press box remarked about how good “that shortstop out there” looked. It wasn’t a shortstop. It was Roger McDowell, a Jackson Mets pitcher who was still rehabbing from an elbow injury that shelved him for most of that season. McDowell is a man of many skills, as we have seen over the years. He has transitioned smoothly from minor league starter to major league reliever (with big league comedic talents, as well) to pitching coach, first in the minors now in the big leagues. The job he has done in Atlanta this year — his ninth in charge of the Braves’ staff — is worthy of an award. The Braves’ rotation has been plagued by injuries. Three projected front-line starters are out for the season. The relief corps also has taken injury hits. Five pitchers, all recent Mississippi Braves, have made their MLB debuts in the bullpen this season, plugging holes as necessary. And yet, Atlanta has a 3.27 ERA, fifth-best in MLB, third-best in the National League, and leads the NL East standings. It isn’t hitting that got them there. The ’84 JaxMets were a star-studded bunch, but McDowell had some shining moments of his own in the Texas League Championship Series win over Beaumont. He was in the big leagues the next year, and in 1986, he got the win in Game 7 of New York’s World Series triumph over Boston. McDowell pitched for 12 seasons, winning 70 games, saving 159 and posting a 3.30 ERA. He even hit .222. He became a minor league pitching coach in 2002 and succeeded Leo Mazzone, no small task, in Atlanta in 2005. McDowell has handled the job with aplomb and never better than in 2014. P.S. Seth Smith, the former Ole Miss star, led off with a home run for San Diego on Tuesday, ending an 0-for-17 skid and a nine-game homer-less drought. He has nine bombs for the year and is hitting .281, worthy of some All-Star consideration. … Pascagoula native Joey Butler finally made his debut in Japan on Tuesday. Butler, released by St. Louis so that he could sign with the Orix Buffaloes, went 2-for-4 in a win over Rakuten. Among Butler’s teammates is former big leaguer Wily Mo Pena.
