In Pawtucket, et, they wait for 'the call' Players Plympton, Conroy set their sites on Fenway By Marvin Pave GLOBE STAFF P al cup of coffee in the big leagues. Brian AWTUCKET, R.I. - Jeff Plympton has already had a taste of that proverbi- Conroy is still working toward that opportunity. Both wear the uniform of the Pawtucket Red Sox, the Triple-A farm team of the Boston Red Sox, and both happen to be pitchers in an organization loaded with pitching talent. Plympton, 26, who grew up in Framingham and was a three-sport star at King Philip Regional High when he lived in Plainville, and Conroy, 23, a Needham native, have different roles on manager Rico Petrocelli's team, which was in second place in the International League's Eastern Division earlier this week. Plympton, a reliever who was called up to Boston in June 1991, was sent down and brought up three more times and pitched 5⅓ shutout innings in the majors. He has spent the entire 1992 season with the PawSox and sported a 5-7 record with : a 3.16 earned run average in a team-high 39 relief appearances through last Monday. Conroy, a starting pitcher, has alternated between the Red Sox Class AA farm team in New Britain, Conn., and Pawtucket the last two seasons. He was promoted from New Britain (where he pitched a no-hitter) to Pawtucket last year and had a 6-4 record in 16 starts with the PawSox. Conroy was sent back to New Britain May 5, but was recalled to Pawtucket July 7 and got a win in his first start (6-3 over Scranton-Wilkes Barre) to bring his AAA record to 2-1. At New Britain, Conroy had a 4-6 record with a 3.82 ERA. On. May 21 against Harrisburg, he gave up only a first-inning single on the way to a one-hitter and 2-0 complete-game shutout - nearly duplicating his no-hit feat of a year ago. Both pitchers are aware of the logjam at the top and realize all they can do at Pawtucket is their best. "The season has been pretty decent," said Plympton, a 10th-round draft pick of the Red Sox in June 1987. "I started off really strong and hit a rough spot midway through the season, but, the last two or three weeks, I've gotten back to where I was earlier." A former basketball captain at King Philip, Plympton moved recently with his wife, Linda, and 2-year-old daughter, Nicole, from Watertown to Wrentham - just a 15-minute ride to McCoy Stadium in Pawtucket, the home of the PawSox. "My old home town [Plainville] is right next door, so that's pretty nice," Plympton said. "And Nicole is learning the game. At least she knows when I'm pitching to say, 'Strike him out, Daddy.'" In his four call-ups to the major league club, he appeared in just four games, and he's itching to get back for more. "It wasn't enough. I had just P BRIAN CONROY Triple-A record is 2-1 five innings in the majors. But at least I broke the ice and, if I do get up there again, I'll have a pretty good idea of what I have to do." Plympton had problems with tendinitis and a hamstring pull this year in spring training. "I didn't get as much work down there [Winter Haven] with the big team as I would have liked, but they know what I can do. I played for Butch [Red Sox manager Butch Hobson] the last three years in the minors and I'm very optimistic. "Hopefully, if they make a move, I'll get called back up, but I've said from Day 1 here that the key for me is to stay strong mentally. Last year, I was up and down, up and down, and it was very difficult because I didn't have any rhythm going at times. But I just want to get this season under my belt and do well no matter where I am. "The biggest thing to conquer when you get called up is nervousness. It took Darryl Irvine [Red Sox reliever just recalled from Pawtucket] a few times to get over that and now he's doing very well." Plympton's best pitch is his slider and PawSox pitching coach Dick Pole told him a couple of weeks ago that he wasn't using it enough. "He told me to go back to it, and it's worked," Plympton said. "The important thing for me is to keep throwing and get my innings in and not worry about any call-ups. I learned that last year because I struggled when I got back here." Conroy agrees. "On the days when you're not pitching, it's easy to think about the guys who are ahead of you, but it's not healthy. You really have to worry about yourself and no one else," said Conroy, who was an unhappy pitcher once at Northeastern University, but a lot better one at the University of Massachusetts at Amherst, from which he was drafted in the 22d round by Boston after his sophomore season. A star pitcher at Catholic Memorial High in West Roxbury where he was a Catholic Confer- 38 JEFF PLYMPTON Team-high 39 relief appearances ence All-Star, Conroy said he really started to learn the nuts and bolts of pitching after he was drafted. In fact, he said, "I was pretty much ready to quit the game when I was in college. But I transferred schools and pitched a lot more at UMass." He's still trying to establish himself at the Triple-A level, but Conroy, whose father, Tom, is a physical education instructor in the Brookline school system, showed that the scouts weren't wrong when he led the Carolina League in complete games and shutouts two years ago. His time back in New Britain this year, he said, enabled him to get some of his confidence back. "When I was here [in Pawtucket] early in the season, I wasn't getting much work because they had John Dopson down from Boston on rehab and there were a few rainouts. So I was able to get into the rotation and get some innings in at New Britain and work on some things. "I was getting my pitches over in New Britain and that was the key for me," said Conroy, who is far from out of sight, out of mind as far as the Red Sox are concerned because he's shown he can pitch at every stop along the minor league trail. "No matter where you are, a demotion is always a little tough to swallow at first," Conroy said. "But I try not to get too caught up in why I was sent down or where I feel I should be. I just try to rise above all that and go out and do what I have to do and prove that I'm capable of pitching at this level. I don't have an overpowering fastball; but, if I can mix up my pitches and stay ahead of the hitters, that's the big thing for me.' Conroy's first game back, against Scranton, was a confidence-booster. "I went seven innings and we won. It was a good way to come back. Hopefully, I can take advantage of my time here and open up some doors for myself in the future." Plympton seconds that motion.
