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Thread: Season of grief now behind Shackelford (3/15)

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    "Let's Roll" TeamBoone's Avatar
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    Season of grief now behind Shackelford (3/15)

    Publication date: 03-15-2006

    Season of grief now behind Shackelford
    By Marc Lancaster / Post staff reporter

    FORT MYERS, Fla. - Brian Shackelford doesn't remember the exact date last March that his younger brother, Craig, committed suicide.

    "That's something I chose to forget," he said.

    There's no handbook for moving on from the death of your only sibling, especially under such gut-wrenching circumstances. Shackelford believes his brother took his own life largely because he was unable to come to grips with the death of their mother, Rhonda, from cancer nearly 2½ years earlier.

    Is there such a thing as too much grieving? Too little? Shackelford isn't sure.

    "Not a whole lot of people have been through something like that, so you don't really know how you're going to react to it," said the Reds reliever. "I feel like I'm about as tough on things like that as you can be. There are different ways people deal with it, I guess. I might be one of the guys that's just kind of got to put it behind them, I don't know. It's hard to explain how you deal with it. You don't want to linger too long on it, but you always think about it."

    Shackelford, 29, has relied mostly on his gut since he got that unthinkable news last spring. He left Reds camp and went home to McAlester, Okla., to be with his father, Jerry, for a few weeks, providing all the support he could even as he tried to sort out for himself everything his family had endured.

    He probably came back too soon, returning to Sarasota early last April for extended spring training, but he needed to find an outlet somewhere, and baseball was it - even if it might not have appeared that way at first.

    Shackelford had been an early cut in big-league camp but had settled in with the minor leaguers earmarked to start the year at Class AAA Louisville. By the time he returned, in need of some fine-tuning to make up for the time he had lost, the minor league season already had started. Rather than falling back into some badly needed camaraderie, Shackelford felt as alone as he ever had at a ballpark.

    "You don't know any of those guys," he said, "and they're scared to look you in the eye and talk to you."

    He just wanted to move on. It wasn't too long before he convinced the Reds, probably prematurely, that he was ready to join Louisville and get his season going. Finally back in a comfortable environment, Shackelford concentrated on doing his job, but he found he couldn't wipe everything away just by being back on the mound.

    Coming off a 2004 season that had established him as a legitimate prospect in the bullpen, Shackelford was hit hard during the first half of 2005. He went 1-6 with a 5.23 ERA in 31 appearances, and those that only saw a stat sheet and didn't know the backstory wondered what had happened.

    Those numbers prompted more than a few raised eyebrows when the Reds decided to promote him to the majors last June 26 after Randy Keisler went on the disabled list, but it didn't take Shackelford long to demonstrate that he had found at least a temporary haven from everything that weighed on him throughout the spring.

    "The way I looked at last year was, every time I went out there, I'd do whatever job I was out there for - if I was in there to get one guy out or eat up an inning, whatever it was," said Shackelford.

    As manager Jerry Narron grew more comfortable with Shackelford, the importance of his role increased. He became a reliable specialist the Reds could throw at left-handed hitters earlier in games, saving Kent Mercker for the eighth inning and beyond.

    Opposing batters hit just .204 against Shackelford in 37 major league appearances last year, all but five of which ended with no runs allowed by the lefty. Of the 16 baserunners Shackelford inherited, just three came in to score.

    "He did a great job for us last year," said Narron. "The thing I love about Shack is he likes to compete, he loves being out there."

    That describes Shackelford to the core. A former punter at Oklahoma University, he began his baseball career as an outfielder and first baseman in the Kansas City Royals system. He never hit his way to prospect status doing that job, collecting a .241 career average in 549 minor league games, but when the Royals talked him into becoming a pitcher during the 2002 season, he took off.

    The Reds acquired him a year later, and he has established himself as a pitcher that will be difficult to keep out of the Opening Day bullpen, as tight as the competition for jobs there might be.

    The Reds' decision to sign veteran lefty specialist Chris Hammond in December didn't do Shackelford any favors, but the younger pitcher has done his job in five spring training appearances so far. A quick, scoreless inning Tuesday against the Boston Red Sox lowered Shackelford's Grapefruit League ERA to 1.50 - one earned run allowed in six innings.

    Shackelford is too accustomed to grinding it out to get too excited about anything at this stage in camp - "I've never made it past the first cut before," he said with a laugh - but he also has no inclination to let even the smallest failing on the baseball field grind him down. One of the most unassuming guys in the Reds' clubhouse, Shackelford has never seemed the type to let the game define him.

