Top NYY Could-Have-Beens: Bob Tewksbury

12/30/2024 12:06 PM

Bob Tewksbury was one of many prospects that impatience lost in the 1980s.

When that slow-moving curve crosses the plate at 50 mph, every eye in the stadium and watching along on television turns to look. Whether it's a pitcher trying to confuse a batter who has their number or a position player having the time of his life, everyone loves the eephus. Even so, aside from a multitude of "my player" characters in MLB The Show, very few major leaguers have thrown the eephus even once in jest, let alone in a big spot.

Bob Tewksbury, the "changeup artist" of the late 1980s and 1990s, was one of those few who employed the eephus semi-regularly. He threw it once to Willie McGee, who refused to talk to him for days after the fact. Most famously, he used it twice to take down Mark McGwire in the midst of his historic 1998 season.

And unfortunately, although he came up through the Yankees farm system, neither of these moments came in pinstripes.

Years in Yankees Organization: 1981-87

How They Left: Traded to Chicago Cubs in July 1987

Career MLB Yankee Statistics: 2 seasons, 31 games (26 starts), 163.2 IP, 10-9, 4.01 ERA (104 ERA+), 3.89 FIP, 61 strikeouts, 1.9 bWAR
Career MLB Statistics: 13 seasons, 302 games (277 GS), 1807 IP, 110-102, 3.92 ERA (104 ERA+), 3.65 FIP, 812 strikeouts, 21.2 bWAR

Born in Concord, New Hampshire, on November 30, 1960, Tewksbury attended college at both Rutgers University in New Jersey and Saint Leo University in Florida, although he only actually hit the field at the latter school. With St. Leo's, he went 21-8 with a 2.85 ERA, earning him All-SSC honors twice; off this strong performance, as well as good showings in the Cape Cod summer league, Tewksbury was taken by the Yankees in the 19th round of the 1981 MLB Draft.

Despite his low draft status, Tewksbury made his mark on the Yankees' farm system. The '82 campaign represented a breakout for the righty, who recorded a minuscule 1.88 ERA and 1.059 WHIP in 182.1 innings for Class-A Fort Lauderdale. In a sign of the times, the 21-year-old completed 13 of his 23 starts, albeit while also spinning five shutouts and giving up just six homers all year long. For his efforts, Tewksbury was named the Yankees' Minor League Pitcher of the Year.

With that heavy workload behind him, Tewksbury was felled by elbow surgery and a rotator cuff injury that combined to limit him to nine starts in 1983. Nonetheless, he continued his ascent and finished the '85 campaign looking strong with a 1.02 ERA across six starts for Triple-A Columbus. Tewksburg then made the Yankees out of spring training to start the 1986 season thanks to a strong camp that included 20 consecutive scoreless innings. He won the James G. Dawson Award and subsequently dominated his MLB debut on April 11th, allowing just two runs in 7.1 innings against the Milwaukee Brewers.

Over the course of Tewksbury's rookie season, in which he posted a 3.31 ERA (124 ERA+) in 130.1 innings across 23 games (20 starts), he established himself as a candidate to anchor the middle of the rotation for years to come.

And then came his sophomore season, and the impatience of George Steinbrenner. Tewksbury was never able to rediscover his form after a disastrous start to the season, and with the Yankees struggling to keep up in the AL East race, he traded a package centered around Tewksbury to the Chicago Cubs in exchange for 29-year-old pitcher Steve Trout. Steinbrenner infamously told then-manager Lou Piniella: "Lou, I've just won you the pennant. I got you Steve Trout!"

Trout did not provide an upgrade in the slightest and was gone from New York after a 6.60 ERA in 14 games down the stretch. He was gone from the majors before the '90s began.

After two years in the Cubs organization, with whom he made just eight big league appearances due in part to a recurrence of injuries, Tewksbury signed as a free agent with the St. Louis Cardinals ahead of the 1989 season. It is in St. Louis that he finally found his stride as a pitcher.

Recognizing that the arm injuries he endured over the course of his career would prevent him from having overpowering stuff, Tewksbury went all-in on control and became a master of generating soft contact. Over his six years in St. Louis, he employed this philosophy to great effect, posting a 3.48 ERA (108 ERA+) and being named to the 1992 National League All-Star team — his first and only appearance in the Midsummer Classic.

As happens at the end of a baseball career, Tewksbury bounced around a bit, signing one-year deals with the Rangers and Padres before finishing off with two seasons in Minnesota. Despite two strong seasons there — he accumulated 6.5 bWAR as a Twin — arm injuries finally caught up to him, forcing him to retire after his age-37 season.

Tewksbury, though, did not decide to sit back and relax in retirement. He went back to St. Leo to finish his degree in physical education, then earned a master of education degree in sport psychology and counseling up in Boston. Starting in 2004, he served as the sports psychology coach for the Boston Red Sox minor league teams (a position he would later also fill for the San Francisco Giants), while simultaneously serving as an adjunct professor of Sport Psychology & Exercise at NHTI, the community college in his native Concord. He published a book, Ninety Percent Mental: An All-Star Player Turned Mental Skills Coach Reveals the Hidden Game of Baseball, in 2018, and continues to serve as a sports psychology consultant to this day.

Sources

Baseball Almanac

Baseball Reference

"Bob Tewksbury." Sunshine State Conference Hall of Fame. Accessed December 27, 2024.

bobtewksbury.com/about. Accessed December 27, 2024.

BR Bullpen — Bob Tewksbury

Chass, Murray. "Tewksbury Back for Second Chance," New York Times. March 7, 1986.

Costello, Rory. "Brian Traxler." Society for American Baseball Research. Accessed December 27, 2024.

"Former Major Leaguer/Sports Psychologist Bob Tewksbury to Speak at Monday's Community Meeting." New Hampton School. January 4, 2012.

Hurwitz, Lee. "Where are they now? Bob Tewksbury." MLB.com. September 19, 2008.

Monagan, Matt. "The long, weird history of the eephus pitch," MLB.com. December 31, 2023.

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