It’s March 12, 1996, and the rain has finally stopped in Florida, allowing spring training to resume. The O’s lost to the Marlins, 3-0, but the good news was that starting pitcher Scott Erickson continued to look sharp, pitching five innings and allowing only 2 unearned runs. So far this spring, he’s allowed just 1 earned run in 11 innings, a promising sign for the righty who will slot in behind Mike Mussina and David Wells as the O’s #3 starter this season.

Scott Erickson was born in February 1968 in Long Beach, Ca. A multi-sport athlete in high school, Erickson was drafted by Major League Baseball a remarkable four times, finally signing when the Twins picked him in the fourth round in 1989 following a dominant season at the University of Arizona.

A year later, after only 27 starts in the minor leagues, Erickson was in the majors… and he was a sensation. He won 8 games in 1990, including a 5-0 September during which he surrendered only 7 runs in over 46 innings. The next year, he started 0-2 before winning 12 straight. By the end of June, his ERA sat at a minuscule 1.39 and more than 50,000 fans packed the Metrodome to see him pitch. 

His on-field success, combined with his brooding demeanor and propensity to wear black shoes, black socks and a black glove — and the fact that he looked like a Disney prince — made him quite a draw in Minnesota. As Dan Barreiro colorfully put in the Star Tribune: “The voice that announced his name outside the Metrodome did so in dignified fashion, but the Twins might as well have ordered him to play it more like a P.T. Barnum circus-barker: ‘Come one, come all! See the pitcher who never loses and growls at everybody but his catcher between innings! See the only man in the world who loves the color black more than [Raiders owner] Al Davis! See the shy sex symbol who makes Nordic weekend anchorwomen drool!’” (Star Tribune, p. 1C, June 30, 1991) Hmmm… Dan lost me a bit with that last line, but you get the gist.

Erickson finished 1991 with a major league leading 20 wins and finished second to Red Sox starter Roger Clemens for the AL Cy Young. The Twins won the World Series. Erickson was on top of the world at just 23 years old. Then, something curious happened. He became bad. Extremely bad.

After a solid 1992 season, the wheels fell off in 1993. He now led the major leagues in losses (19) and gave up an MLB worst 266 hits. His ERA sat at 5.19, a full 2 runs higher than in 1991. 

You see, the problem with Erickson is that his pitches rarely miss bats. Even in his best season, he only struck out 108 batters in 204 innings. That strikeout rate (4.8 per 9 innings) was well below the league average of 5.7. When so many balls are put in play — especially on the super fast astroturf of the Metrodome — you are often relying quite a bit on luck that the balls will be hit to your teammates instead of to open space. Now, Erickson did possess a heavy low-90s sinker that forced hitters to hit the ball on the ground at an extremely high rate. The league average ground ball rate in the 90s was in the mid-40ish% and even in his bad years, Erickson was still getting more than 55% of hitters to hit the ball on the ground.

But the problem was he just wasn’t fooling hitters anymore. He struggled badly during the strike-shortened 1994 season, though he did show glimpses of his dominance, including no-hitting the Brewers in April that year. But he was off to a bad start again in 1995 when the Twins finally decided to give up on their once-heralded phenom, sending him to Baltimore. “It’s a good move for me,” Erickson said at the time. “I’ll pitch on grass and in a nice ballpark. This turf is not good my style of pitching. Baltimore is, and I’m looking forward to it.” (Baltimore Sun, p. 1C, July 8, 1995) There may be something to that, as John Eisenberg noted in the Sun, Erickson’s ERA on grass at the time was a full run lower than it was on turf. (Baltimore Sun, p. 1C, July 8, 1995)

The fresh start seemed to work, and across 17 starts to close the season, he looked sharper than he’d looked since 1992, winning 9 games and pitching to an ERA in Baltimore that was more than 2 full runs lower than his ERA in Minnesota during the first half of the season.

And so now here we are. What Erickson are we going to get in 1996? Will it be a continuation of the bounce back at the end of 1995? Or will his struggles the last few years in Minnesota return? Or is it possible he could find some of the magic from when he took the majors by storm in his first couple seasons? His teammates are optimistic. “I think he could win 16 or 17 games,” said first baseman Rafael Palmeiro. “He’s a good pitcher, pitching with confidence again.” (Baltimore Sun, p. C1, March 21, 1996)

The early signs from spring training are positive, and if he could even be a league average starter and pitch 200+ innings, he could continue resurrecting his career and provide much needed stability for the rotation. 

The #1 song on the Billboard chart this week is still “One Sweet Day” by Mariah Carey and Boyz II Men. As I mentioned last week, it’s on a historic run and has been #1 since mid-December and has set the record for longest run at the top of the chart. Last week was the music video, so let’s do a live version:

Welcome to a recurring segment where I find fun things in today’s (in 1996) Baltimore Sun!

Traffic cops in the Philippines are apparently doing dance routines to “entertain” drivers stuck in gridlock. Maybe we should try this idea on Pratt Street during rush hour.