Max Scherzer was a standout pitcher at Parkway Central High in St. Louis and stayed in-state to attend the University of Missouri. But his freshman year did not begin well.
“He slammed his pitching hand on his car door before our first road trip. That set him back,” said Tim Jamieson, his former college coach at Missouri.
It was an early setback in a career defined more by accomplishments — including Monday’s announcement that Scherzer will be the starting pitcher for the National League in Tuesday night’s MLB All-Star Game at Nationals Park.
NL manager Dave Roberts of the Los Angeles Dodgers said the game’s setting, in Scherzer’s home park, made the decision to hand the ball to the Nationals’ ace a no-brainer.
“It’s his city. It’s his ballpark,” Dave Roberts said. “I’ve always tried to make things bigger than me and the club. And I think that Max, for the game of baseball, for our country, he’s the right guy to take the baseball.”
“I have always loved pitching in these events,” Scherzer said. “You can take something from it because you can use it later in the year. This is such an honor for the game to be here.”
In a press conference on Monday, the right-hander thanked a couple of coaches from earlier in his career, including Tony Vitello, a former assistant at Missouri who is now the head coach at Tennessee.
“He just has a DNA in him that is very special,” Vitello said. Vitello told The Washington Times he was very familiar with Scherzer’s St. Louis high school.
“It is my rival high school,” Vitello said. “I went to a private high school right down the street. My parents live right across the street from Parkway Center.”
Coming out of high school, Scherzer was a work in progress.
“His velocity is not near where it is now,” said Jamieson, the Missouri head coach through 2016 who now works in athletic administration at the school. “His delivery was violent and prevented him from being drafted higher. It was not like this five-star first-rounder out of high school we were going after. He had some work to do. Each year, he got better.
“He became unhittable his sophomore year,” Jamieson said. “He was so dominant with his fastball.”
After going 7-3 with a 2.25 ERA in 14 games with 13 starts as a junior in 2006, Scherzer was drafted in the first round and 11th overall by the Arizona Diamondbacks. Mike Rizzo, now the general manager of the Nationals, was the scouting director for Arizona.
Scherzer is 12-5 this season for Washington with an ERA of 2.41 in 20 starts, with 182 strikeouts in 134.2 innings. He has thrown two no-hitters over four seasons since joining the Nationals.
On Tuesday night, Scherzer will face an American League lineup that includes right fielder Mookie Betts of Boston, second baseman Jose Altuve of Houston, center fielder Mike Trout of Los Angeles, DH J.D. Martinez of Boston, third baseman Jose Ramirez of Cleveland, left fielder Aaron Judge of the New York Yankees, shortstop Manny Machado of Baltimore, first baseman Jose Abreu of the White Sox and catcher Salvador Perez of Kansas City.
Red Sox pitcher and AL starter Chris Sale will face a lineup of second baseman Javier Baez of the Cubs, third baseman Nolan Arenado of Colorado, DH Paul Goldschmidt of Arizona, first baseman Freddie Freeman of Atlanta, left fielder Matt Kemp of the Dodgers, center fielder Bryce Harper of the Nationals, right fielder Nick Markakis of Atlanta, shortstop Brandon Crawford of the Giants and catcher Willson Contreras of the Cubs.
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