    He can laugh away just about anything, but there are limits. That's what made last fall so difficult.

    "When I went home, there's stuff you've got to deal with, there's no way around it," said Shackelford. "I'm around 25 guys (in the clubhouse) all year, so that kind of let me get away from it for a little bit. But going home in October was hard for me because it was the first time I'd been back in the house since it happened. It took a while to get used to it."

    Shackelford's first priority from the beginning, he said, was maintaining closer ties with his father. The two talk every day now, and that's how the son wants it to be. Shackelford said he can tell from the way his dad sounds that he's getting better, but he knows this time of year will be difficult to navigate.

    As tough as Shackelford has tried to be throughout the past year, he'll do everything he can to reach out to his dad now, no matter how long it takes.

    "I know this is going to be a hard time at home for him," he said. "I'm going to stay on top of that. That's my main concern, to make sure he's OK."

    http://news.cincypost.com/apps/pbcs....603150332/1027
    "Enjoy this Reds fans, you are watching a legend grow up before your very eyes" ... DoogMinAmo on Adam Dunn


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    Maple SERP savafan's Avatar
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    Re: Season of grief now behind Shackelford (3/15)

    Sometimes it's easy to forget that baseball players are human.
    My dad got to enjoy 3 Reds World Championships by the time he was my age. So far, I've only gotten to enjoy one. Step it up Redlegs!

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    Re: Season of grief now behind Shackelford (3/15)

    Saturday, March 18, 2006

    'Shack' just wants the ball
    Reliever focuses on his own pitching, not on that of others
    BY JOHN FAY | ENQUIRER STAFF WRITER

    DUNEDIN, Fla. - Brian Shackelford had to be thinking he was sitting pretty after last season.

    Shackelford, a 29-year-old left-hander, pitched well for the Reds after his call-up June 26, going 4-1 with a 2.43 ERA. His numbers across the board were good: 21 hits, 17 strikeouts and nine walks in 291/3 innings.

    But Shackelford's job security took a hit when the Reds signed veteran lefty Chris Hammond.

    Shackelford is one of the most happy-go-lucky guys in the Reds' clubhouse, so he's hardly complaining about his lot in life.

    "You can't look at it like that," he said. "I don't get caught up in who's here and who's not."

    Shackelford has had a good spring, allowing one run on five hits over six innings, walking one and striking out three. He also has impressed Reds manager Jerry Narron with his willingness to take the ball in any situation.

    "He did a good job for us," Narron said. "The thing you worried about with Shack was, could you trust him to throw enough strikes? The worst thing for a guy who is going to face one batter is to come in and walk him.

    "He definitely came in and threw strikes."

    Shackelford's success in the majors was somewhat surprising - even to him. He was 1-6 with a 5.23 ERA at Triple-A Louisville when he got the call-up.

    "When I first got up there, I was in a mop-up role to eat up innings," Shackelford said. "But after I got comfortable and had some success, they trusted me more with the lefty specialist role."

    Shackelford made his big-league debut at age 28, but there's a reason for that. He signed as an outfielder and didn't become a pitcher full time until 2003.

    The Reds got Shackelford from the Kansas City Royals in a March 2003 trade. He went 8-1 with a 3.58 ERA for Louisville in 2004, but he wasn't given much of a shot to make the Reds because they had signed left-hander Kent Mercker in the offseason.

    Shackelford brings the gamer attitude of a position player to pitching.

    "Shack wants the ball," Narron said. "That's what you want to see."

    Said Shackelford: "I've always been that way. When I was a hitter, I wanted to be up there with the game on the line."

    Last year was an educational process for Shackelford and the Reds' other less-experienced relievers. Shackelford, Todd Coffey, Matt Belisle and Jason Standridge were pitching in a big-league bullpen for the first time.

    Having Mercker and David Weathers around helped them.

    "First of all, they know the hitters," Shackelford said. "They're always three innings ahead, so they tell you what to expect. They really helped us.

    "I was talking to young guys with other clubs who didn't have veteran guys. It really makes a difference."

    Adding Hammond to that mix could cost Shackelford a big-league job. But he's not preoccupied with that.

    "All I do is go out and pitch," Shackelford said. "Competition is good. I don't worry about what's not in my control."

    E-mail jfay@enquirer.com



    http://news.enquirer.com/apps/pbcs.d...603180360/1071
    "Enjoy this Reds fans, you are watching a legend grow up before your very eyes" ... DoogMinAmo on Adam Dunn


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