Drafted in the 20th round by the Astros, Tim Redding would make his debut on June 24, 2001, in a day game against the Reds in Cincinnati Our 18th installment of the continuing Legends Series begins there.
Q: What do you most remember about that day when you were brought up?
A: I had gotten into town the night before. I arrived at the stadium that Sunday for a day game around 9am. I got my jersey, found my locker and then started to get my mind set and ready and nothing really hit me hard about the start until we started having our pitchers and catchers meeting.
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I’m sitting there with Brad Ausmus and we’re talking about how we’re going to pitch their guys in the lineup and it’s like okay, they’ve got Michael Tucker and Sean Casey and then all of a sudden, you scroll down and batting cleanup is Ken Griffey Jr and that’s when it all hit me. I was like oh, crap. (laughs).
Q: A few years later in 2003, you land in the regular starting rotation. Was that a badge of honor?
A: That was a lot of perseverance and hard work paying off. When Jimi Williams called me into the office and said I was part of the Opening Day roster, that was satisfying. I held my own with innings pitched and ERA and pitched well in day games.
Q: How did you get along with Jimi Williams?
A: He was a great guy, had expertise, and had come from winning organizations, so listening to his stories was interesting. He was around some of the greats from the 70’s and 80’s.
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I do remember one time getting called into his office in 2004 and he proceeded to tell me that I was being optioned back down as I struggled out of the gate that season. I got pissed off and I grabbed the coffee mug off his desk and threw it across the office and shattered it against the wall.
Jimi looks and calmly says, “if you go down there and throw like that, you’ll be back up here in no time.” That was a great comeback line.
Q: How nasty was Roy Oswalt’s stuff when he had it going?
A: Roy was special. We were always kind of 1-2 coming up together. I’m glad for the career success he had. It was well deserved.
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He was so gifted, he reminded me of an old school pitcher who could do whatever he wanted, he probably could’ve invented a new pitch if he put his mind to it.
I think it got tough for me because we were constantly compared to one another, because I was kind of spitting and sputtering along and putting more pressure on myself.
We pretty much had the same stuff, but his location was better and that made the difference. It was great to be a teammate of his.
Q: Best day at the ballpark?
A: My proudest moment came shortly after the tragedy of 9/11.
We had a Sunday Night game on ESPN against the Giants, and it was the year that Barry was going for McGwire’s record.
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The first night of that particular series, I went out there as a rookie and introduced myself before the game in left field and proceeded to ask Barry for an autograph. I made it a point to get stuff signed from the greats. I asked if he’d be willing to sign a baseball and he shook my hand, never looked at me, never made eye contact and basically said I’m not signing for anybody.
Then two games later, I’m facing him on Sunday Night Baseball, and I struck him out on a full count with a 97-mph fastball up and away, a swing and a miss. That validated that I belonged and then crazy enough, I got to my locker after the game and there was a signed ball by Barry on the sweet spot. I didn’t know if he did that in-between innings or because I challenged him, I had earned his respect, I honestly don’t know but I still have that ball.
