Benes OK with Double-A — for now

Former major leaguer knows success here is first step in possible return to St. Louis.

Kary Booher
News-Leader

He speaks like the veteran you'd expect him to be. Calm and collected, humbled by a career that has hit a couple of tailspins, matured in life by a wife and three little boys back home in St. Louis.

So, no, Alan Benes is not at all bitter about being back in Double-A baseball, the land of hot-shot prospects and a place that was once a pit stop on his way to the big leagues.

In fact, Benes is nothing but positive about this latest venture, even when you'd think that a third surgery on his pitching shoulder last fall and a slow recovery since would have beaten down his spirits, if not led the right-hander — now pushing his mid-30s — to believe it was time to start mulling other options in life.

"You can be considered old in this game at 33, or you can be considered young in this game," Benes said the other day from his hotel room in Frisco, Texas. "At this level, Double-A, I'm one of the oldest guys. But in baseball, by no means am I too old to still have a chance."

And so Benes is here with the Springfield Cardinals. Beating the clock and trying to beat down a path back to the big leagues as he and the Cardinals return to Hammons Field tonight to begin a seven-game homestand, first for three against the Midland RockHounds and then four against the Frisco RoughRiders.

Game time tonight is 7:10, and such is the backdrop behind Benes, whose story would be something else should he pull off a complete comeback, for baseball scribes could detail how St. Louis' former first-round pick climbed back into baseball this summer during a two-week road trip with their Double-A affiliate and zeroed in on the promised land as a go-to guy out of the bullpen.

"Last of Benes brothers still going strong" might be one of the many headlines, and the notepads would fill quickly as Benes talked up the early days of this comeback, especially of being on a roster suited for a bar-night, all-name team conversation: Benes, a former 13-game winner in St. Louis; outfielder Rick Ankiel, the former pitching gem of the organization; and second baseman Aaron Herr and back-up catcher Matt Pagnozzi, the former the son of Tommy Herr and the latter the nephew of Tom Pagnozzi.

There would be mention of his brother Andy, a former first-rounder of the San Diego Padres, having retired with the Cardinals and now doing a weekly TV gig for the organization, just as there would be mention of their younger brother Adam, a former Cardinals farmhand, raising a family in Little Rock, Ark.

Honestly, however, Benes hasn't been at all dreaming of such a scenario.

After all, he's less than a year removed from shoulder surgery, the third one of his career to repair a damaged rotator cuff. The first surgery came two seasons after a breakthrough, 13-10 campaign in 1996, and Benes has resurfaced in the big leagues only occasionally since, most recently in the 2002 and 2003 seasons with the Chicago Cubs.

At that, Benes hits town sporting an earned run average of 12.27 in four appearances, although it's a number inflated by one poor outing.

"For me," Benes said, "the biggest thing this year was getting the opportunity to come back and get my feet back under me again and stick it out."

And Benes, now 33, believes he can, mainly from watching from the rotation all these years how bullpen guys rose from the minors to the majors.

"I've been basically studying most of the time," Benes said, "but I thought this time maybe I'll try to catch on out of the bullpen and see if I can catch on with somebody."

Ideally, Benes would like to catch on with the big-league Cardinals, who made him a first-round pick in 1993 out of Creighton and whose employment in St. Louis would allow him to spend the season at home with his wife Mary Beth and their three boys, Sean (5), Zach (4) and Ryan (2).

Still, it is unlikely he'll be summoned to St. Louis when the big-league club expands its roster next month. But an invitation to spring training wouldn't be so far-fetched. The Cardinals know Benes well, having watched him pitch all of last season at Triple-A Memphis.

The trick for the right-hander will be to develop the out-pitch that fits. As a starter, he had a curveball and slider to complement the fastball.

As a reliever, he knows he really only needs one of those three, a money pitch that has prolonged careers of many starters who have become reliable bullpen guys.

Sure, the clock is ticking. But experience will count for something, that he knows.

"You see a lot of guys and you say, 'His stuff isn't any better than mine. He was just in the right place at the right time' " Benes said. "Things can happen like that. I know in the right situation I would take advantage of the opportunity. Hopefully, I can work into that situation.