When Mimbs is on, a twin killing could be in the making Statistics for the Phillies pitcher bear an uncanny resemblance to his brother's 2,000 miles away. By Jayson Stark INQUIRER STAFF WRITER On Saturday night a week ago, .nearly 40,000 people sat in amaze- 3t'ment in Atlanta-Fulton County Stall dium, watching a mysterious Phillies : pitcher named Michael Mimbs shut out tne worw-tamous Atlanta Braves icson one hit for six innings. Little did they know that the most amazing event involving a 26-year-old lefthander named Mimbs would take place the next night, 2,000 miles JTSaway. I In Scottsdale, Ariz., Michael's iden-l itical twin, Mark, went to the mound jto start a triple-A game for the Albu- (uerque Dukes against the Phoenix Firebirds. Six innings later, Mark Mimbs J headed for the dugout. He had just .V; thrown six shutout innings. And al- ' f , i i. ; loweu one mi. ILkLzone music.) (Cue the Twilight r "That doesn't surprise Michael Mimbs. "We've done stuff like that he me," said The parallels between lefthanders Michael and Mark Mimbs don't end with baseball. fore. Lots of times." He is a fabulous story on his own, this Mi-hfi chael Mimbs. Released by the Dodgers two dyears ago in spring training. Spent six 'weeks without a job, firing baseballs at a splintered wooden oard. From the independent Northern League, where the Oil Can Boyds of the world go to postpone their descent into baseball oblivion, Mimbs worked his way into 'f-the minors, then into the Phillies' rotation. More remarkable, though, is the 7iJstory of the Mimbs twins, a story so full of eerie parallels right down 5f to the time they sent their father the if same birthday card that it even has been told by . . . move over, Madonna and Oprah ... the National Enquirer. Under the headline "Psy-;WA.'chic Southpaws." "Pretty wild, huh?" said Mark Mimbs. "I could see them writing about us if we were in the movies or something. But we're only baseball " players." Twins have been the source of "a tremendous amount of awe and fascination, dating back to Romulus and Remus," said Ricardo Ainslie, author a book titled The Psychology of 'J''Twinship. And though there have been many baseball instances of one twin making it to the major leagues, 1 . a . f ' ' - ' This PhlfnHolnhifl Innniror C5HM rnDTCO Michael Mimbs and his identical twin, Mark, began their pro careers as teammates. the Total Baseball encyclopedia lists only six sets of twins who both made it. The most recent: Jose and Ozzie Canseco. Could the Mimbs brothers be next? They were drafted by the Dodgers in June 1990 out of Mercer University in Georgia Michael in the 24th round, Mark in the 25th. In their first full season, in 1991, pitching for two different single-A teams, they each won 12 games, allowed 42 earned runs and, at one point, after they each had made 17 starts, they had matching 2.25 ERAs. The next year, they each struck out 87 hitters Michael in 129 innings, Mark in 131. And over their five-year pro careers, they each have given up eight hits per nine innings and racked up eight strikeouts per nine innings. "I pitch just like him," Mark Mimbs said. "We throw the same pitches. We throw our change-up the same way. We throw our curveball the same way. We throw our slider the same way. I was watching him on TV on Saturday, and I could tell you exactly what he was gonna throw before he threw the ball. Every pitch." To some degree, these baseball parallels can be traced to genetics, said Ainslie, director of counseling for the Psychology Training Program at the University of Texas. But they also exemplify the deep psychological bond between twins, he said. "When Mark watches his brother pitch and then pitches the same kind of game, it's his way of keeping Mark and Michael together," Ainslie said. "And that feeling, for twins, is very important. "But you also could say there is something somewhat mystical going on here," he continued. "How is it possible? What forces are at work? The fact that their statistics are so similar that wasn't entirely up to the twins themselves. Their coaches decide whether they keep pitching or they get pulled out. So that's kind of amazing." They began their careers as teammates. Then, early in their first pro season, the Dodgers abruptly separated them to help them "be their own pitchers," said Dodgers farm1 director Charlie Blaney. But Michael. Mimbs said the Dodgers thought the brothers competed with each other. "We tried telling them it wasn't true," he said. "But they had their minds made up." For most of the next three seasons, the Mimbs brothers went their own ways. Then, in 1992, Michael went 10-8 in double A, and Mark went 1-9 in double A and triple A. So people around the Dodgers weren't totally stunned when the Dodgers had what Blaney calls "a numbers problem" and released one of them. The stunner was that it was Michael who got released. "That," Mark said, "was the saddest day in baseball for both of us." Michael went home to Macon, Ga., expecting to be signed the next day. Nobody called. Every day, he 1 dragged a bucket of balls into his ; yard, sculpted a little mound, and! began throwing. His catcher was a sheet of plywood. "I threw every day for a month and j a half," he said. "So that thing was shattered before I was done." As a last resort, he headed for the Northern League, which has sent no one else to the major leagues. He figured "that would be my last stop ... I'd just pitch till my two months were up and go home." But the following January, Mimbs phoned his Northern League team to say he'd been offered a minor-league deal by Montreal. "They said, 'You owe us some money,' " Mimbs recalled. "They said I had an option year and they were going to pick up the option. So I had to pay them a couple thousand dol lars out of my own checking account to get out of my contract." The Expos had received good reports on both Mimbs brothers, said general manager Kevin Malone. But "it was kind of confusing," Malone said. "You never really knew which one they were talking about. Somebody would say 'Mimbs' and you'd think it was one, but it was the other." Michael Mimbs went 11-4 for dou-ble-A Harrisburg, but the Expos left him off the big-league roster over the winter. The Phillies had good reports on him plus a pitching coach, Johnny Podres, who had taught both twins the change-up. So they took Michael in the Rule 5 draft. And to even their surprise, he wound up in the rotation. He announced his arrival with those six dazzling innings in Atlanta. Then he was rocked back to reality Thursday, getting knocked out in the first inning against Montreal. Meanwhile, at Albuquerque, his brother matched that first start, zero for zero, last weekend raising his record to 2-0, with 33 strikeouts and just six walks in 30Va innings. Then, in a game against Las Vegas the night after Michael's painful second start, Mark began throwing with ominous similarities to his brother's performance. The first three batters he faced connected for a homer, a single and a single. Then he settled down and lasted seven innings, giving up six hits and striking out 10. That kind of. pitching makes Michael hope Mark -will get called up to the majors. : Z "I'd love for him to get a phone call . saying he just got called up," Michael said. "I just want him to get the same chance I had. ... The National En-; quirer that's no claim to fame. This is a claim to fame." 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