Project: Reclamation — Three hurlers who made it back from the brink
(Note: Article originally appeared in the May 17, 2002 edition (issue VII) of NationalPastimes.net)

This season has special stories like any other.

First, the National League East appears to be more of a dog fight than anyone imagined: the Florida Marlins and Montreal Expos are at or slightly above .500, with the Philadelphia Phillies are scuffling along in last.

Secondly, the Cincinnati Reds are leading the NL Central after a month and a half with a make-shift pitching staff led by Jimmy Haynes, who leads the starters with four wins. But you need to look further down that list of pitchers to see someone tied for that team’s lead in wins.

When you see the name, you gasp.

Then you double take.

That can’t be the same guy, can it?

It sure is. The name is Jose Rijo, and don’t you forget it.

He’s the same guy who won the 1990 World Series MVP for the Reds.

He’s the same guy who went 92-57 from 1989 to 1995 and was among the best starters in the game.

He’s the same guy who became the first player since Minnie Minoso to return to the majors after receiving a Hall of Fame vote.

Rijo, Derek Lowe of the Boston Red Sox, and Jason Simontacchi of the St. Louis Cardinals are three compelling stories that have evolved early in the 2002 campaign.

Rijo’s return is from injury. He blew his arm out in 1995 in a game against San Diego and had reconstructive surgery. In fact, he had four reconstructive surgeries because he came back too soon.

He never gave up hope of returning to the majors, despite not throwing for two years.

“I never thought it would take this long,” Rijo, 36, told ESPN.com. “Nobody knows how long it took me to be here today.”

Rijo returned to the Reds last season after making a phone call to general manager Jim Bowden early 2001. After some time at Triple-A Louisville, he got the call in August 2001.

“I cannot describe with words how I feel right now. It’s beyond anything in my life that I ever accomplished,” an emotional Rijo commented to ESPN.com. “No moment could beat this moment today, until I die and go to heaven and meet Jesus. This feeling is that close.”

He spent the rest of the season in the bullpen.

This season, Rijo started out in the bullpen, putting in duty as a long reliever. Recently, he has been put into the rotation, compiling a 4-2 record and a 4.40 ERA. Not too bad for a guy who underwent five elbow surgeries and was thought to be retired.

The long road back for Rijo has a strange match to one Jason Simontacchi, 28, of St. Louis.

Simontacchi (pronounced Sigh-min-TATCH-eee) took the long road as well.

His journey reads like Gulliver’s Travels: released by the Kansas City Royals and Pittsburgh Pirates, then to the Italian League, and the 2000 Australian Olympics, to Memphis and now St. Louis.

The journey to St. Louis began with a phone call from an unlikely source: the manager from a team in the Italian League begged him to throw for his team. Remini, where Simontacchi became a fixture for the weekend-based league, would be his home that season. While there, he worked on change-up that helped him compile 12-1 record and a sub-two ERA (1.71)

It led to unlikely honor.

He made the Italian Olympic team for the 2000 Games in Sydney (his grandparents are Italian émigrés), going 1-1 with a 1.17 ERA. He defeated South Africa and tossed against the United States. His crucial two-base error cost the Italians an upset over the U.S., but the memory was nice.

“I’ve never dreamt of being in the Olympics,” Simontacchi told the St Louis Post-Dispatch. “Obviously, every young kid dreams of being in the big leagues.”

His dream would come true May 4th against the Atlanta Braves in an emergency start for the Cardinals.

With his parents in the stands, Simontacchi hurled a gem. He went seven strong innings, walking just one and allowing the Braves only four hits. He retired the first 10 Atlanta hitters in order before Marcus Giles homered in the fourth.

He would end up with the victory.

“My mom is going to bawl her eyes out,” he said to the Post-Dispatch. “They got in late last night. I told them I didn’t want to talk to them (until after the game) I had enough nerves already.”

And to think the Cardinals almost missed out on Simontacchi.

Thanks to former Cardinal Dave La Point, who was a pitching coach of his in the Venezuelan Winter League, Simontacchi signed with St. Louis.

“Sometimes,” noted Cardinals general manager Walt Jocketty, “you can get lucky when you’ve got good scouts, like we do. Sometimes you come up with pearls like this.”

Since his first start against the Braves, Simontacchi has gone 3-0 with a 2.73 ERA. In his most recent start, against the organization that gave up on him (Pittsburgh), he pitched 7 1/3 and scattered eight hits in the winning effort.

Derek Lowe didn’t have that hard of a road back, but in the minds of some Bostonians last season, the Red Sox should’ve dumped his lifeless arm and body somewhere near the ‘Big Dig’.

Last year was no peach for Dearborn, Michigan native.

He began last season as the Sox closer after a pretty successful 1999 campaign filling in for Tom Gordon and then carrying over that success to 2000, compiling 42 saves and a 2.54 ERA.

In 2001, it wasn’t so pleasant. In his first eleven appearances, he took the loss in five of them. It got so bad that he was sent to middle relief by the month of May. He would regain the job, only to be set back again, this time, the club dealt for Ugueth Urbina from the Montreal Expos to fill his old slot.

By the end of the season, he showed glimpses of promise as a starter, the role he had at the start of his career. His three starts led the groundwork for him being named a starter this season.

The AL Pitcher of the Month for April, Lowe showed Bostonians that a glimmer of life might still exist in that right arm of his. He started out the 2002 campaign strongly, going 3-1 with solid outings against the Baltimore Orioles and the hated-rival New York Yankees. In fact, he nearly threw a no-hitter in the team’s second start of the season, only allowing one hit in seven innings pitched.

What stands out, though, is the gem of a game he pitched on April 27th.

On that cool, 56-degree day at Fenway, he accomplished a task that not even Pedro Martinez has: he hurled a no-hitter against the hapless Tampa Bay Devil Rays, winning 10-0. It was the first no-hitter at Fenway since 1965.

What made it even more mind racking for Lowe was the fact he had to sit in the dugout in the bottom of the eighth while the Red Sox sent eight men to the plate.

“It was hard,” Lowe told The Sporting News. “Obviously, in a perfect world, you go 1-2-3 and run back out there. But the hitters don’t care what’s going on. They want to go out there and get RBIs, get hits.”

Lowe looked back on last season and said, “It gives you a feeling you don’t want to have again . . . I’ve had drastic years, from 2000 to 2001. You don’t want that feeling where you get in a game and people are saying, ‘Oh no, not this guy.’ Especially in this town.”

Since the no-hitter, Lowe has gone 3-1 and has lived up to the bill of being a solid number two starter. At his current pace, (7-2, 2.12 ERA) he is aiming for a 24-7 record and a 2.12 ERA.

Who knows?

As Martinez told writers after the no-hitter, “I think he’s got a chance to throw many more. He’s that kind of a pitcher. You haven’t seen anything yet.”

He could just be the surprise All-Star Game starter in Milwaukee.