Card Corner: Moon Man

Greg Minton looks deceptively short on his 1980 Topps card. Camera angles can be funny, especially considering that Minton is actually 6-foot-2. But some other features on his card appear similarly odd. With his big glasses, long hair, skinny legs, and awkward stride toward the plate, Minton hardly looks like the premier relief pitcher who led the Giants with 19 saves while not surrendering a single home run in 1980. He does, however, look like the eccentric character who would make distinctive impressions on clubhouses in San Francisco and Anaheim.

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In truth, there is very little about Greg Minton that fits the profile of a stereotypical major league ballplayer. As a youngster, he showed little interest in playing ball. Born in Texas, Minton grew up in southern California, where he spent much of his free time surfing.

Minton wanted to go to college, but his father nearly derailed those plans when he announced that he wouldn’t continue to pay for his son’s schooling. Knowing that his mediocre grades would provide little to no assistance, Minton pursued an athletic scholarship. He impressed San Diego Mesa College enough to give him one; he joined the baseball team as a 148-pound shortstop with a tendency to make erratic throws. “The seats behind first base were a combat zone,” Minton confessed to a reporter many years later.

In spite of his throwing problems and his lack of size, Minton was drafted by the Royals in the third round of the 1970 amateur draft. Realizing that Minton lacked the bat to stick long term as a prospect, the Royals converted him into a pitcher before trading him to the Giants’ organization for Fran Healy, at the time a young catching prospect. The Royals would regret the deal immensely; Healy became nothing more than a backup catcher (though he did eventually bring the yield of Larry Gura in a trade with the Yankees), while the Royals searched far and wide for a prominent relief ace for much of the 1970s.

In fairness to the Royals, Minton did not become an overnight success on the left coast. Minton would remain buried in the Giants’ farm system for the next six seasons. It was during a long tenure with the Giants’ top farm club that Minton earned his nickname—and for memorable reasons. While with the Phoenix Giants in 1973, Minton decided to go tubing— completely naked. As a result of his indiscretion, he suffered a horrible sunburn. That night, he reported to the ballpark, where manager Rocky Bridges (another character of mythic proportions) noticed the condition of his pitcher’s face and arms. Noting that Minton’s skin had more craters than the moon, Bridges dubbed him “Moon Man.” Teammates and friends would eventually shorten the appellation to “Moonie.”

Minton and Bridges remained a tag team of sorts; the manager often poked fun at his longtime right hander, who pitched several seasons under Bridges’ watchful eye. Minton appeared destined to be a career minor leaguer with only a few cups of late-season coffee in the major leagues, but a knee injury actually provided him with the break of a lifetime.

The development and improvement of his sinker, which he threw in the range of 88 to 92 miles per an hour, came about as the result of that accident. After injuring cartilage during the spring of 1979, Minton returned to active duty at Triple-A. His knee still sore, Minton modified his pitching motion by reducing his leg kick. Not only did the change reduce the stress on his knee, but his fastball started to sink more precipitously.

Later that season, a spot opened up in the San Francisco bullpen, the result of an illness to veteran reliever Randy Moffitt (better known as the brother of Billie Jean King), who was felled by a stomach disorder. Soon after, Minton graduated to the role of late-inning relief ace. By the end of the 1970s, Minton had become the Giants’ primary closer, though he sometimes shared the role with left-hander Gary Lavelle. He didn’t allow a single home run over a span of three consecutive seasons.

Unlike the Goose Gossages and Jim Kerns of the day, Minton did not tame hitters with high, larger-than-life fastballs. Instead, he relied on a heavy, diving sinker, which he would throw almost exclusively. (“I might go three weeks without throwing a breaking ball,“ Minton once told Sports Illustrated.)

The role of sinkerball relief ace eventually brought with it a handsome salary, which Minton found hard to explain or justify. Unlike most players of the day, who vehemently defended their large contracts, Minton offered a humbler line of reasoning, along with his typical dose of comedy. “The Giants are paying me millions of dollars to pitch a few innings every couple days,” Minton told a reporter. “And they think I’m crazy!”

The reputation of “craziness” came about in part because of Minton’s delight in activities not usually pursued by major league players: skateboarding, snorkeling and deep sea fishing. Minton also loved pranks, particularly on his teammates and coaches. On a lesser scale, he used to steal the keys to the bullpen car, which was a popular conveyance used by many relievers in the 1970s and early ’80s.

