by Halibut Grundlitis

7/31/2009: DULTUH, MN – "It's been a long, strange trip," says Duluth rookie starting pitcher Francisco Torano, his arm encased in ice after he battled the Crystal Lake Sandgnats for eight innings in his first major league start.  "There were certainly times I never thought I'd be here.”  Who can blame him for feeling like that?  The 33-year-old native of Aruba has seen more than his fair share of bad luck, close calls and tough breaks on his way to the PEBA.  "I won't bore you with the usual tripe about long bus rides, two-bit hotels and short meal money, but suffice it to say that this isn't my first rodeo.”  Unheralded as a recruit out of high school, the 6' 2" sinkerballer took his show on the road, ending up playing four years at Ohio Dominican University.  Predictably, Torano went undrafted out of ODU.

"I thought about hanging it up then, but I felt like I still had it in me," he reminisces.  Five years of bouncing around in the low minors and independent leagues later, he found himself taking his last pink slip, this one from the Lexington Legends.  "I knew that was it, so I decided to get a real job.”  That job would be with famed financial firm Lehman Brothers, where he immediately began making a name for himself as an analyst.  But, when the MLB went under in 2006 and the MLBPA blackballed any player connected with the PEBA in any regard, Torano saw his last opportunity to answer the siren song of hardball.  "I tried out everywhere, and I finally got an offer in Reno to stay on their AA roster and throw BP with the chance to spot start.  I played my way onto the actual squad, and pretty soon I was bouncing around the high minors."

From Reno's organization, Torano spent less than two weeks with New Jersey before getting sent on to Duluth.  "It was the same ol' thing, but this time it was different.  I was close; I could feel it.”  Torano's eyes light up and he leans forward, more earnest in the storytelling now.  "Of course, I got my [butt] pounded my first time out.”  This didn't elude the notice of famed Duluth GM Joel Dobney: "We were watching Francisco coming out of camp at the start of this year.  We knew we'd need a southpaw at some point, and if we were eliminated from contention early it was going to be him.  He got hot after that first start; his next 19 times out, he lowered his ERA 17 times."

His last start in AAA proved to be one of Torano's best ever.  "I heard that [Dobney] was looking at me and that he might be coming to that game to watch me throw.  I wanted to give him a show.”  Nine innings later, Torano had struck out 7 batters, surrendered just 5 hits and won the game 8-0.  "I was amped coming off the hill after nine," he explains.  "I saw [Dobney] sitting in the front row, arms crossed like every game he'd ever watched was a CG shutout.  I flipped the [expletive deleted] off.  I figured if what I already done wasn't enough to get called up, he must not like me anyway.”  That was all Dobney needed to see: "He can pitch, that's not a question, but the dude's also got a set you could bowl with.  He dialed up a gem when he needed it most, then showed me exactly what he thought of anyone who doubted he could do the job."

Across the room sat Mitsukuni Sato, last night's starter and Torano's fellow rookie.  Sato's journey to the bigs could barely differ more from Torano's.  As a 23-year-old just out of Tokyo Polytechnical Institute, he was likely to be drafted into service for one of Japan's professional clubs, which would have had ownership of him until his early 30s.  "I didn't want that, so I did the only logical thing," he explains in perfect but accented English.  "I split.”  "Splitting" in this case involved sneaking out of Japan to South Korea, then flying to Los Angeles by way of Sydney.  "From there, I sent a resume and some game tape to Mr.  Rodriguez and explained to him in a letter that I wanted to join his league.”  Though not the normal way of joining a league, Sato's approach worked… inasmuch as getting drafted by the Omaha Cyclones can be described as the successful fruition of any plan.  Though not highly touted (810 players went before him in the Inaugural Draft), Sato has posted numbers good enough to merit his promotion to the PEBA at age 25.

"I enjoy it, I really do," he says.  "I love baseball, I know I'm not a superstar, but what more could I ask for?  I make great money, I get to pitch in the rotation; who knows what could happen?”  Though his first outing was cut short at 3.1 innings due to bouts with wildness and a mounting pitch count, his future in Duluth is secure for now.  "We feel like he can settle into the middle of the rotation this year and then slot as a 4-5 guy for a while," says Dobney.  "He might never make the All-Star roster, but he can be better than most in the back of the rotation."

Two paths, wildly divergent in time past, have converged in Duluth, Minnesota on a last place team for at least one glorious half-summer.  "God help me, but I love this game," says Torano.  "We could barely be more different, Mit and me, but we're like brothers now.  I hope I'm here forever.”  What else but a game like baseball, where else but a league like the PEBA could these two men – and the hundreds of other stories across the league – come together?  "Baseball has been making family out of strangers – white or black, rich or poor, a million miles from home or from just across the street – for a hundred years and more," ruminates Dobney, nursing a Cape Cod in his office as the lights go out over Doyle Buhl Field.  "The PEBA is now carrying on that tradition, and we should all be very proud to be a part of that."