Reese Kaplan -- Forgotten Setup Guys Part 6 of 6

I intentionally saved the best for last.  For any of you too young (or whose memory isn’t what it once was), allow me to give you a Turk Wendell refresher course.  He arrived to the Mets as part of the ill-fated trade that also brought Mel Rojas and Brian McRae.  Wendell was supposed to be the throw-in, yet he became the most important and longest tenured part of that deal.  (For what it’s worth, the players the Mets sent to the Cubs didn’t last too long or do very much in baseball after that trade – Lance Johnson, Mark Clark and Manny Alexander).

Wendell once said that all he cared about in life was his family, baseball and hunting.  As a testament to the latter, he wore a necklace festooned with the teeth of animals he’d killed hunting and fishing. 

He was a one-man show when it came to personal quirks on the field.  For example, he insisted that the umpires roll the ball to him rather than throw it.  If they didn’t comply, he would let it go by or let it bounce off his chest, then pick it up.  When he entered or exited the diamond, he would make an exaggerated leap over the foul lines.  He chewed exactly four pieces of black licorice before each inning he pitched (and lest you think he was putting his choppers in jeopardy, he would also brush his teeth between innings).  Before each inning began he turned to wave to the centerfielder and would wait for his return wave before beginning to toe the rubber to pitch.  Whenever his catcher stood up, he would squat down on the mound.    On his uniform he wore the number 99 in tribute to Charlie Sheen’s “Wild Man” Vaughn character from the movie “Major League”.  He was so obsessed with the number 9 that his contract was written for $9,999,999.99 instead of $10 million.  He would draw crosses in the dirt on the mound. 

While his former manager in Chicago, one recently fired-from-the-Mets Jim Riggleman, was totally intolerant of Wendell’s behavior, he was embraced by the fans for his individuality and adding color to what sometimes in a bland, vanilla experience where everyone is supposed to dress and act the same way.  Wendell was one of the first players to call out the steroid abusers of his era, singling out Barry Bonds and confirming that when he was in Chicago that Sammy Sosa was indeed using PEDs.  He said of Mark McGwire that he made a choice to cheat and when he later admitted it that he should give back the millions of dollars he earned under false pretenses.

Of course, all of the antics would be for naught if he was pitching like, say, Mel Rojas.  Wendell had a four-pitch arsenal that he used effectively during the parts of five seasons as a New York Met where he compiled a 22-14 record with 10 saves and a 3.34 ERA.  He paired with lefty Dennis Cook to be an effective setup duo for closer John Franco.  He had said he wanted to play his final year in baseball for free, but the Player’s Association wouldn’t let him do that.

In retirement Wendell did what he loved.  He bought a ranch which had game birds, elk, deer, pigs, turkeys and six ponds stocked with trout.  He worked the ranch and served as a game guide for people looking to hunt.  He recently sold that Colorado spread and is now looking to set up a similar environment in Iowa.