Meet Some Local Ex-Pro Ballplayers: Brad Tweedlie, Enfield

Today is Feb. 14, and while that does mean it's Valentine's Day, it is also one of the most eagerly-anticipated dates on the calendar for baseball fans. Ordinarily, pitchers and catchers would have reported to Major League Baseball training camps on this date, but the current lockout - now at day 72 and counting - has postponed that scenario indefinitely.

Patch is filling a bit of the void by debuting a 5-part series of periodic feature stories about former pro baseball players of the 1980s and 1990s, all of whom hail from or currently live in Hartford County. The oldest is 61, the youngest 47; their tales are timeless.

ENFIELD, CT — When Brad Tweedlie was inducted into the Enfield Athletic Hall of Fame in 2006, one of the people he thanked was his wife Judy, "who would get out of work on a Friday, drive down to Trenton or wherever I was playing and fight all that traffic just to watch me sit in the bullpen and chew sunflower seeds. The life of a relief pitcher!"

Despite how mundane that may sound, Tweedlie's athletic career, both amateur and professional, was anything but dull. The California native, whose family moved to Connecticut when he was in second grade, became a 2-sport standout at Enfield High School, earning All-CCC East honors in both baseball and football. He accepted an offer to play both sports at Columbia University, but a change of circumstances kept him from the prestigious Ivy League institution, much to his regret.

" I had committed to Columbia, but then I pitched in a tournament in Boston and threw a 1-hitter with 13 strikeouts," he said. "J.P. Ricciardi, who later became general manager of the Toronto Blue Jays, was scouting for Oakland and said he wanted to sign me. I told Columbia thanks but I was going to go pro, and they were great about it and understood. When I talked to J.P., he said the offer had been cut considerably, because they had to sign the guys they drafted and all the extra bonus money was gone."

He wound up at Division I Western Carolina University, where the Catamounts won two Southern Conference tournament titles and twice played in the NCAA tournament during his tenure. Tweedlie's 95-plus MPH fastball was attracting the attention of big league scouts, and following his junior season in 1993, he was the 3rd-round draft choice (92nd overall) of the Cincinnati Reds.

Like most draft picks, Tweedlie began his pro career in rookie league ball far from home - a 2,150-mile ride to Montana to be exact - with the Billings Mustangs of the Pioneer League.

"Billings is actually beautiful, with a mountain range where you can look over the whole city," he said. "There isn't a whole lot to do out there though, and the killer was the bus rides."

Appearing in 11 games, including eight starts, he compiled a 3-3 record with a 4.30 earned-run average. His primary catcher was future 12-year MLB veteran Paul Bako, and his first professional manager was former big league catcher Donnie Scott, who guided his young team to the league championship.

"Donnie Scott was a super guy, he was fun," Tweedlie said. "I thought if every manager is like him, it's going to be awesome, but they weren't. A lot of them took it way more seriously that it should have been."

For the next two and a half seasons, Tweedlie played for Reds farm clubs in North Carolina and West Virginia. The Cincinnati franchise was owned at the time by Marge Schott, a somewhat controversial and eccentric woman known primarily for being in the constant company - even during games - of her pet Saint Bernard, Schottzie.

"We were in training camp and all of a sudden, we were told there was an urgent meeting for all the minor leaguers," Tweedlie recalled. "We had to go in there and sing 'Happy Birthday' to that damn dog. It was the most awkward thing ever."

The organization began converting him into a full-time relief pitcher in 1995, and he compiled 11 saves in the first half of the 1996 campaign with the Winston-Salem Warthogs. Everything changed on July 30 that year, however, when Cincinnati traded Tweedlie and infielder Roberto Mejia to the Boston Red Sox for Kevin Mitchell, who had been the National League Most Valuable Player seven years earlier with the San Francisco Giants.

" I think I was more of a throw-in at the end or something," he laughed. "It's funny because I didn't find out about it until it was on ESPN. There was a ticker running across the bottom on Baseball Tonight and it said, 'Boston Red Sox trade Kevin Mitchell to Reds for second baseman Roberto Mejia and right-handed pitcher Brad Tweedlie.' I go, 'Is that me? I've got to go call my agent.'"

He was assigned to Sarasota in the Florida State League and immediately began dominating hitters. In 11 games as the closer, he saved seven and won two, allowing just one earned run for a miniscule 0.79 ERA. The following year, he was promoted to Double-A for the first time, appearing in 120 games for the Trenton Thunder over the next three seasons under manager DeMarlo Hale.

Tweedlie recalled a memorable appearance he made in New Britain, at the time the Eastern League affiliate of the Minnesota Twins, and his first encounter with newly-elected Baseball Hall of Famer David Ortiz.

"They bring me in in the ninth inning, we're up two, runners at first and second and Papi's up," he said. "First pitch, 3-run home run, game over. My brother says, 'You saved Papi's career.' He's going to be talking about me in his Hall of Fame speech!"

The Thunder ran away from the pack during the 1999 regular season with a 92-50 record, but were shockingly eliminated from the playoffs by the Norwich Navigators. Despite posting a 6-0 record and 3.65 ERA in 44 relief appearances, Tweedlie was 28 years old by year's end, and his contract with the Red Sox expired.

His agent approached him with a lucrative offer to pitch professionally in Japan, so Tweedlie headed overseas for the 2000 campaign. He was initially assigned to the top minor league in that country, but a decision to convert him back to a starter led to shoulder problems, which he had battled intermittently earlier in his career.

"My arm just started hurting, and I was barely able to reach the plate," he said. "About three-quarters of the way through the season, I told my agent we need to get an MRI on this. They said my MRI was fine, I just needed two weeks of rehab."

Though he was barely able to top 80 MPH on his once-vaunted fastball that had at times reached 99 in the minors, Tweedlie was suddenly told he would be starting a game with the Osaka Kintetsu Buffaloes of the Japan Pacific League - the major league in that country. His stint, however, was somewhat brief, to say the least.

"I probably wasn't even hitting 78 MPH, and I'm facing Ichiro's team," he recalled. "I walked the first guy, threw a wild pitch and gave up four hits, all while getting no one out. I finally throw a pitch that goes about six feet behind the hitter, and I threw my hands up and told my translator, 'I'm done, I can't throw any more.'"

He was sent to world-renowned orthopedic surgeon Dr. James Andrews, who diagnosed him with a shredded rotator cuff. After surgery and months of intensive rehabilitation, he got an offer to play in Korea, but turned it down and called it a career.

Tweedlie returned to Enfield and worked for a local builder for a couple of years. He also turned down an offer to work in California for his father's accounting firm.

"I was like, I'm not going to sit in an office all day, I would kill myself and everybody around me," he quipped.

In 2006, he founded Tweedlie Landscaping, a full-service lawn care and snow removal company with residential and commercial customers throughout northern Connecticut and western Massachusetts. He also returned to Enfield High School as a pitching coach for several springs, as well as working in East Granby for his high school mentor, Bob Bromage.

He takes pleasure in knowing that despite never reaching the major leagues, he is still remembered. He said he gets about 15 or 20 letters a year from fans, sending him baseball cards to be autographed.

"With a name like mine, not like John Smith, I'm pretty easy to find," he said. "Sometimes they send a bunch of the same card and tell me to keep some, or send them out to other fans. I'm impressed that people still remember who I am."