A Flash in the Pan: Voodoo Child

This is part one of what I hope to make a weekly series which I would like to call "A Flash in the Pan." The focus will be on major league pitchers and position players who burst onto the scene and left a lasting impression before fading into obscurity almost as quickly as they appeared. The focus of this week's article will be on former Detroit relief pitcher Joel Zumaya.

The setting was Game 2 of the 2006 American League Divisional Series between the Detroit Tigers and the New York Yankees. After a wild top half of the seventh inning that saw Tiger's center fielder Curtis Granderson smack a go-ahead RBI triple into the left-center gap, Detroit manager Jim Leyland faced the unenviable position of deciding how to best attack the heart of the vaunted Yankees lineup. The 2006 Yankees were truly a nightmare to face for opposing pitchers with their combination of power, speed, and discipline (they finished ranked fifth in home runs, third in stolen bases, and third in bases on balls). Facing a team that had scored 930 runs in the regular season (an average of 5.5 per game), Leyland needed to stifle the Yankees lineup for six more outs to secure the victory and a 1-1 series tie.

The Tiger's manager opted to keep in veteran lefty Jamie Walker to face Yankees' lead off man, Johnny Damon, to open the bottom half of the seventh inning. After inducing a softly hit line-out to second base, Leyland climbed to the top step of the dugout and began the long walk from the home dugout to the mound and lifted his right arm. As he took the ball from lefty and gave him a clap on the shoulder, the bullpen doors swung open and the wailing opening notes of Jimi Hendrix's "Voodoo Child" began to blare over the PA system of Comerica Park. The crowd erupted in anticipation as the 6'3", 215 pound frame of rookie flamethrower Joel Zumaya emerged from the bullpen. With Derek Jeter, Bobby Abreu, Gary Sheffield, Jason Giambi, and Alex Rodriguez due up, the stage was set for either greatness or infamy for the young hurler from Chula Vista, California.

Enter the Voodoo Child.

Zumaya would face all five batters in the heart of the Yankees order. His appearance lasted all of twenty-one glorious and utterly dominant pitches. With the majority of his pitches being clocked in regularly between 100-102 MPH, Zumaya cut through the Yankee's lineup like a steaming steak knife through butter. His appearance went as follows:

Facing Derek Jeter: Strikeout

Facing Bobby Abreu: Groundout to second base

Facing Gary Sheffield: Line out to center field

Facing Jason Giambi: Strikeout

Facing Alex Rodriguez: Strikeout

This wasn't your Bad News Bears that he was facing. These were perennial All-Stars, players who routinely were in the top-5 for MVP voting year in and year out, and yet, they were all hopeless in the face of the the man affectionately nicknamed "Zoom Zoom" by his teammates and the local Detroit media. Zumaya was a harbinger of the evolution of Major League Baseball. Over the past decade, pitching has evolved (or devolved depending on you view it) as athletes grow bigger, faster, and stronger than they ever had been before. With an average height of 6'2" and an average weight of 209 pounds, pitchers in the modern era of baseball hardly resemble the hurlers of yesteryear. Talent scouts no longer drool over the once in a lifetime prospect who could touch the mid to upper 90's with his fastball. Such prospects are now a dime in a dozen and the new threshold to impress scouts is triple digits.

In 2016 alone, twenty-four pitchers registered pitches at a speed greater than 100 MPH. Indeed, Yankees fireman Aroldis Chapman is the golden standard for hard throwers in the major leagues; his fastball has averaged (!) over 100 MPH for the last four years of his career. Thus far in 2017, the average pitch speed in the majors is 92.0 MPH. Rewind a decade ago to that 2006 season and you'd find that the average pitch speed was over three MPH slower at just under 89.0 MPH. Perhaps it is this fact that makes Zumaya so intriguing given the fact that he fired in over two hundred pitches (two hundred and thirty-three to be exact) at a speed over 100 MPH during the 2006 season. In an age of finesse and guile, Zumaya was the roaring muscle car, demanding to be seen and heard.

Zumaya's post-season performance vs. the Yankees cemented his place in Detroit sport's history.

Whatever happened to the young fire-baller from Chula Vista? Given that he was all of twenty-one years of age during the 2006 season, one would think that Zumaya would be closing games in the MLB at this point in the prime of his MLB career. While he was just a set-up man for the AL Champion Tigers during that 2006 season, Zumaya was primed to take over for the veteran Todd Jones as the crafty righty neared the end of his career. Alas, as is so often the case of these stars who shine so brightly, the light of Zumaya's career was snuffed out quietly and unceremoniously by injuries.

Zumaya retired in February 2014 due to injuries.

While Zumaya would be sidelined for a time during the 2006 playoffs due to his excessive playing of the Playstation game Guitar Hero (Yes, you did read that correctly), far more serious injuries would curb the once-bright future for the young pitcher. As the 2007 season opened, Zumaya ruptured a tendon in his pitching hand. While he was able to rehab and return from that injury, the Tiger's pitcher separated his shoulder in a fluke injury incurred as he helped his father move boxes from his attic during the 2007 off-season. While Zumaya would return to the big leagues after several months of rehabilitation, there has to be some question over whether he was ever healthy as he re-injured that same shoulder in 2009 before suffering a fracture in his throwing elbow in a game against the Twins in 2010. The once-promising career was effectively over for the big right-hander as he was helped off the field. After missing the entire 2011 season, Zumaya attempted a comeback with the Minnesota Twins in 2012, but suffered a torn UCL just thirteen pitches into a live batting practice session during spring training. A month later, the Twins quietly released the former prospect and he would announce his retirement from professional baseball in February of 2014. Just as quickly as he had burst onto the scene and dazzled fans with his blazing fastball so too had Zumaya faded into obscurity with fans left with the theoretical question of "what if".


All statistics are courtesy of mlb.com, baseballalmanac.com, and baseballreference.com. Photos are courtesy of mlb.com and detroitnews.com.