One year ago, Joba Chamberlain was pitching in Hawaii with a career game plan of maybe advancing to Double-A with the Yankees by this time.
“My first year, to be in Double-A, I couldn’t ask for anything better,” Chamberlain said. “Well, that kinda got left in the dust.”
Big time. The now 22-year-old Chamberlain is a New York celeb through his upper 90s fastball and knee-buckling breaking stuff. After a Yankees’ bullpen search that seemed to rival the quest for the Grail, Chamberlain (much of the time) supplied the bridge to Mariano Rivera. There was the whole “Joba Rules” subplot, but those restrictions (much of the time) are lifted, as he has pitched back-to-back days.
“He brought stability to the bullpen,” Andy Pettitte said.
Chamberlain worked 24 major league innings, yielding one earned run (a Mike Lowell homer) and fanning 34. As Rivera’s set-up man, he has forced recollections of Rivera doing the same for John Wetteland.
“It’s certainly felt like it at times,” Joe Torre said. “As far as the type of power you can throw at somebody, we get to that part of the game and I just feel we’re at an advantage.”
But with just those 24 MLB innings on his side, Chamberlain remains the ALDS X-Factor. These are, after all, the playoffs.
“No question. This is all obviously new territory,” Torre said, referencing Chamberlain’s bounce-back effort in Boston following his suspension for tossing a couple high ones over Kevin Youkilis’ noggin. “All the pressure stuff that we’ve had, he’s handled well.”
There are little tricks. Like flicking pumpkin seeds in the bullpen.
“There’s a great group of guys down there, but in between you’ve got to keep your sanity somehow,” Chamberlain said.
If pumpkin seeds don’t work, there’s staring at blank walls. That was how Chamberlain relaxed on the last off day.
“It’s a long season and this was the first time I’ve ever done this. It gets a little taxing mentally,” Chamberlain said. “[So] for about a half hour I didn’t do anything. I just stared at the wall. It was great.”
Who said native Nebraskans don’t know how to party?
But staring blankly every now and then doesn’t mean Chamberlain isn’t taking it all in – like the advice from Rivera.
“Just pay attention to the game,” Chamberlain said. “Sometimes, you get kind of lackadaisical and you find ways to entertain yourself. But you have to pay attention. There might be something you have to use later against a guy or a certain pitch he may not be recognizing.”
When Chamberlain gets the call it could create classic baseball theater. The Indians have been late-inning terrors all season. Chamberlain has been a late-inning monster. Chamberlain vows to “approach everything the way we’ve done it all year” and ignore a hostile crowd’s rabid chants.
“I think I listened to music too high when I was younger,” he said, “because I don’t pay attention to any of it.”