Ritter finds way from farm to big leagues

The Sentinel-Record/Mara Kuhn ALL IN THE FAMILY: Susan and Reggie Ritter, back center and right, gather on the Lakeside High School pitching mound with sons Bo, front left, Josh and Zach, back left. Reggie Ritter spent parts of two seasons as a Cleveland Indians reliever, and at least one Ritter son played on a Lakeside team each of the past 13 years.
The Sentinel-Record/Mara Kuhn ALL IN THE FAMILY: Susan and Reggie Ritter, back center and right, gather on the Lakeside High School pitching mound with sons Bo, front left, Josh and Zach, back left. Reggie Ritter spent parts of two seasons as a Cleveland Indians reliever, and at least one Ritter son played on a Lakeside team each of the past 13 years.

It’s a long way from Hot Spring County to Cleveland. In Reggie Ritter’s case, perhaps farther than the geographic 900-plus miles.

Before he and his wife, Susan, raised three sons who played a collective 13 consecutive seasons for Lakeside teams, Ritter made an improbable trek from his parents’ farm and Babe Ruth-league baseball to the majors. He returned to Arkansas after retiring from baseball in 1990, moving to Hot Springs a year later.

The now 54-year-old Ritter’s 19 game career as a Cleveland Indians reliever, interrupted in 1987 by a line drive to his face, began four years after he graduated from Bismarck High School, which — like most Arkansas schools at the time — did not field a baseball team.

“It was a pretty fantastic ride,” Ritter said of his journey through Henderson State University and the Indians’ minor-league system, plus a comeback from a rough 1988 that appeared to have him headed back to the big leagues.

It started through his own initiative. After playing “12 to 14 games a summer” on Arkadelphia and Malvern Babe Ruth teams, he walked on at Henderson with the thought of trying out as a third baseman.

“There were 13 third basemen down there,” he said of his tryout session. “There were six pitchers. ... I figured the odds, so I went to the mound.”

After graduating in 1982 with a business degree, Ritter played with a collegiate summer league team that reached the National Baseball Congress World Series in Wichita, Kan. A slew of major-league scouts attended a game Ritter pitched, the player of interest being the opposing pitcher — a flame-throwing Texan named Roger Clemens.

“They saw me and said, ‘Who is that?’” Ritter said. “After that game I had seven teams offer me a contract. I went from zero to seven.”

Choosing to sign with the

Indians, he went 10-13 in 1983- 84 at Class A Waterloo, Iowa, then 11-9 in 1985 in 24 starts and one relief appearance with AA Waterbury, Conn., and AAA Maine.

He joined the Indians early in the 1986 season. His major league debut came on May 17 against Toronto.

It was a struggle, as Ritter allowed four earned runs in two innings, but he followed with a scoreless inning against Milwaukee on May 20. He gave up six runs, three earned, in three more appearances before going back to Maine.

Ritter started 1987 at triple-A, getting his second callup in July and allowing one earned run in six appearances (11 2-3 innings) before a rough outing against the Blue Jays. He rebounded to throw a perfect inning against the Yankees, then faltered again against Toronto in a 3 1-3-inning stint that ended when he was hit in the chin by veteran Juan Beniquez’s line drive.

“I threw an inside fastball, and all those Latin guys could inside-out the ball,” Ritter said. “It tipped my glove. I just missed it.”

He was sidelined five weeks. “It broke my jaw in three places. I’ve got a stainless steel plate in my lower jaw,” Ritter said.

“They had to put a lot of stitches on the inside of the gum line. ... It seemed like I had 30 or so stitches on the outside. When I eat dinner and start drooling, I’ve got an excuse.”

As fate would have it, Ritter and Beniquez were teammates the following offseason on a winter-league team in Puerto Rico. The latter showed remorse — in a way.

“When he met Susan he said, ‘Don’t shoot me,’” Ritter said.

The Ritters, who met shortly after Reggie first went to Maine, had married in October 1987. Susan is a native of the nation’s most northeastern state.

“I met her the second day I was in Maine,” he said. “I was working to go to the big leagues. A relationship wasn’t even on my radar. ... Sometimes it just happens.”

Ritter returned to the mound on Sept. 14, giving up four runs in 2 1-3 innings against Seattle, then allowed two runs in his last four games, picking up a win with 1 2-3 scoreless innings against the California (now Anaheim) Angels in what turned out to be his next-to-last major league outing. His final game also was against the Angels, Hall of Famer Don Sutton, of California, getting one of his 324 career wins.

The next year was trying. Ritter failed to make the Indians, and went 2-11 with an 8.15 ERA in 25 minor-league appearances.

“It was just a horrible year,” Ritter said. “I got a little edgy. Number one, I had lost the confidence of people who thought I could pitch, and I lost confidence myself because of that. It showed up on the field.”

He signed with Pittsburgh early in 1989, “so I went to spring training with the Pirates. Barry Bonds was there — what a jerk he was.”

Ritter was released before the season started, and went home to Maine.

“The Yankees called me. Su- san didn’t like that because (her and her family) were Red Sox fans,” he said.

He signed with New York, and was sent to an independent Class A team in Virginia “to get in shape. ... What a throwback that was. I was riding buses. I was ready to go to Columbus (Ohio, triple-A) and they called me and said, ‘We sold your contract to the Cubs.’”

After starting 1989 in Class A, he was promoted to triple-A Iowa and posted a 1.72 ERA in 15 2-3 innings over 12 games.

“I was throwing the ball well. I was throwing in the low 90s and getting people out,” Ritter said.

He thought his chances of making the Cubs the following year were good before a spring training owners lockout.

“Since I wasn’t on the (major league) roster I had to go to the triple-A camp,” he said. “They really didn’t give me a shot.”

Ritter pitched in three games, all ineffective spot starts.

“I pitched three times in six weeks. You’re not going to pitch well when you pitch once every two weeks.”

He decided to retire in May, moving back to Hot Spring County with Susan and 9-month-old son Josh.

“It was the hardest decision I ever had to make to that point,” Ritter said, adding that pitching in the majors “was all I ever wanted to do.”

After first working on the farm of his father, Murl, Ritter became a car salesman in Arkadelphia, eventually becoming a part owner of the Gildner AutoGroup dealership. He moved to Hot Springs in 1991, and now works at Merrill Lynch as a financial consultant.

“We just like Hot Springs. Hot Springs is our home,” he said. “What better place to be than the birthplace of spring training.”

The current player whose path to the big leagues reminds Ritter most of his own is Boston Red Sox outfielder Daniel Nava, who failed to make the Santa Clara University team as a walk-on. Nava became an equipment manager before transferring to a junior college and eventually earning a scholarship from Santa Clara. The Red Sox signed him off an independent-league team.

“Mine’s not as good a story, but I tell people ... how can I complain? The Good Lord was good to me.”

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