Dave Hyde: Skip Schumaker brings high hopes — and a heavy heart — into Marlins season
MIAMI — It’s always been a day for fathers and sons, and the son wanted to share it with his father. So, he sought out Miami Marlins pitcher Sixto Sanchez and asked for a favor heading into Thursday’s Opening Day.
“Sixto was nice enough to give me his number,” Marlins manager Skip Schumaker said.
No. 45.
“My dad was obviously my hero growing up and he was No. 45 in high school,” Schumaker said. “He played football and basketball. He didn’t like baseball …”
He chuckled for a moment.
“But I just felt it was a good tribute to him this year,” he said. “I’m excited to wear it.”
Schumaker buried his father on Monday in Dana Point, Calif. Wayne Schumaker was 72, and dealt with a troubled heart the last couple of years to the point he couldn’t fly to a Marlins game last year to watch his son’s team even if he watched on television.
Wayne Schumaker might not have loved baseball, but that always was over-ridden by his love of family. Years ago, when he came through the door from work and his son stood waiting with a bat, they went to the batting cages. When they watched baseball games on TV, dad drew up drills for his son to work on.
When the son started playing in a youth league, dad became the coach. When his devotion to practicing was off the charts, dad built a hitting contraption in the garage for practice on rainy days.
When the son played in high school, dad arranged his work schedule to attend the games in a way that, like everything about the dad’s priorities, took on added value as the son became a dad himself.
“He went peacefully, and that’s all you can ask for,” Schumaker said Tuesday, sitting in the LoanDepot Park dugout that will be his home for the next several months. “I’m ready for the season to start to take my mind off it.”
How do you work with a heavy heart? Jimmy Johnson tried when his mother died and found he wasn’t the same with the Miami Dolphins. Don Shula spoke at his wife Dorothy’s funeral and found refuge in his games. Everyone’s different.
Out on the field, players were warming up for a practice in a manner Schumaker went to watch. He was the National League Manager of the Year in his first year as a manager, just as he should have been for taking a team that scored the fewest runs in the league, committed the second-most errors and finished eight in earned-run average to the playoffs.
He’ll win the award again if the Marlins make the playoffs again. They have more pitching wins on the injured list than in the starting rotation, starting with ace Sandy Alcantara, who is out for the year after Tommy John surgery.
“We lost some big starters, big boys, but for (former reliever) A.J. Puk to looked like he did is a plus for us,” he said.
The weakest lineup in the league also lost its most dynamic hitter in Jorge Soler. Maybe veteran free-agent signee Tim Anderson rebounds to his All-Star form after a dismal 2022. Maybe Jazz Chisholm can stay on the field for a season.
“Everybody wants to talk about a healthy Jazz,” Schumaker said. “So do I.”
One thing’s for sure, “We need to score more than two runs a game,” he said. “That’s a lot of pressure on the bullpen and the pitchers. I also feel we know we [can] play in those games and win those games.”
The Marlins were 33-14 in one-run games last year, the largest margin in baseball. That won’t be repeated. The analytical read is one-run games even out over time. The Marlins don’t want to hear such ideas at a new season’s start.
They want to think what can be. But even on the edge of this start, there’s some pain to deal with. Schumaker walked over to Marlins owner Bruce Sherman and team president Caroline O’Connor before Tuesday’s practice.
They traded handshakes, hugs, consoling words. They hadn’t seen Schumaker since he returned from his father’s funeral.
“Family is what it’s about,” Schumaker said. “I’m grateful to them for letting me spend some time with my family in California.”
He’s grateful, too, to Sanchez, who now wears No. 18.
The new No. 45 will share Opening Day with his father.