Ok, Boomer: The David Wells Story | Baseball Dudes

on the morning of sunday may 17 1998 david wells woke up the same way thousands of americans did hung over the new york yankees hurler had spent the previous night partying with saturday night live cast members jimmy fallon and seth meyers and as he dragged himself to the ballpark he didn't know if he would be able to see straight much less pitch an entire major league baseball game little did he know that only three hours later he would be immortalized in baseball history having led the yankees to a win in one of the greatest fishing performances of all time how did this unlikeliest of heroes reach this point let's rewind growing up in the san diego neighborhood of ocean beach david lee wells childhood was unconventional as a child david had always been told that his father david pritt had died however in a twist straight out of a daytime soap opera he learned at the age of 22 that print was actually still alive and embarked on a journey to track him down as for his mother she spent much of david's childhood dating a man by the name of crazy charlie mendes who was actually an accountant nah just kidding he was in the hell's angels remember that kid on your little league team whose entire family would come to every game well imagine that kid but replaced their family with the most notorious biker gang in the country for every batter david struck out the bikers would give him a dollar for every time he won he'd get five wells once said that he could pull in 100 bucks a game and nobody would dare screw around with him try and he'd say i'll get my mom's boyfriend on you even as a teen he was known for his out of control personality he once told his high school teammates that he was going to walk the bases loaded on purpose then strike out the side on nine pitches and he did just that his ability to pitch under pressure earned him a second round selection by the toronto blue jays in the 1982 amateur draft but his path to the major leagues was anything but smooth he struggled his way through the blue jays farm system and by 1982 had worked his way up to double a ball appearing in eight games for the tennessee smokies however his progress was stopped in its tracks when he tours ucl in the middle of the 84 season becoming only the third pitcher in history to undergo tommy john's surgery a season and a half later he got the call to the show making his big league debut on june 30th 1987 against the new york yankees he lasted only four innings letting up four runs in a yankees win the next week he was sent back down after allowing five earned runs in only one and a third innings against the royals well spent the next few years pitching out of the toronto bullpen until 1990 when he was promoted to the starting rotation to replace a struggling john cerruti what started out as a temporary measure turned out to be a defining moment for wells career as he finished the 1990 season with an 11-6 record and a 3.14 era over 189 innings pitched he was a key piece in the 1992 blue jays world series victory giving up only one hit and no runs over four relief appearances in the fall classic after the season wells gave an interview where he expressed his desire to be a full-time starter i think i proved something not pitching for 21 days and getting into the world series and showing i can pitch toronto general manager gord ash had other ideas releasing wells on march 30th 1993. it didn't take long for wells to find a new team signing a one-year deal with the tigers who'd had the worst team era in the american league the previous season with toronto he had been pressured by the club to conform dealing with a constant onslaught of complaints about his inconsistency his temper his weight and his penchant for beer in detroit wells thrived in large part thanks to manager sparky anderson's willingness to let him be himself however by mid 1995 it was clear that the tigers were going nowhere the only bright spot on an otherwise awful pitching staff wells was shipped off to the contending cincinnati reds on july 31st where he helped the team to the nlcs after spending the 1996 season on the baltimore orioles with whom he put up a less than stellar 11 and 14 record and a 5.14 era wells caught the attention of the new york yankees who signed him to a three-year 13.5 million dollar contract that winter the yankees had had their eye on wells for quite a while two years earlier new york had come close to trading away a top minor league prospect to the tigers in exchange for well services but changed their minds at the last minute that prospect a young pitcher by the name of mariano rivera wells didn't take long to start ruffling feathers in new york he has to wear babe ruth's number three which the yankees of course refused so he went with number 33 instead that way i can be babe ruth twice over before i continue i wanted to take a second to really dive into david well's obsession with babe ruth when i say wells is obsessed with ruth i mean he is obsessed with ruth in addition to the uniform number wells has a tattoo of the bambino across the entirety of his pitching arm but perhaps the most significant example of his infatuation with the babe occurred on june 28 1997 when he took the mound against cleveland sporting a game-worn babe ruth cap from 1934 which he had purchased for 35 thousand dollars yankees manager joe torre found out about it after the first inning and ordered wells to remove the cap though maybe he should have let wells keep wearing it since he went on to blow a 3-0 lead in a 12-8 yankees loss but for all the attention he drew as a result of his off and sometimes on field antics david wells was effective during his time in pinstripes he posted a 16-10 record in 1997 with a 4.21 era over 218 innings but despite a solid pitching performance from wells in game three the yankees were bounced from the alds by cleveland entering the 1998 season wells was approaching 35 overweight and recovering from a strained rib muscle most players would likely take that as a sign that it's time to hang up the spikes indeed after a may 6th start in which he gave up seven earned runs to texas over just two and two-thirds innings tori pulled wells aside to have a long discussion about his fitness so when he took the mound against the twins two weeks later no one was expecting much the only thing most fans were looking forward to that day were the souvenir-stuffed animals being given away at the gate as part of beanie baby day at yankee stadium what they got instead was a pitching master class from the man affectionately known as boomer wells sat down all 27 minnesota batters in order striking out 11 as he became the first pitcher to throw a perfect game in yankee stadium since don larson during the 1956 world series coincidentally larson was an alumnus of point loma where david wells attended high school in his autobiography wells recounted his experience that day i was half drunk with bloodshot eyes monster breath and a raging skull rattling hangover he had gone to bed at 5am the previous night and gotten just one hour of sleep despite helping the yankees win their 24th world series title that year he was traded to the blue jays in the offseason for flamethrower and anger management guru roger clemens having learned from their previous mistakes this time around toronto let boomer be boomer heavy metal music and all over the next two seasons wells continued his success having his first and only 20 win year in 2000 but once again his personality turned out to be too much for the jays and they sent him to the white sox in early 2001 following a disappointing season yankees owner george steinbrenner made the surprise move of bringing back the 39 year old david wells is a winner and he belongs in pinstripes said steinbrenner people say we're going out on a limb but we'll see we're betting on the boomer the bet paid off with wells leading the pitching staff in victories with 19 but he struggled in the playoffs and the 103 win yankees couldn't pull through in the world series by 2003 wells had earned the ire of new york management in large part due to the publishing of his autobiography in which he claimed among other things that a number of yankees players were taking steroids the team fined him a hundred thousand dollars and he was off the club after another world series loss wells bounced around the league during the last few years of his career making appearances for the red sox and his hometown padres before finally retiring with the dodgers at age 44. over the course of his 21-year major league career david wells accrued a record of 239 and 157 over 2000 strikeouts and a pair of world series rings and while he was never quite the best in the league he was certainly one of the most fun to watch the game of baseball has no shortage of big personalities but i know this for a fact there will never be another david wells you

Channel: Baseball Historian

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Id: cgvw9_g-mzk

Length: 8min 48sec (528 seconds)

Published: Thu Apr 15 2021