Mike Montgomery’s rise this season as a starting pitcher for the Seattle Mariners gives Hart of Newhall three alums all pitching as starters in the majors at the same time. We were wondering if this had ever happened before from any school in California history.
The Hart High of Newhall baseball program has some huge feathers in its cap these days now that a third former Indian is making a name for himself as a starter in the major leagues.
Based on statistics as of July 10, Mike Montgomery had begun his career as a starter with the Seattle Mariners with a 4-2 record and 1.62 ERA since he was called up from AAA Tacoma to make his major league debut last June 1.
Montgomery joins former Hart teammate Trevor Bauer — they both graduated in 2008 and both were on the Cal-Hi Sports all-state teams with Bauer first team and Montgomery second team – and Class of 2000 graduate James Shields as starting pitchers from the same high school.
Bauer is currently pitching for the Cleveland Indians and as of July 10 was 8-5 with a 3.76 ERA to go with 102 strikeouts in 105 1/3 innings.
Shields, of course, is more well known. He was the No. 1 pitcher for the Kansas City Royals in the 2014 World Series and signed a free agent deal in the off-season with the San Diego Padres. As of July 10, he was 7-3 with a 3.88 ERA and had 126 strikeouts in 111 1/3 innings.
In 2012, all three of the Hart alums were on the move. When Shields was traded by Tampa Bay to Kansas City, one of the players that Tampa Bay got in return was Montgomery. Bauer was then traded two days later from the Arizona Diamondbacks to the Indians.
It’s an amazing occurrence to have three players from one high school all playing in the majors at the same time, but it is much more uncommon for all three to be starting pitchers.
We went into our files and don’t have an exact answer as to how many times it’s happened for a California high school, but it did happen for Fresno High in the late 1960s. At that time, Fresno High grad Tom Seaver (the future Hall of Famer) was just starting out for the New York Mets while at the same time both Jim Maloney and Dick Ellsworth were getting to the end of their MLB careers for the Cincinnati Reds and Chicago Cubs, respectively. All three of those starting pitchers, by the way, were 20-game winners at least once in their careers.
They all weren’t starting pitchers but Simi Valley also has had three MLB pitchers going at the same time. Those three would be reliever Keith Fowlke (he got the final out when the Boston Red Sox won their historic World Series in 2004) and the two Weaver brothers, Jeff and Jered. Fowlke was still pitching in 2007 and 2008 when Jered was starting to become a dominant starter for the L.A. Angels while Jeff was still playing as well.
We couldn’t find or think of any others, but it will be fun to see how the threesome from Hart does the rest of this season and beyond.
One Comment
Colleen Sullivan, catcher, fr. Poway High School. She is a fantastic young catcher and hitter and deserves to be nominated for All State consideration.