Houston Sports - Mike Scott

Mike Scott

Born: April 26, 1955

Sport: Baseball (124-108, 3-time All-Star, 1986 Cy Young)

As major league baseball continues its relentless march through the "dog days of summer", the kids of little league have been rapidly working their way towards their championship.  In just one week the Little League World Series will be played in Williamsport, PA, but today the kids get to see some of the stars of their sport perform in the annual Little League Classic, with the New York Mets playing against the Seattle Mariners.  As a 10-12 year old playing the game you love, it's inspiring to see the professionals perform at the highest level, especially when you recognize that many of them started off as little leaguers themselves.  This week we'll look at the story of Mike Scott, a Houston baseball legend who took that very path, learning the sport on a team that his dad coached before rising to the major league ranks to make his mark in the history books.

The Astrodome during Scott's mid-80s prime

Born in Santa Monica, CA, Mike Scott was the son of a Chevron employee named Warren and his wife, Kathy, who worked for an aeronautics manufacturing company.  In addition to his human resources job during the day, Warren decided to coach little league baseball for his two sons.  Mike showed a great deal of athleticism as he participated in surfing, golf, and basketball, but despite being a two-sport star and team captain at Hawthorne High School he believed his best chance at going far in a sport was in baseball.  He later claimed that his dad was an excellent coach during his time in little league, training him harder than anything he experienced in high school or college.  Scott wasn't heavily recruited, however, and nearly began studying at a junior college before receiving a call from the baseball coach at nearby Pepperdine University.  He played three seasons for the Waves, setting school records at the time for wins, innings pitched, and strikeouts, while also representing the United States in the 1975 Pan American Games on a team that claimed the silver medal.  During the MLB draft at the end of his junior year, Scott was surprised to be drafted by the Mets because he had not had any conversations with the franchise, but he left school to sign with New York's NL team and was assigned to their AA affiliate in Jackson, MS.

As a professional pitcher, Mike Scott began his climb towards reaching the major league club.  After getting a few games of experience immediately after the draft, he married his high school sweetheart, Vicki, during the offseason before returning to post a 14-10 record the next year during his first full season with Jackson.  Scott led the Texas League in wins as well as complete games, and his performance merited a promotion to AAA for his final two games of 1977.  Despite high hopes, however, his 10-10 season the following year in AAA was mediocre and Scott realized that his arsenal of pitches was not effective enough at the highest level of competition.  The Mets did not have many other options at the start of the 1979 season, however, so Scott and teammate Jesse Orosco were pushed onto the major league roster for Opening Day.  Although both would eventually be All-Stars with long careers, neither pitcher had what it took to stay with the big club and both found their way back to the minors.  Scott bounced back and forth a couple of times before finally sticking in the majors as a September call-up at the end of 1980, but the team was awful and despite his marginal improvement it began to look like he'd never amount to much.  After scuffling through a few more seasons, Scott was traded to Houston during the 1982 Winter Meetings for a midlevel relief pitcher.  The change of scenery eventually ended up working out better than either the team or player could've imagined.

The 1983 season in Houston showed some promise for Mike Scott, but those hopes were seemingly dashed the following year as he struggled to a 5-11 record with a 4.68 ERA, and he began to doubt if he had a future in the game.  At an offseason event, however, Scott had a conversation with teammate Enos Cabell about a former Detroit pitching coach named Roger Craig whose Tigers had won the World Series that year due, in part, to their use of the split-finger fastball.  Craig had initially retired after his squad hoisted the 1984 championship trophy, and Scott took advantage of the timing to contact him to be coached up.  The splitter was a natural fit for Scott's oversized hands, and at the age of 30 it revitalized his career.  His record that season jumped to 18-8 and his ERA plunged, and the following season saw Scott become the leader of a strong Astros pitching staff (which included names like Nolan Ryan and Joe Niekro) as he developed yet another pitch, the cut fastball.  While teams tried to accuse Scott of defacing the ball with sandpaper or other objects, nothing was ever proven and he commented that he enjoyed the scrutiny because it took the batters' minds off of hitting.  He led all of baseball in ERA, strikeouts, and innings pitched on his way to his first All-Star appearance as well as winning the first Cy Young award for a member of the Houston Astros.  On September 25, 1986, Mike Scott became the first pitcher in MLB history to throw a no-hitter in a clinching scenario as Houston blanked the San Francisco Giants, 2-0, to become the NL West division champs.  The Giants manager for that game, coincidentally, was Roger Craig.  Scott led the Astros into the postseason against his former team, the New York Mets, and threw two complete game victories.  Those were the only wins for the Astros, who fell 4-2, but Scott was named the series MVP despite his team's losing effort.

Although Mike Scott had several more notable years, the 1986 campaign marked the peak of his career.  He backed up his tremendous season with another All-Star appearance in 1987, and then in 1989 he reached his third midsummer classic while reaching 20 wins for the first time and finishing as the Cy Young runner-up.  Rumors continued to dog him that he was scuffing the ball, and managers continued trying to either catch him in the act or distract him from pitching by having umpires check for evidence.  None was ever found, and Scott had three games late in his career when he flirted with a second no-hitter, once each in 1987, '88, and '89.  The 1988 no-hit bid was broken up with just one out left in the game, prompting Atlanta's coach to marvel that Scott remained one of the game's premier pitchers.  By the end of 1989, however, his arm began to succumb to the wear and tear of pitching, and it was revealed that he'd torn his rotator cuff.  Scott struggled through the 1990 season, still laboring through 200 innings of work but without his usual efficiency, before getting shut down just two games into the 1991 campaign.  At the end of the year he officially retired after a full season on the disabled list, and in 1992 the Astros retired the numbers of Mike Scott and his longtime teammate, Jose Cruz.  He was part of the team's inaugural Hall of Fame class in 2019, adding to his earlier induction into the Pepperdine University Athletics Hall of Fame in 1983.  In retirement, the Scotts returned to southern California and raised their two daughters, but as the Houston Astros continue to have success the former star returns to the city from time to time to celebrate the franchise's rich history that he helped create.

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