The average player on the Orioles' roster reached the big leagues in 4 1/2 years. Andy Mitchell has been trying for nine.
To heck with the numbers, the Baltimore farmhand won't give up.
"I know I can pitch up there, and I've got to keep trying," he said.
No one has labored longer in the system than Mitchell, who will turn 31 in September. A right-hander who throws submarine-style, he has been stuck at Triple-A for five years.
At Norfolk, Va., the Tides roll in and the Tides roll out. Mitchell? He stays put. He has never set foot on the field at Camden Yards. And he knows his chances wane with each move the Orioles make to push their young guns up the chain.
Fourteen times this season, the Orioles have promoted a pitcher from Norfolk to shore up their sagging staff. Several pitchers have been summoned twice. One, David Hernandez, 24, has been called up three times. When the carousel stops, it's the kids who get off.
Meanwhile, Mitchell just gets older. He has done everything the club has asked. He has pitched as a starter, a middle reliever and a closer, more than 700 innings in all, with never a losing season. But is that enough to warrant The Call?
"In this game, some guys are labeled 'prospects' and others are 'organization players,' " said Gary Allenson, Norfolk's manager. "The Orioles have some up-and-coming pitchers, but Andy's not in that mix."
He is fast becoming the club's version of "Crash" Davis from the movie "Bull Durham."
"He [Mitchell] has persevered for nine years, and he has saved a few of our other arms along the way," Allenson said. "But he's not really projected as a big league player."
To heck with opinions, Mitchell won't give up.
"God is in control," he said. Not Allenson or Orioles general manager Andy MacPhail or even Peter Angelos, the owner.
"God has a plan for my life," said Mitchell, a born-again Christian from Conyers, Ga. "Whatever his timing is, that's what's going to happen."
For Mitchell, there is no separation of church and plate. Nine years? He could pitch until hell freezes over, those who know him say.
"For Andy, baseball is a calling from the Lord, a ministry," said Kevin Rollins, a childhood friend. "He believes that God has given him this talent and that he is to use it, to be a good steward of his gifts. He can set his faith like flint because he knows this is what he's supposed to be doing - and nothing has happened in the last nine years to change that."
