What ever happened to Buddy Groom?

DETROIT -- Buddy Groom pitched six Minor League seasons across two organizations for his chance in the big leagues. He then made 78 appearances over four seasons in Detroit before earning his first Major League win, two months shy of his 30th birthday. Five years later, he began a streak of 87 relief appearances without a loss.

Nowadays, he wishes for games to win and lose -- not for himself, but for his players. As an assistant coach at Ovilla Christian School in Red Oak, Texas, he was looking forward to a promising season with a strong freshman class, and perhaps another run at the state finals, which would’ve been held next week. The coronavirus pandemic ended the season early.

“That was tough,” Groom said.

Groom will bounce back. He feels bad for the seniors. He knows plenty about comebacks.

Groom’s own baseball career had its share of challenges. Born Wedsel Gary Groom -- named after his father -- on July 10, 1965, Buddy pitched two seasons at Mary Hardin-Baylor University, a small school in Belton, Texas, before the White Sox drafted him in the 12th round in 1987. The lefty had two encouraging seasons in the White Sox farm system before stalling out at Double-A Birmingham, capped by a 5.07 ERA in 1990.

The White Sox left him available at season’s end. The Tigers, needing pitching depth in their system, picked him up. There, he connected with Ralph Treuel, then a pitching coach at Triple-A Toledo, and found the pitch that would get him to the big leagues without an overpowering fastball.

“He was a big cutter/slider pitcher in the big leagues, and he showed it to me,” Groom said last week. “When I got to Triple-A, Ralph Treuel was there, and he said, 'Let's put your thumb on the side.' When I took it into the game, I just took off.

“My biggest problem was keeping the ball in on righties. I could throw the cutter in there, and guys would foul it off their shin or their knee. That opened up the outside corner for me.”

That was in 1991. Groom had a tremendous half-season in Double-A that year, going 7-1 with a 3.48 ERA, but largely struggled in relief with the Mud Hens. The next year, he caught Tigers manager Sparky Anderson’s eye in Spring Training, posted a 2.80 ERA in 16 starts at Toledo, and earned a callup.

Groom made his big league debut against the White Sox on June 20, 1992, pitching a quality start in defeat despite five walks. Getting his first Major League win would take another three years.

Though Anderson first saw Groom as a potential starter, he was mainly used in relief, either to face lefties in close games or eat innings in losses. He went nearly two years between starts until he replaced John Doherty in the rotation on May 7, 1995 -- better known as the blue jersey game.

“It looked a little goofy,” Groom said. “I think it had a goofy Tiger on the left chest and a lot of orange on it. Sparky was old school and said, 'This doesn't fit for home.'”

Groom allowed four runs over 4 1/3 innings that day to fall to 0-9 in his big league career. But finally, fortune shined on him. By joining the rotation, he didn’t have to pitch again until the following weekend in Texas, where his wife was due to give birth to their first son any day.

Groom was there for the birth. The next night, he pitched 5 2/3 scoreless innings for the win.

“Getting my first big league win after so many years of trying to get one, and coming off the birth of my son [was great],” he said.

A couple ineffective starts followed, and Groom moved back in Detroit’s bullpen. By August, he was a Florida Marlin, traded for Mike Myers. By the offseason, Groom was a free agent, pitching winter ball in Puerto Rico to try to showcase his talents.

There, he said, things clicked once again.

“At the time, I was content with being there instead of focusing on what it took to stay there,” Groom said. “That winter ball season, I learned I had to trust my stuff. As soon I started getting aggressive in the strike zone, guys got aggressive back, and you could get them to swing at pitches you wanted.”

That's when his career as a workhorse lefty reliever took off. After signing with the A’s, Groom pitched in 72 games in Oakland in 1996. From there, he set a Major League record by pitching in 70 or more games for seven consecutive seasons. Yet he pitched at least 70 innings in just one of those seasons.

Such was the life of the lefty reliever, a life that still included plenty of no-decisions. Groom went without a loss in 87 consecutive appearances from 1995-97, then again from '98-99. He made 67 consecutive appearances without a win or a loss from June 19, 1998, to May 29, 1999.

The man who didn’t make his Major League debut until just before his 27th birthday ended up pitching in the big leagues until he was 40. After that, he went back home to Red Oak. He became part of an outdoors show called BuckVentures and got into coaching.

He doesn’t wonder much about what would have happened if he'd stuck with the Tigers. But he would have loved to pitch more as a lefty reliever in Comerica Park.

“Definitely loved it; especially for the first couple years,” he said. “The original [left-field] fence, shoot, you threw it to a righty and challenged him: Here, you go try to hit it out of this park. If you hit it out to left-center there, you earned it.”