More notably, Minton achieved two of the greatest pranks in professional baseball history. As a minor leaguer, he once flooded his team’s ballpark in Amarillo, Tex., just so that he could go home one day early and get a head start on his winter plans. As a major leaguer, Minton managed to hijack the team bus. Well, he didn’t hijack it all by himself, but he came close. During a 1982 stopover in Atlanta, Minton left his hotel room early and boarded the bus before anyone else on the Giants did. Convincing the bus driver that he was the team secretary, Minton persuaded him to leave early for the ballpark. As the sole passenger, Minton arrived at the ballpark in plenty of time. Meanwhile, his teammates remained behind at the hotel, furious that they would have to pay for taxis. “Between seasons, I’m going to get a pilot’s license,” Minton told The Sporting News. “Then I can steal the team plane.”

Thankfully, that never happened. Instead, Minton continued to ground opposing batters, forcing them to beat balls into the grass at Candlestick Park. He remained effective for the Giants until 1985, when he lost the closer’s role. With his sinker no longer biting, Minton became the target of boo birds in San Francisco. Two years later, the Giants gave him his unconditional release.

Like the Royals, the Giants made a mistake. Minton revived his career with the Angels, for whom he turned in two solid seasons before becoming virtually untouchable as a middle reliever in 1989. Minton continued to pitch effectively into the 1990 season, rebounding twice from injuries, but decided to call it quits at season’s end, ending his career at the age of 38.

Given his mischievous, non-conformist ways, it may come as surprising that Minton has worked as a coach and manager since his playing days. He served the Angels as a minor league pitching coach before becoming a manager for two seasons with his hometown Lubbock Crickets. Now out of organized ball, Minton still teaches the art of pitching by offering 45-minute lessons to children 11 years of age and older.

And no, he doesn’t provide advice on how to flood your own ballpark.

For more on Greg Minton’s pitching philosophies, visit his website at http://www.gregmintonsbullpen.com.


Bruce Markusen has authored seven baseball books, including biographies of Roberto Clemente, Orlando Cepeda and Ted Williams, and A Baseball Dynasty: Charlie Finley’s Swingin’ A’s, which was awarded SABR's Seymour Medal.
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Ryan
13 years ago

To all Minton fans or baseball card collectors, please check out his 1978 Topps card…airbrush heaven.

BlftBucco
13 years ago

There’s a reason for the 1978 card being totally airbrushed.  Apparently Topps only had a black & white photo of Minton which they didn’t want to release in a color set.  So they “colorized” the card by airbrushing. They also did this to the cards of Mike Paxton & Rick Jones.

Or maybe Minton really is a “Moon Man” ? ? ?

Bobby Mueller
13 years ago

Wow, with a career strikeout rate under 4.0 per 9 IP and a K/BB around 1.0, I’d like to know how many ground balls Minton generated.  He also gave up so few homers (0.34/9 IP) and had a career .277 BABIP.  It’s interesting to look at some of the closers in those days, like submariners Dan Quisenberry and Kent Tekulve, with such low strikeout rates.

Bruce Markusen
13 years ago

Bobby, at one point in his contract negotiations with the Giants, management brought up his low strikeout totals. So the next year, Minton became determined to strike out more hitters, completely fouled himself up, and got off to a horrendous start. He then went back to the old way of getting hitters to hit ground balls—and found success again.

Frankly, I think the strikeout theme has become overstated. While most pitchers need K’s to have success, there have been exceptions: Minton, Tommy John, etc. With guys like that, just enjoy them getting outs—and don’t dwell on the lack of strikeouts.

John Cate
13 years ago

If you remember just how good Larry Gura was in the late 1970s and early ‘80s, somehow I don’t think the Royals regretted any of the circumstances that led to his acquisition. Minton for Healy was bad, but flipping Healy for Gura more than made up for it. I would have been happy to trade Minton himself for Larry Gura at any time between 1974 and 1981. By the time Minton established himself as a relief ace, in 1980, the Royals had some guy named Quisenberry to do the job.

Minton has some strange stats; including a very low strikeout rate and one of the most awful K/BB ratios you will ever see for a guy who was an effective pitcher. In a modern-day analysis, he wouldn’t look good at all because of poor WHIP numbers. But he had a sinkerball that was just devastating to right-handed hitters (241/310/312 career), and he walked all the tough lefties, and got out of any trouble more often than not.

He was pitching some of the best ball of his career with the Angels. I remember being surprised he retired when he did.