John Curtice and Mike Cuddyer have this thing about history. They keep makingit. They're not particularly trying to do it. They just play baseball and, hey, history happens.
That time when they were kids, for instance, teammates for the first time on the 9- and 10-year-old Great Bridge Mustang Yankees. They pitched a perfect game, Cuddyer working four innings and Curtice three, or vice-versa, they can't remember who did what. What they know is that they struck out all 21 batters they faced, which doesn't exactly happen every day, OK? Nor do guys on the same team get drafted in the first round every year, as everybody knows happened to these Great Bridge High guys last June - Cuddyer the shortstop going to the Minnesota Twins with the ninth pick, Curtice the lefthanded pitcher to the Boston Red Sox at No. 17.
Those stars and planets have aligned just once before, in 1972.
Now this. Now tonight. More history. What can they say? Barring rain, fire or an explosion at the world-famous Kellogg's cereal plant, Curtice and Cuddyer will do what's never been done, here at C.O. Brown Stadium or anywhere else.
They will meet again. For the first time.
That is, Curtice will start for the Michigan Battle Cats and Cuddyer will play short for the Fort Wayne Wizards in the Class A Midwest League. Because 1972's first-rounders from Rancho Cordova, Calif., Mike Ondina and Jerry Manuel, never came close to playing on the same field as pros, it is virgin turf that Cuddyer and Curtice tread.
Yes, they faced each other a handful of times in the fall Instructional League and in spring training. Doesn't count. The games weren't real.
This one is, even more so because Michigan's trying to chase down Fort Wayne for the first-half championship. And wouldn't Curtice, statistically the Battle Cats' top pitcher, love to shut down the Wizards' leading home run hitter and second-best RBI man.
Then, too, the really cool thing about it is, if all goes as their respective organizations pray, Curtice vs. Cuddyer will be a recurring drama that extends from the bushes to the American League.
Maybe then they would be excited about it - if it happened at Fenway Park, let's say, before the eyes of the baseball world. For now, before probably a few hundred fans in Battle Creek, it's another date in a 140-game season, the season's eighth Michigan-Fort Wayne meeting.
Or so they say.
``I really haven't thought about that part of it,'' says Curtice, 2-3 with a 2.31 ERA and a minuscule .163 opponents' batting average in 11 starts. ``You have to treat it like another game.''
Bragging rights? Nah, says Curtice, even though he contends he's always been overshadowed by Cuddyer in The Virginian-Pilot and other media reports.
``The paper's never been fair to me,'' Curtice says. ``I could pitch a no-hitter and Mike could go 0 for 4 but they'd write about how he had four good at-bats.
``But that doesn't matter. I know I don't want to lose to them and he doesn't want to lose to us. If he goes 3 for 4 against me and I come out with the W, that's fine.''
The first time they met last fall was ``neat,'' Cuddyer says. ``We smiled at each other. Now it's all business. It's always nice to get the bragging rights, but I'm just trying to get a W for the team.''
Cuddyer's done plenty for the Wizards to date, his eye-popping 31 errors notwithstanding. Before Monday, the 19-year-old Cuddyer - like Curtice, 18, his team's youngest player - had appeared in 55 of 58 games for the Wizards, who lead their division by a game over West Michigan and five over the Battle Cats. He was hitting .294 with five home runs and 34 RBIs.
``Nothing's been unexpected,'' Cuddyer says. ``I'm having a great time. I'm not feeling like it's a `job' or anything yet.''
Playing the field hasn't been a party, but Cuddyer says better defense is part of the mental challenge inherent in playing ball every day.
``It's a matter of keeping my concentration,'' he says. ``If you lose focus for just a split-second, that's when you make errors. It's getting better, if you can believe it. The first 25 games I made 20 errors. The next 25 I made 11. It's just a learning experience.''
Cuddyer learned something else Monday. Curtice is still Curtice. That is, fun-loving, if not borderline flaky.
``What, did John change his hair again?'' Cuddyer asks when he spots Curtice cavorting with teammates before Monday's game between the teams. Well, yes, if bleaching his dark hair a ghastly blond is a change.
``A few of the guys did it,'' says Curtice, who's been known to go orange and purple. ``I'm still myself. You've got to be serious when the game starts, but I'm like I always was.''
It's not a bad thing to be. Armed with a 90-plus mph fastball, a curve and change-up, Curtice has allowed only 32 hits in 58 1/3 innings, with 55 strikeouts. The rare trouble he has seen has come from his 33 walks.
Tonight will bring at least one more walk - Curtice's latest stroll into the record book with his old friend.
