Ask Tanner Scott about his origin story as a pitcher, and he’s quick to point out one key detail about where his journey began:
“It no longer exists.”
Last spring, Notre Dame College (Ohio) announced it would be closing its doors due to significant financial challenges after more than a century of academic instruction. Eleven years prior, its baseball team had rostered a hard-throwing lefty who went on to become the only big leaguer in school history.
Today, that hard-throwing lefty is the closer for the Los Angeles Dodgers, the defending World Series champions whose presence in the sport’s global landscape is more powerful than ever. He has already notched his first save with his new team, delivering a perfect ninth inning against the Cubs in Game 1 of the Tokyo Series. The four-year, $72 million deal Scott agreed to in January is the fifth-largest free-agent contract ever secured by a relief pitcher. It was a payday well earned over the previous two seasons, during which Scott ranked at or near the top of the reliever leaderboard by numerous statistical measures.
Today, Scott’s ability is widely renowned. But he had to start somewhere.
“Notre Dame gave me a chance to pitch,” Scott told Yahoo Sports in February of the small Catholic college that used to be located in the eastern suburbs of Cleveland.
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‘I just didn’t know how to use my body’
At Howland High School just outside of Youngstown, Scott primarily played outfield. As a self-described “terrible hitter,” his strong left arm earned him occasional cameos on the mound, albeit without much success. “I would try to pitch, and it was not good,” recalled Scott, who received minimal interest as a recruit. But nearby Notre Dame believed his live arm was worth taking a chance on.
Once he arrived on campus, Scott’s velocity crept up as hoped; his fastball touched 92 mph in his freshman season as a Falcon. But his control was untenable. His 37 1/3 innings across nine starts featured 44 strikeouts — with 47 walks and nine hit-by-pitches. A 5.54 ERA with extreme wildness against Division II competition wouldn’t seem to portend a long and successful professional career. But it turned out to be a fitting start to Scott’s decade-long quest to translate his rare physical ability into consistent run prevention.
The numbers weren’t pretty at Notre Dame. But the reality…