If those who fail to learn from history are doomed to repeat it, then count Jeremy Sowers in the faction that will be just fine.
The No. 6 overall pick in the 2004 draft, Sowers rose through the ranks of the Indians organization with a bullet, going 23-4 with Kinston, Akron and Buffalo before being called up the big club during the 2006 campaign. Sowers went 7-4 with a 3.57 ERA during his first go-round with Cleveland, earning himself a spot in the 2007 rotation.
Yet the political science graduate from Vanderbilt took a step back last season, going 1-6 before being sent to Buffalo for more seasoning, where he went 4-5 with a 4.10 ERA. When Sowers hits the Norfolk mound Saturday for his first regular season start, he'll look to rediscover the dominant hurler who allowed just one home run in 97 innings with the Herd in 2006.
Frankly, he's far too bright to fail.
At 6'1", 180 pounds, the 24-year old appears relatively unassuming from his perch in the visitors clubhouse at Harbor Park, and you get the feeling he's fine avoiding the spotlight. Asking permission to wait until after he "finishes this page" before giving an interview, Sowers is happy to speak on topics other than baseball, in particular why he's been reading almost from the moment he arrived at Buffalo Niagara International Airport for the flight to Virginia.
"We have a lot of downtime playing this game," Sowers said. "I suppose you could watch baseball on tv, but you're getting ready to do that in a couple hours every day for the whole season, so for some of us there's an idea that you could get burned out on baseball. You have to find some other interests outside of baseball so you aren't thinking of baseball twenty-four-seven."
Sowers has plenty, and over the course of about a half-hour during the lead-up to Friday's game, we get into literature, politics, music and the state of America, and his insight is both interesting and astute.
On politics:
"I'm kind of ashamed at the way politics are played in this country, with the campaigning, earmarks and pork barrels. The idea that these guys get up on the podium and they have to honestly be thinking to themselves, 'This is B.S.' That's being very negative, but it's kind of a harsh reality of politics. It's kind of what's happening with mainstream media and the sound bite, but maybe by learning more about it, you can perhaps change it."
On the 2008 presidential election:
"Look at the hype behind Obama campaigning on the basis of change. I don't necessarily agree with him and I probably won't vote for him, but it's nice to see somebody actually suggesting that. Despite myself being a traditional person, I do understand that gradual change is necessary, and perhaps it's time to go in a better direction that we've been missing out on the last couple of decades."
On why he reads:
"The idea of trying to expand yourself and become a more well-rounded person."
There's plenty more — he enjoyed the Ayn Rand's immense tale, "The Fountainhead," and recommends the Beatles/Electric Light Orchestra-esque musical evolution of Panic at the Disco — and it's easy to buy into Sowers being knowledgeable on a number of complex issues, speaking with an authoritative tone that welcomes an argument. The talk turns to pitching, and Sowers gives the low down on several areas, including how hard it is to improve during the long season.
"Hitters can hit every day, but after we throw 100 pitches, we have a couple days of our arm hanging," Sowers said. "It doesn't so much hurt, but you can tell you arm's exhausted. So if we're trying to work on a change-up or slider, after 30-35 pitches in the bullpen you need to shut it down or you're gonna wear yourself out for your next start."
"You can go out there and throw seven innings and 100 pitches and all 100 pitches were easy cause the team was winning 10-0 the whole game, or you can have that really tough game where they're fouling everything off and after five innings you've got your 100 in and even though you might've pitched good, you were pitching with guys on base or in important situations in a close game. There's different stress levels you put on your arm. If you're having a hell of a season, everything's real easy, but if you pitch bad and you're going through tough times, you're going to feel more exhausted."
It all comes back to not "burning out on baseball," as he said earlier, and Sowers finds stimulation from several directions, including the combination of two of the previously-mentioned hobbies: reading and politics.
"I'm more of a fan of non-fiction than fiction," Sowers said. "I like learning about stuff that actually happened. Granted, I just finished reading 'Breakfast of Champions' by Vonnegut, but the last couple books I read were the biography for Alan Greenspan and Robert E. Rubin, the Treasury secretary for Bill Clinton. There are some cool things you can learn about our history and it's quite amazing how relevant some of that is today and how reading about how what happens in the sixties, seventies, even 100 years ago, it always comes full circle. Despite the technological differences, the premise of everything is basically the same. It's just kind of nice to get as many different vantage points as possible and make your own assessment of who you are and what you believe in."
So I'm definitely pulling for Sowers for more than the simple fact that he's tossing for the city where I was raised, but I'm also hoping he gets at least a few starts with the Herd before Cleveland plucks him away. He's a guy worth talking to, and that's a change of pace.
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Some other quick notes:
— "Everything Is Illuminated" was on HBO in my hotel room this afternoon, and I remembered just how fine a film it is, with Elijah Wood headlining the story of a American grandson heading to the Ukraine to discover the genesis of his recently-deceased Ukrainian grandfather's World War II-era emigration.
— I'm reading several books right now, and I'd recommend them all:
1) Cormac McCarthy's "The Road"
2) Jim Cramer's "Stay Mad For Life"
3) David Maraniss' "Clemente: The Passion and Grace of Baseball's Last Hero"
4) Andre Dubus' "In The Bedroom"
— Josh Barfield's taken his demotion to Buffalo directly to his bat, going 4-for-5 in Thursday's season-opening win.
— Hey, because this is my blog, and there won't be any editor changing my work, I wanted to throw an interesting quote from Sowers that didn't make the story. It's regarding how candidates are chosen by either party.
"I remember I took a class a couple years ago where the whole basis of our class is whether or not Americans were polarized. Most of the stuff we had read in that class suggested that it was, that people were either staunch republicans or staunch democrats. I never had any proof to it, but empirically that's not what everybody is, we're all towards the middle and I think that's kind of showing itself now."
— As surprised as I was that golfing by yourself is pretty fun, staying alone in a nice hotel room with nothing to do until the afternoon is all aces, too. When do I get up? When do I take a shower? When do I read? When do I hit the gym? When do I put on pants? The answer is quite simple: whenever I'd like.
It's another non-sports topic that I'd be interesting in discussing if it floats any of your proverbial boats. Shoot me an email at nick@wgr550.com
— Alright, it's almost game time here in Norfolk. Talk to you Saturday.
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