Adkins still hoping for big-league call

1986 grad made it once BIRMINGHAM, Ala. – Penn alumnus Steve Adkins got the chance most kids only dream about September 12, 1990. The venue was Yankee Stadium. The event the Ivy Leaguer's major-league debut. The result a nightmare. Adkins lasted just 11U3 innings, walking eight Texas Rangers, including five consecutively, before he was mercifully removed by then-Yankee manager Stump Merrill. "I just couldn't get the ball over the plate. That's about it," Adkins says. "I didn't think I was nervous, but as I look back at it I was probably terrified to be out there. It took a while to realize it." Then-Yankee skipper Merrill called Adkins' far-from-stellar major-league beginning "something he'll laugh about in three years." A Newsday article the following spring training quipped, "he has two-and-a-half years to go before the laughter." Well, it's three years later and it turns out Merrill was correct. Adkins, far from removed from his short-lived Yankee career – during which he compiled a 1-2 record, issuing 29 walks in 24 innings – can now sit back and laugh. "I started laughing about it a long time ago, really," the former mechanical engineering student says. Three years ago to the day after his major-league debut, the 6-6, 215-pound hurler was sitting in the bullpen of the Birmingham Barons, the Double-A affiliate of the Chicago White Sox, as the club opened its Southern League championship series against the Knoxville Smokies. Hoover Metropolitan Stadium is where Adkins showcases his talents these days. The Hoover Met is a cozy, ultra-modern minor-league facility which seats 10,000 patrons, although it rarely comes close to that figure in attendance. It's not exactly Yankee Stadium. But then again, it isn't Penn's Bower Field either. It just may be a springboard back to the majors for Adkins. Make no mistake though, at age 28 Steve Adkins' clock is ticking. What he does have in his corner is a new-found confidence and a strong left arm, which has been under-utilized in his career. "There's a lack of left-handed pitching in all of baseball," Adkins notes. "It's really not out of the realm for people to be in the major leagues eight, nine years. A lot of left-handed pitchers mature later in their careers. "The fact that I didn't throw a lot of innings when I was at Penn early in my career helps me to believe I can pitch a lot longer than some other pitchers." Adkins came to Penn after being recruited for football, which he played for one season before focusing on America's pastime. Curiously, the southpaw was drafted by the Yankees in the 16th round of the June 1986 draft despite an 0-6 record his senior year with the Quakers. "It really was a surprise when the Yankees drafted me," Adkins says. He planned to use his mechanical engineering degree. A job was lined up and everything. But the Yankees threw him a hanging curveball and he just couldn't lay off. "I can be an engineer for the rest of my life, but I can only play baseball now for as long as I can do it," he says. Adkins struggled early in his pro career and was close to being out of baseball. "I was thinking about getting on with the rest of my life," Adkins says. But in 1989 things really started to click. He went 12-1 with a 2.07 ERA after being promoted to Triple-A Columbus early in the '89 season. His combined 30 wins in 1989 and 1990 ranked tops in the Yankee organization. Success earned Adkins the short-lived stint in the Bronx which sent his career spiraling downward. Adkins never recovered the following season in Columbus. With his confidence shaken, he went 4-5 with a 6.60 ERA in 1991 for the Clippers before being dealt to the Chicago Cubs, where he was assigned to Triple-A Iowa. He fared little better there, going 11-17 in '91 and '92. Last offseason, Adkins, as a six-year minor-league free agent, signed with Triple-A Syracuse of the Blue Jay organization. He pitched for three weeks and was released, although he felt he had been pitching well while in Syracuse. After being unemployed for a month he got the call from the White Sox. Now he has seemingly turned his career around with the Southern League champion Barons. "This year I really made a lot of strides getting back to the way I was pitching in '89 and '90," Adkins says. He hopes this year's performance will warrant a call from the White Sox. But regardless of whether he gets another shot at the big leagues in the near future, he'll keep pitching. "I'm going to be playing as long as I can play," Adkins says, "because I love the game."

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