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Even at 53, pitcher ready to give it a go with Saints (April 24, 2008)

Jim Gehrz, Star Tribune

Fifty-three-year-old pitcher Jon Secrist hopes to try out with the St. Paul Saints baseball team. Secrist showed up at Midway Stadium for a one-day tryout camp but rain postponed the event.

Jon Secrist traveled from California for a tryout camp that will take place today in St. Paul.

By BRIAN STENSAAS, Star Tribune

Last update: May 6, 2008 - 12:55 PM

Desperate for pitching midway through the 1999 season, the St. Paul Saints signed 44-year-old knuckleballer Jon Secrist, a Californian known to then-team hitting coach Barry Moss. The results were far from impressive.¶ Nearly nine years after those statistics -- 0-1 with a 9.34 ERA in two appearances -- were pressed into the record books, Secrist was back at Midway Stadium on Thursday morning, along with a couple dozen other hopefuls awaiting the Saints' annual open tryout camp.¶ Some were peach-fuzzed and bright-eyed. Secrist? Now 53, he stood out of the way with greying hair and fresh off a dose of pain reliever.

"I really feel good, and I'll give it my best," Secrist said before it was eventually announced the weather was forcing the Saints to push the tryout until 9 a.m. today. "I'll be ecstatic if I make it. At my age, it's a one-in-a-million chance just to try out and a one-in-a-billion chance to make the club."

He'd received a sniff here and there from a scout or two, but never the call he's been waiting for. Until Saints part-owner Mike Veeck, who has contacts in Los Angeles, rang in December.

"Having grown up in the era of Hoyt Wilhelm, it seemed like it would be fun," Veeck said. "This is the stuff legend and lore is made of.

"I admire people who believe and take shots. If there's something here, we could all have a lot of fun with it."

Told of the upcoming Saints open tryout, Secrist began getting himself back in shape. He has been lifting weights and hiking, dropped 15 pounds and gotten his knuckleball back into dancing form.

He said everybody back home, including his 18-year-old daughter, is on board with him giving baseball another shot. He's also realistic.

If the Saints carry 11 pitchers, Secrist will be No. 11. He knows he won't be the best, but he insists he'll be effective.

Being back at Midway Stadium -- after a three-day drive from California -- induced memories.

The old Northern League Saints team jacket over Secrist's shoulders -- his "treasure" -- reminds him of the excitement being signed as the oldest rookie in professional baseball.

The mound, however, reminds him of the disastrous seven earned runs in his debut.

"I doubt anybody but me thinks of that game," he said. "It's never left me. I've thought of that game every day."

After another forgettable outing a week later, Secrist was on his way back to California where he's been since. He pitched in only one more professional league game.

And now, almost a decade later, he's asking for one more chance.

"The catchers I've been working out with have been saying, 'Hey, you've got a pretty good knuckleball,'" Secrist said. "And I tell them, 'Yeah, I've been throwing it a long time.'"

Brian Stensaas • 612-673-4127

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