Friday Rockies manager Bud Black told Bard had made the Opening Day roster. If he pitches that first game it will be exactly 2,654 days between big-league appearances.
In a year of bad stories, we finally found a good one. And with it predictably came another great piece of perspective from Bard.
"If anything," he told reporters, "I'm very accustomed to pitching with no fans, given all the back fields I've had to throw on."
In case you don't remember, a decade ago Bard was among the best relievers in baseball, serving as a legitimate weapon when setting up then-closer Jonathan Papelbon. He was the one guy in baseball you could bring in with runners on first and third and nobody out and believe there was going to be at least two strikeouts and certainly no runs. He was throwing 100 mph when it was actually a rarity and doing in it a way which made hitters seem like they were facing fastballs 10 mph faster than the actual radar gun reading.
Then came the last month of the 2011 season, during the Red Sox' historic collapse, and the effectiveness started to wane. Most chalked it up to overuse. But the following spring training, when the Red Sox tried to make him a starter his fastball had suddenly dipped 6 mph. That was followed by an inability to throw strikes. The last game he would start as a big leaguer came on June 3, 2012, ending after five runs on six walks and just one hit over 1 2/3 innings.
Bard would reappear for the final month of that season, still struggling to find the plate and his stuff. The following year wasn't any better, with the righty getting his World Series ring off of just two April relief appearances. April 27, 2013. That was the date he walked off a major league mound for the last time ... Or so we thought.
It wasn't like Bard just gave up that day. He went on to have mostly uncomfortable stints in the minor-league fields of the Cubs, Cardinals and Pirates, while even not managing to make it through more than three outings in the Puerto Rican Winter League. (His line with Caguas during that offseason prior to 2014? Three games, one out, no hits, nine walks.) But nothing was working, ultimately leading him to embrace life after baseball with his front office position with the Diamondbacks.
In a year of bad stories, we finally found a good one. And with it predictably came another great piece of perspective from Bard.
"If anything," he told reporters, "I'm very accustomed to pitching with no fans, given all the back fields I've had to throw on."
In case you don't remember, a decade ago Bard was among the best relievers in baseball, serving as a legitimate weapon when setting up then-closer Jonathan Papelbon. He was the one guy in baseball you could bring in with runners on first and third and nobody out and believe there was going to be at least two strikeouts and certainly no runs. He was throwing 100 mph when it was actually a rarity and doing in it a way which made hitters seem like they were facing fastballs 10 mph faster than the actual radar gun reading.
Then came the last month of the 2011 season, during the Red Sox' historic collapse, and the effectiveness started to wane. Most chalked it up to overuse. But the following spring training, when the Red Sox tried to make him a starter his fastball had suddenly dipped 6 mph. That was followed by an inability to throw strikes. The last game he would start as a big leaguer came on June 3, 2012, ending after five runs on six walks and just one hit over 1 2/3 innings.
Bard would reappear for the final month of that season, still struggling to find the plate and his stuff. The following year wasn't any better, with the righty getting his World Series ring off of just two April relief appearances. April 27, 2013. That was the date he walked off a major league mound for the last time ... Or so we thought.
It wasn't like Bard just gave up that day. He went on to have mostly uncomfortable stints in the minor-league fields of the Cubs, Cardinals and Pirates, while even not managing to make it through more than three outings in the Puerto Rican Winter League. (His line with Caguas during that offseason prior to 2014? Three games, one out, no hits, nine walks.) But nothing was working, ultimately leading him to embrace life after baseball with his front office position with the Diamondbacks.