When he was with the White Sox, Ray Berres, now retired and living in Twin Lakes, Wis., was known as “The best of the best.” Most baseball insiders–scouts, managers, coaches–generally acknowledged Berres was the best pitching coach of his time.
As has been said, time marches on and now, more than 25 years later, Berres has a successor. He is Ray Miller, 52, a mound magician who is in his second term as the pitching guru of the Baltimore Orioles.
“I’ve had a lot of good ones,” said Baltimore manager Davey Johnson, rattling off Don Gullett, Mel Stottlemyre, Pat Dobson. “But I would have to say Ray Miller is the best.”
Johnson explained further.
“He’s the most thorough,” he said. “He sees everything. The players have a lot of respect for him.”
Like some who teach, Miller didn’t have a successful playing career. A left-handed pitcher, he put in 10 years in the minors, seven in Triple A, but won only 60 games. He seldom missed a turn and estimates, counting seven seasons of winter ball, he averaged close to 300 innings a season.
Unlike the current generation, Miller didn’t have the benefit of good coaching.
“I threw extremely hard,” he explained “and when I pitched well they always said, `Attaboy, rare back and fire!’ And when I was going bad, all they said was, `You have to throw more strikes.’ “
Miller is quick to admit he was a dunderhead.
“I averaged a strikeout an inning, in my whole career,” he remembered. “Other guys didn’t have my fastball. It took me a long time to understand. I was throwing 95 (m.p.h.) and they were throwing 85 and went right by me to the big leagues.
“So I said to myself, `When I become a coach I’m going to tell my pitchers, it isn’t how hard you throw. It’s more important to change speeds.’ “
In his 17 seasons as a big-league pitching coach, Miller has had seven 20-game winners and three Cy Young winners, including Steve Stone, the Cubs announcer who was 25-7 with the Orioles in 1980. Miller recalls Stone as “an apt student . . . you didn’t have to tell him twice.”
It has been a slow learning process for Scott Erickson, who has developed into one of the American League’s pitching stars. A tall right-hander, Erickson started with the Minnesota Twins. He won 20 games in his second season. Instead of learning the craft he fell in love with his fastball.
Tom Kelly, his manager at Minnesota, and pitching coach Dick Such repeatedly asked him to mix in more breaking pitches and, most of all, work on his changeup. Erickson didn’t listen. The Twins unloaded him and sent him to the Orioles in July 1995.
He showed minor improvement the last two years but it wasn’t until this season, when Miller arrived, that he was converted from a “thrower” to a “pitcher.”
“I didn’t do much,” Miller said. “I kept telling him, `You have to keep focused.’ “
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Some insiders insist Erickson’s success is much more complex.
“Miller changed his delivery,” said one veteran scout. “It gave him two-to-three more (m.p.h.) on his fastball.”
Miller is flattered but said in response, “If I could add velocity I’d be working out of my home.”
Like Berres before him, Miller is modest almost to a fault. His contribution, he insists, has been an emphasis on fundamentals, nothing more.
For example, in addition to widening his repertoire, Erickson now is keeping his pitches down and using both sides of the plate. This was particularly apparent Wednesday night when the Orioles whipped the Indians 3-0 in the first game of the AL playoffs.
Erickson, who worked eight scoreless innings on a yield of four singles, got 12 groundouts, two of which were turned into double plays. He threw only 90 pitches, didn’t allow a walk and was constantly ahead on the count.
Randy Myers, the Orioles’ star reliever who was almost perfect during the regular season (45 saves in 46 opportunities), also has listened to Miller’s advice.
“Two years ago when he saved 50 games for the Cubs, I saw about 15 of those games and he consistently threw strike one,” Miller said. “Last year it seemed like it was constantly ball one. I asked him to concentrate on throwing more first-pitch strikes and he has done that.”
A doff of the chapeau to Ray Miller, the best of the best.