Scott Eyre

Scott Alan Eyre (born May 30, 1972), is an American former professional baseball left-handed pitcher, who played in Major League Baseball (MLB) for the Chicago White Sox, Toronto Blue Jays, San Francisco Giants, Chicago Cubs, and Philadelphia Phillies.

Eyre was born on May 30, 1972, in Inglewood, California.

He was the oldest of five children in his family, born when his mother Peggy was only 17 years old.

When Eyre was eight years old, his father Bob left the family and kept only marginal contact with his wife and children; Eyre was responsible for his younger siblings throughout their respective childhoods.

Eyre's undiagnosed attention deficit hyperactivity disorder (ADHD) made it difficult for him to pay attention in school, and he preferred playing sports, particularly baseball.

Both Eyre and his brother Willie played high school baseball for Cyprus High School in Magna, Utah.

During his senior year, Eyre pitched three complete games in a state tournament, striking out 50 batters and allowing only four hits across those three games.

His coach, Bob Fratto, once referred to Eyre as "the best pitcher ever to come out of Utah".

After high school, the Cleveland Indians of Major League Baseball (MLB) offered Eyre a free agent contract, which he turned down in order to pursue a junior college career.

He spent the 1991 college baseball season at the College of Southern Idaho, where he posted a 6–1 win–loss record, eight saves, and led the team with 74 strikeouts.

The Texas Rangers selected Eyre in the ninth round of the 1991 MLB draft, but it was not immediately clear if he would sign with the team or if he would play for another year at Southern Idaho.

He turned down the Rangers' initial $40,000 signing bonus, preferring to attend another year of college, but ultimately signed with the team when they increased their offer to $44,000.

Eyre made his professional baseball debut in 1992, playing the whole season with the Rookie-level Butte Copper Kings of the Pioneer League.

There, he went 7–3 with a 2.90 earned run average (ERA) and 94 strikeouts in 15 games (14 starts) and 80 2⁄3 innings pitched.

Eyre became a serious prospect during the 1992–1993 offseason, during which he experienced a growth spurt of 3 in and 20 lbs.

With a 5–2 record and 2.76 ERA in his first nine starts with the Class A Charleston Rainbows, the director of the Rangers' farm system, Marty Scott, referred to Eyre as "one of the top left-handers in the organization".

Despite a midseason slump, Eyre finished the season with an 11–7 record, a 3.45 ERA, and 154 strikeouts in 143 2⁄3 innings.

The Rangers, still concerned about his slender frame, devised an exercise regimen for Eyre to build muscle mass and upper body strength during the offseason.

On March 29, 1994, the Rangers traded Eyre to the Chicago White Sox in exchange for shortstop Esteban Beltre.

His season with the Class A South Bend Silver Hawks came to a premature end that August after suffering a torn ligament in his arm during a game.

Before the injury, Eyre had pitched in 19 games and 111 2⁄3 innings for South Bend, posting an 8–4 record, 3.47 ERA, and 111 strikeouts in the process.

During the offseason, Eyre underwent a type of Tommy John surgery in which a different ligament from his right calf was surgically grafted into his arm, limiting mobility in both limbs., He spent most of the following year rehabilitating from the torn ligament, with a handful of appearances in the Gulf Coast League (GCL).

In nine GCL games, Eyre went 0–2 with a 2.30 ERA and struck out 40 batters in 27 1⁄3 innings.

In 1996, Eyre joined the Double-A Birmingham Barons, with whom he went 12–7 with a 4.38 ERA and 137 strikeouts in 27 games and 158 1⁄3 innings.

Eyre started the 1997 season in Birmingham once again, going 13–5 before receiving his first major league call-up on August 1 as a replacement for Wilson Alvarez, who had been traded to the San Francisco Giants.

He faced Nelson Cruz of the Anaheim Angels, who was also making his MLB debut that night.

Eyre, who needed directions from a local cameraman to find the White Sox clubhouse before the game, allowed six runs and six hits in the first 4 1⁄3 innings of a 9–1 loss to the Angels.

Eyre picked up his first major league win two weeks later, with six hits and two runs in five innings of a 5–2 victory against the Angels on August 14.

Unlike fellow call-up Carlos Castillo, who spent the remainder of the season in the Chicago bullpen, Eyre remained part of an unusually young starting rotation for the White Sox through the end of the year.

At 25 years old, he was only one year younger than James Baldwin and Jason Bere, the oldest pitchers in the rotation by season's end.

Eyre finished his rookie season with a 4–4 record, a 5.04 ERA, and 36 strikeouts in 11 games and 60 2⁄3 innings for the White Sox.

That Eyre was not sent back down to the minor leagues after his MLB debut gave him hope that he would be a permanent fixture in the White Sox' 1998 starting rotation.

New manager Jerry Manuel decided to open the season with an inexpensive, young group of pitchers that included Eyre, Baldwin, Bere, Mike Sirotka, and Jaime Navarro.

Eyre ran into trouble early in the season: he did not secure a win until April 26, and by mid-June, with 43 walks in 12 starts, Eyre was preparing for a demotion.

Although he anticipated that he would return to the minor leagues, Manuel instead sent Eyre to the bullpen.

He did not start again for the White Sox until August 13, when he pitched five no-hit innings against the Oakland Athletics and claimed only his second win of the season.

On the night of September 14 into the morning of September 15, Eyre was the winning pitcher in a 33-run, 12-inning game between the White Sox and the Detroit Tigers.

Eyre made 33 appearances for the White Sox in 1998, 17 starts and 16 in relief.

In the process, he went 3–8 with a 5.38 ERA and 73 strikeouts in 107 innings.

After allowing an unearned run in the bottom of the 12th, Eyre struck out Bobby Higginson to end the game in a 17–16 victory.