Mark Patton: Former South Coast High School Rivals Keep Professional Baseball Well-Armed

A January rainstorm threw down on Santa Barbara as furiously as a Nolan Ryan fastball, turning every baseball diamond in town into a quagmire.

But there would be no day off in Mudville for local pitching guru Tom Myers, the area scouting supervisor for the Los Angeles Dodgers.

He borrowed the keys to the Bob Brontsema Player Development Facility at UC Santa Barbara and summoned two active baseball alumni from rival high schools: Gabe Speier from Dos Pueblos and Kevin Gowdy from Santa Barbara.

Speier, a former DP Charger, had already defied the odds and made it to the Major Leagues.

Gowdy, a former Santa Barbara Don, had been a second-round draft pick that the Philadelphia Phillies once bet $3.5 million would get there, too. He’s now in the Dodgers’ farm system.

“I was having Kevin throw for me, and I brought Gabe to watch,” Myers told Noozhawk. “I told Gabe, ‘I’d like you to see what his stuff looks like … And I want you to talk to him.’

“We went to lunch afterward and he talked to Kevin about the mental side of the game, because that’s Gabe’s strength.”

It is one big, happy baseball family in Santa Barbara, and Myers is one of its biggest patriarchs.

The former UCSB pitcher and coach, who switched to the Dodgers from the Chicago Cubs organization after the 2021 season, has also run the Santa Barbara Grizzlies Baseball Group for the last 12 years.

He fields teams at the 14U, high school and collegiate levels. His Coastal Dodgers club won the Gold Coast Collegiate Championship last week with a 3-2, walk-off victory over the Malibu Marlins.

“For a resort town — and a golf and aquatics town — Santa Barbara has developed a strong baseball vibe,” Myers said. “There’s a real boom at the youth level.

“Goleta Valley (South) and DP (Dos Pueblos) Little Leagues have gotten some good numbers. There are those active dads and coaches who want to make baseball really strong in town, and that’s great.”

The Wayward Mariner

Speier’s roots run deep into Santa Barbara’s baseball landscape. Someone from his clan has played in the big leagues in each of the last six decades.

Chris Speier, the brother of Gabe’s grandfather, Kurt, signed with the San Francisco Giants out of UCSB in 1970. He played 19 seasons in the Major Leagues, from 1971 to 1989.

Chris’ son, Justin Speier, pitched in the Major Leagues from 1997 to 2009.

Gabe, a 2013 graduate of Dos Pueblos, snuck in the back door of the decade of the 2010s when he made his big-league debut in 2019. He pitched nine games that season for the Kansas City Royals.

He’s been a workhorse for the Mariners this season, pitching out of the bullpen 47 times in games through Saturday.

He’s fashioned a win-loss record of 2-1 and an earned run average of 3.62 with 40 strikeouts and just five walks in 37⅓ innings.

Speier’s baseball journey, however, challenged him with more hairpin turns than San Francisco’s Lombard Street.

He pitched for 10 minor league teams during stints in five organizations, beginning in 2013 when the Boston Red Sox selected him in the 19th round of the MLB Draft.

“Gabe is a tough competitor,” Myers said. “I wish I’d had a little bit more Gabe Speier in me because I was that same undersized (5-foot-11) lefty who needed to be a little more resilient in tough times.”

Myers won 10 games for UCSB in 1991 and was drafted that June by the Oakland Athletics.

He pitched five seasons in the minor leagues, the last two in the Baltimore Orioles organization, before playing his final season in 1995 at High-A Visalia.

“I was good when things were going right,” he said. “When I had a bad outing, however, it would lead to two or three more because I started to doubt myself.

“It was that mental X factor that got Gabe to the big leagues.

“Hopefully for Kevin as well as Cole Schoenwetter, as he now also goes through the minor leagues, that mental side gets them there and they can stay there.”

Myers saw the spark in Speier when he was still “this little guy wearing glasses.”

“He always had a fast arm and was very athletic,” he recalled. “Both Gabe and Kevin also come from great families, and have this ingrained work ethic that stood out during their early days of high school.”

Seattle claimed Speier off waivers in November.

Two months later — just weeks before reporting to the Mariners’ spring training facility in Peoria, Arizona — he was helping Gowdy regain his own footing in the mental minefield of professional baseball.

Speier was 12 when he started taking pitching lessons from Myers.

“He taught me how important it was to have a good routine — not just a physical routine but a mental one, as well,” he said.

“A lot of the things he taught me I still use in my routine today at the big-league level.”

He’s been happy to pay it forward whenever he’s asked to help mentor Myers’ pupils.

“At the beginning, I was just a little kid and he was my coach, but we’ve grown to become close friends,” Speier said. “I know I can lean on him in hard times whether it’s baseball related or not.”

Going with Gowdy

Gowdy has faced his share of hard times since his $3.5 million payday in 2016.

The 6-4 righthander stood tall at Santa Barbara High, earning a scholarship offer from UCLA as well as a spot on Team USA’s junior team.

Gowdy helped pitch the United States to a gold medal in 2015 at the U-18 World Cup in Japan. He got a win over Mexico and pitched two scoreless innings in a comeback victory over Cuba in the semifinals.

The Phillies took him in the second round of the 2016 MLB Draft.

But Gowdy’s baseball world turned upside down a year later when he needed Tommy John surgery to repair a torn ligament in his elbow.

He missed the entire seasons of 2017 and 2018, and was sidelined again in 2020 when the COVID-19 pandemic shut down all of minor league baseball.

