Hardin
Scores As Strong Man of Orioles'
Hill
by Doug
Brown, unknown newspaper, c. fall
1967
BALTIMORE, MD. - It was spring
training, just as the exhibition
games were starting. The bulk
of the Orioles' squad had gone to
West Palm Beach for a game, but Jim
Hardin had remained in Miami with
some other pitchers to work out.
Then - after the workout - it
happened.
He went out to nearby Key
Biscayne to fish. Wearing
waders and tennis shoes, he ventured
out into water just above his
knees. He hadn't even made his
first cast when he stepped on
"it."
A whip-like tail flashed in the
glistening water. Then Jim saw
the creature swim away. It was
a sting ray, maybe two feet in
diameter.
The sting ray's tail, with the
wicked barb on the end, sliced
through the fabric on the upper part
of Hardin's tennis shoe and went a
half inch into his foot.
In five minutes, his leg was
throbbing. Hardin rushed to
the hospital, where the would was
cleaned and he received three
different shots. For a week,
Hardin's foot was so swollen the
couldn't put on a shoe.
"They say you should shuffle
out into the water so you'll kick
the sting rays away." Hardin
said. "I didn't shuffle,
but I must have caught him by
surprise."
As soon as he could put on a
shoe, Hardin resumed working
out. But it was too late to
impress the Oriole coaching
staff. Five days later, Hardin
was in Daytona Beach working with
the Birds' Triple-A Rochester
(International) club.
Lecture From
Wife
Jim's wife wouldn't forgive
him. "You spend five
years in the minors," Donna
Hardin scolded, "and you go
step on a sting ray just as you're
about to get a chance."
Jim didn't need to be reminded
about that. Although no one
had told him before he walked into
the water off Key Biscayne that day,
he was scheduled to pitch in an
exhibition game the following
afternoon.
"If I had known I was
supposed to pitch," Hardin
recalled ruefully, "I wouldn't
have gone fishing. Since I
wasn't on the roster I didn't give
myself too much of a chance to make
the club, but getting stung by a
sting ray sure didn't help what
chance I did have."
The result was that Hardin
started the season with
Rochester. The 27-year-old
righthander had a 5-3 record and a
2.06 earned-run average when word
filtered down to Rochester that the
Orioles' pitching was
faltering.
Player Personnel Director Harry
Dalton and superintendent Jim Russo
joined the Rochester club in
Columbus, but Hardin knew they also
had their eyes on Gene Brabender,
who spent the 1966 season with
Baltimore and also was pitching well
for Rochester.
The first night Dalton and Russo
were in the stands, Hardin shut out
Columbus. They stayed for the
entire series and maybe - just
maybe, Jim says - they tapped him
because he pitched the best game in
the set.
When the Red Wings returned to
Rochester, Manager Earl Weaver told
him, "They're going to take a
pitcher and I'm 99 percent sure
it'll be you." The next
day, Weaver said, "It's
you. Get your bags
packed."
All of which is by way of
introducing Jim Hardin, a fellow
who, since June, has been one of the
Orioles' most effective starting
pitchers. At the latest
reading, his record was 6-2 and
during one stretch he won four
straight.
Until his senior year in high
school in Memphis, Hardin was a
catcher. A catcher who could
hit.
He hit .475 in his sophomore
year, five points higher that a
pretty fair catcher at a neighboring
school.
The other kid was Tim McCarver,
now with the Cardinals.
But a baseball crisis developed
in the spring of Hardin's senior
year. The coach suddenly found
himself fresh out of pitchers.
Hardin became a pitcher.
He was 5-2 that year (both losses
were extra-inning jobs) and he
showed enough to command bonus
money. A few other clubs bid
higher but Jim signed with the Mets
for $10,000 because he figured that
was the shortest route to the
majors.
Hardin didn't impress the Mets
much, but he did impress the
Orioles. Maybe it was because
he always pitched well against
Elmira (Eastern), the Orioles'
Double-A club. Anyway, the
Birds drafted him after the 1965
season after he had compiled a 5-10
record at Williamsport.
"It's ironic," Hardin
was saying recently to Lou Gorman,
the Orioles' director of minor
league clubs, "that you drafted
me off the record I had that
year."
"Well," Gorman said,
"we just went by the reports we
got from Weaver (then Elmira's
manager). The only times he
saw you was when you faced his
club."
Kept Hopes
Subdued
When Hardin came up this June, he
entertained no notions of even
making the starting rotation.
"All I hoped to do,"
Hardin said, "was impress
enough to make the club next
year. Five and one-half years
in the minors - that's long
enough."
The apprenticeship of Jim Hardin
is over.
