Duck Diary
by Jerry Beach, Long Island Press
July 3, 2003

Ducks pitcher Kevin McGlinchy can live with being known as the guy who gave up the most famous over-the-fence single in baseball history on October 17, 1999, when Robin Ventura capped an unforgettable Game Five of the NLCS by hitting a "grand-slam single" off McGlinchy to give the Mets a 4-3, 15-inning win over the Braves at rainy and rocking Shea. Ventura's blast had cleared the right field wall by plenty, but he was only credited with a single after he was mobbed by teammates near second base.

"Man, what a game," McGlinchy recalls. "I was glad to be a part of it. It was an experience." He just doesn't want it to be the highlight of his career.

Due to chronic right-shoulder woes, McGlinchy hasn't appeared in a big-league game since September 28, 2000, against coincidentally enough, the Mets at Shea. He underwent a pair of major shoulder surgeries in 2001 and 2002, during which time he pitched in just eight games, none above the rookie-league level. The endless rehab was torture for a guy who had "competed all his life" and was a valuable member of the pitching-rich Braves at the age of 21.

"It's been a while since I've pitched in front of a crowd," McGlinchy says. "And the buzz of a crowd is cool, because I pitch off that. [I don't] necessarily pay attention to that, but I pitch off the adrenaline." McGlinchy finally got a chance to experience that rush again June 21, when he made his debut for the Ducks against Camden. It was a chance he often worried he'd never get.

"When I wasn't playing, there was a feeling of 'Will I ever get back to that point?'" explains McGlinchy, who was released earlier this year by the Tampa Bay Devil Rays. "That's part of it. If you can't [deal] with it, you might as well stop playing, because no one's gonna feel bad for you."

McGlinchy believes his shoulder problems may have been caused by his conversion from starter (the first 73 appearances of his professional career were as a starter) to reliever in 1999, and his unorthodox delivery. "[I'm] kind of a recoil guy. I don't finish a lot of my pitches. That's my style," he says.

The Ducks are proceeding slowly with McGlinchy, who figures he is still a year away from regaining his pre-surgery velocity of 95 mph. "They're not going to throw me out there and abuse me, but in the same sense, I want them to be able to count on me whenever they need me," adds McGlinchy, who had appeared in three games through Sunday.

McGlinchy is still young enough—he turned 26 last Saturday—to enjoy a solid career in the majors. And if he does return to the bigs, his first game back will no doubt supersede his role in the "grand-slam single" game as the most memorable moment of his baseball life.

"I'm known for that, but the thing is, I haven't been able to create any new memories," McGlinchy says. "So I'm just waiting to create new memories."