A change of scenery served him well midway through the 2021 season when the Phillies included him in a multiplayer trade with the Texas Rangers.

He posted a win-loss record of 2-1, an ERA of 3.71, and 26 strikeouts in 29 innings while playing out the summer for the Rangers’ High-A farm club at Hickory, North Carolina.

He was hit hard last season, however, after moving up to the Rangers’ Double-A affiliate in Frisco, Texas.

Gowdy returned to Myers’ orbit in Santa Barbara that fall and entered free agency on Nov. 10.

“He’s been up to 99 miles an hour and he’s throwing a big-league sinker now,” Myers said. “His stuff is there.

“He’s 25, but his actual training age — or game age, as far as experience mentally — is still real young because of his Tommy John surgery and limited innings.”

The Dodgers signed him on Jan. 23 after his workout with Myers and Speier.

“I wanted Gabe to be an outside evaluator,” Myers explained. “I brought out the radar gun, but I also wanted to see how he moved and how he commanded his stuff. I put in a report on him from there.

“Our organization was familiar with him and they were willing to take a chance, knowing that he’d once signed for $3.5 million. There’s got to be something still there. He’s only 25.”

Gowdy is now pitching for the Tulsa Drillers, the Dodgers’ Double-A affiliate in the Texas League.

“He had a few rough outings this summer that make his numbers looked crooked, but he’s on the uptick,” Myers said.

Gowdy has allowed just two runs and four hits in six outings the last three weeks. He’s posted an ERA of 2.84 since July 15.

“Our guys love his work ethic and physical attributes,” Myers said. “He just has to continue to develop as a pitcher.”

Gowdy was only 9 when he took his first lesson from Myers.

“It helped spark the love that I have for pitching,” he said. “Fifteen years removed from those lessons, I continue to learn about the game and my process through Tom.

“He has an incredible eye for the game of baseball and evaluating talent. His passion for the game is undeniable.

“He will shoot you straight and tell you things exactly as they are. He wants to know the person before the player, and makes the effort to ask you about your family and life away from baseball.”

Churchill’s Finest Hours

Ian Churchill faced Gowdy several times when he was the lefthanded ace of San Marcos High’s pitching staff. He played for Myers’ 14-and-under team when he was in middle school.

“I was a tall, lanky lefty who would blow over on the mound if the Santa Ynez winds started to pick up,” he said. “To this day, I’m still not quite sure what it is that Tom saw in me, but he saw something.”

Myers invited Churchill to continue working with him through the summer and fall.

“Tom was the coach who taught me pitching was like an art form — one that could be improved upon through hard work and perseverance through struggling times,” he said.

Churchill refined his game at Santa Barbara City College. He also pitched two seasons at the University of Arizona and another at the University of San Diego before the Toronto Blue Jays took him in the 10th round of the 2022 MLB Draft.

He’s baffled hitters so far in 31 minor-league outings at Single-A Dunedin and High-A Vancouver.

He’s allowed just 18 hits and four earned runs in 40⅓ innings for an ERA of 0.89.

“Many of the routines and drills I learned all those years ago I still use to this day,” Churchill said. “But Tom was and still is much more than a pitching coach.

“Tom has always been a friend and mentor I can call whenever I needed help, advice or just a nudge in the right direction.”

He had no negotiating leverage with the Blue Jays last year, having just exhausted his collegiate eligibility. He signed for a bonus of just $7,500.

Schoenwetter, the latest pitching prospect from San Marcos High, had the option of accepting a scholarship to UCSB when he graduated two months ago. The Cincinnati Reds paid him $1.9 million to sign with them instead.

While the pandemic cheated Gowdy out of some professional game experience, it gave a young Schoenwetter extra time to train with Myers.

“We worked on the small parts of baseball,” he said. “Once or twice a week, we would meet over at the Goleta Valley South Little League fields and throw bullpens.

“Each time, Tom would have me grade how I pitched. We would talk about the art of pitching and what certain aspects I could work on for the next session.

“He helped me with my throwing programs and would come to my high school every once in a while to help iron out some of my flaws.”

Ever Vigil Virgil

Virgil Vasquez was just a year out of Santa Barbara High when Myers thrust him into the rotation of UCSB’s NCAA Tournament team of 2001.

“We were stacked with position players and pitchers that year, and we had some leadership,” Vasquez recalled. “James Garcia and Rylie Ogle were leading the staff, and Donny Warrecker was the fifth-year senior at catcher who was calling all the pitches.

“You may be the youngest one out there, but Tom was talking to me and (head coach) Bob Brontsema was talking to me. My expectations weren’t to be the rookie that they work in slowy, and they were like, ‘You’re here … Let’s go.’”

Vasquez pitched a dozen seasons of professional baseball after the Detroit Tigers chose him in the seventh round of the 2003 MLB Draft.

He had stints in the big leagues with both the Tigers and Pittsburgh Pirates.

And now he’s working his way back up as a pitching coach. He currently handles the staff for the Louisville Bats, the Reds’ Triple-A affiliate.

The former Don hopes to work with a former Royal some day. The Reds have bet millions of dollars that Schoenwetter will get there eventually.

The big family of Santa Barbara baseball keeps getting bigger.

The key, Vasquez would tell him, is to progress in step with every misstep.

“A guy fails, so what does he do?” he said. “It’s that response that matters. That’s what I try to teach.

“Whatever had to happen is accepted, and now it’s, ‘What are we going to do to get you to the next place?’”

He knows that rain must fall in every life. The key is to just keep plugging away in Mudville.