PITTSBURGH (93.7 The Fan) – While the Pirates are still figuring out the role for new assistant pitching coach Brent Strom, there are a couple of really cool connections between him and a Pirates legend.
Strom has been around a little bit, at 76 the veteran coach was a teammate of Willie Mays. It was being on that same Mets team that afforded him the opportunity to witness history and earlier that season face the same Hall of Famer.
It was September 30, 1972, when Roberto Clemente stepped to the plate in the fourth inning at Three Rivers Stadium. Strom was in the Mets bullpen as Clemente doubled into left centerfield for his 3,000th hit.
"I remember being there, watching the ball being hit,” Strom told Pittsburgh reporters on Thursday. “I'll never forget that, knowing of him and seeing him. And then I had the opportunity that winter to go to San Juan and play Winter Ball, and he was on the team. I remember going on New Year's Day to go to the beach and there was a commotion at the end of the beach, and that was where the plane had gone down on its way to Nicaragua. That's my connection with Roberto.”
There was another, the first Major League hitter he ever faced in Spring Training was Clemente. He got him to ground out to second. After being so excited to retire the Great One, he gave up a home run to Bob Robertson on the next pitch.
Skenes impressed
Strom said he’s had history with a number of big-time pitchers, dropping Justin Verlander and Gerrit Cole’s names. He got to meet Pirates rookie Paul Skenes at the All-Star Game this year, Strom was one of the coaches.
“I was just very impressed by the way he prepared and what he went through to get ready for the All-Star Game,” Strom said. “It was my first time I ever met him and I remember writing a little short piece, a small scouting report on the American League lineup. I think I took the first six hitters and I kind of wrote down Judge and Soto, and it just was on a little piece of paper in pen. I gave him the first six hitters. He said, ‘I think I'll be through with them before we get to the sixth hitter.”
He was immediately impressed that such a young pitcher would be that confident.
“But the preparation that he puts in and the year he had was exceptional, but now the hard part begins,” Strom said.
“He’s got to repeat it. The league will catch up to him a little bit, they'll start to understand him a little bit, and so this is a young man I think that will continue to make adjustments.”
“I think he wants to be great, and I think that having that mindset will benefit not only him, but benefit this ball club in a residual way.”
Strom said the league knows the quality of pitching they have in Pittsburgh and he’s excited to add whatever he can to help it get even better.