Camden Courier-Post - July 14, 1980

Pirates spoil Brusstar’s return

By Rusty Pray of the Courier-Post

PHILADELPHIA – Warren Brusstar. Perhaps that name rang a bell with some of the 48,152 fans when it was announced over the Veterans Stadium public address system.

Warren Brusstar. Two years ago he was the prize of the Phillies bullpen, a sinkerball specialist who routinely transformed National League hitters into ground ball outs. Last year, he faded into minor-league limbo, the victim of a muscle tear in his right shoulder. This season, he was all but forgotten, a name evoked only when talk to the championship years of 1977-78.

That name walked to the mound in the eighth inning yesterday to mop up what would end a 7-3 loss to the Pittsburgh Pirates. The real damage had long since been done, pitcher Don Robinson, first baseman John Milner and shortstop Tim Foli all hitting home runs off starter Nino Espinosa.

THERE WAS, then, little external pressure on Brusstar when he threw his first pitch against major league competition since July 24, 1979. All he had to do was find out if he could still get that major league competition out.

Brusstar needed just two pitches to get the inning's first two outs, but had to throw 14 more to get the final out. In between, Bill Madlock and Ed Ott singled, Mike Schmidt made a throwing error and Phil Garner drove in Madlock with a base hit to left.

In the ninth, a more relaxed Brusstar retired the Bucs in order, significantly, on three ground balls.

"I CAME into the dugout after the first inning I threw and I knew I had to keep the ball down better because that's where I'm effective. After the second inning, I know what I have to do. It's just a matter of concentration.

"Everytime I throw, it seems my arm is getting stronger. Basically, it's because I have the mechanics right now..."

Pitching a baseball is not like riding a bicycle. The rhythm that must be second nature is soon shattered by idleness. The skills learned only by constant throwing erode rapidly.

"It's just the little things you do as you wind up," he explained. "You do one thing wrong and it progressively breaks down along the line."

SO IT was with Brusstar, who made sort of a pilgrimage through the medical world in search of the answer to his shoulder problems. He tried complete rest, but all that did was cause his muscles to atrophy. He tried strength-building exercises, but they helped only marginally.

He saw doctors on both coasts and another in Oklahoma before finally journeying, on his own, to see a chiropractor, Dr. David Fitzmorris, in St. Louis.

"He seemed to really help it quite a lot," Brusstar said. "Then, when I came back (to Philadelphia in May), I got on a program with Gus (Hoefling, the club's exercise coach) and I got a lot of strength back."

Had Brusstar not allowed that run in the eighth, and had Greg Gross been able to complete an inside-the-park home run in the seventh (he was thrown out at the plate after Bob Boone had scored to make it 6-2 the score would have been a manageable 6-4 when the Phils batted in the ninth.

AND THE circumstances would have been infinitely more interesting when the Phils got their first two runners on and Kent Tekulve came in from the Buc bullpen to pitch to Boone.

Certainly more than one person recalled the events of Saturday night when Boone stepped to the plate yesterday with the runners at second and third after Larry Bowa tried to bunt his way on. Pirate Manager Chuck Tanner had used a five-man infield with three men on the left side under similar circumstances Saturday. Boone, however, beat Tekulve, the shift and the Pirates with a ground single to left.

This time, though, Tanner boldly used four infielders. That tactic worked perfectly, Boone bouncing to the mound before Tekulve got Gross to ground out and bring a modest four-game Phillies winning streak to its conclusion.

ROBINSON, a fine hitting pitcher, put the puncuation on a four-run Pirate second with a two-run homer that all but decided the game and served notice that Espinosa, another just returning from sore-arm oblivion, is a long way from being the pitcher he was in 1979.

But at least – as Manager Dallas Green would point out – Espinosa and Brusstar were back... It had, indeed, been awhile since the two names had been called over the Vet's public address system.

PHIL UPS – Homer was first in Robinson's major league career... Robinson, who got the win, had to leave the game in the ninth after pulling a groin muscle on his first pitch to Boone... Weekend drew stadium record 153,615... Rose is 8-for-12 with seven RBIs over his last four games... Camden's Gabriel Pierantozzi was a member of a winning quartermile relay race team during a pregame promotion... Randy Lerch opposes Rick Rboden in home stand finale tonight.