Baseball Way Back: Two years out of high school, pitcher Larry Monroe had a quick taste of big-league life

Part 2 of 3

Months after the White Sox selected Larry Monroe in the first round of the 1974 major league free agent player draft, he faced his first big league hitter.

It wasn't just any hitter - it was one who would earn a plaque in Cooperstown. And the venue was Cooperstown itself.

Sox manager Chuck Tanner had called up the 18-year-old Forest View High School standout from the rookie league team in Sarasota to start the Hall of Fame game in Cooperstown, New York against the Atlanta Braves on Aug. 12.

In my recent phone conversation with the longtime Sox player, executive and scout, Monroe recalled third baseman Ron Santo laughing into his glove before he flipped him the ball for the first pitch, telling him, "Go get 'em, kid."

Turning around, the young pitcher saw Hank Aaron, months after he broke Babe Ruth's home run record, palming his batting helmet and sweeping the dirt with his feet as he settled into the batter's box.

"He hit a ground ball through the hole and it was the best hit I ever gave up," said Monroe, who would get Aaron to pop out and ground out in two more at-bats.

Monroe would continue to rise in the Sox system. He moved to Class A Appleton, where he would toss a no-hitter, and then AA Knoxville, before the Sox summoned the 20-year-old to the big club in August 1976.

He made his major league debut on Aug. 23 in the place where he was born, Detroit, leaving 32 passes for his family.

Monroe entered in relief of starter Rich Gossage in the bottom of the seventh with the Sox down 5-1. After walking his first batter, Chuck Scrivener, he was behind 2-0 to Ron LeFlore.

"Jim Spencer came in from first base," Monroe said. "He said, 'Hey kid. With that (stuff) you're throwing, there is no way they're going to hit it. Just throw it down the middle.'"

LeFlore grounded into a double-play, and Monroe finished the outing with two scoreless innings.

The last batter he faced, Aurelio Rodriguez, not only struck out on a curve ball, but threw his helmet afterward.

Monroe was living the dream of legions of American boys.

But Tanner was no longer managing the Sox. New owner Bill Veeck had hired Paul Richards, who helmed the first Go-Go Sox teams in the early 1950s, and Richards never quite settled on how to use the young phenom.

Initially, Richards told Monroe he would use him as a closer. But when Gossage, then a starter, ran into early trouble in a game in Milwaukee on Aug. 28, the bullpen phone rang, and Monroe was ordered to warm up.

Gossage settled down, but in the seventh, with no one warming up, Monroe was summoned from the bullpen. Monroe found out from teammates that it wasn't the first time Richards had brought in a reliever cold - something future Sox manager Terry Bevington would later get into trouble over in one instance.

Monroe yielded three earned runs in one inning of work.

Richards tabbed him for a start against Kansas City on Sept. 14. But Richards didn't tell Monroe that he intended to use the right-hander for two innings "and let the Royals load their lineup with right-handed hitters, then bring in lefthander Terry Forster, who'd have the lefty-righty percentages behind him," according to future Sox PR director Bob (later Rob) Gallas in the Daily Herald.

The Sox lost 2-1, with the winning run scoring in the fourth when Hal McRae scampered home from third after catcher Jim Essian, attempting to catch Al Cowens stealing second, hurled the ball into center field.

Gallas quoted Monroe saying, "I'm very discouraged. I was up and ready. On the last two hitters I faced I just started to reach my groove."

Richards, who said, "His velocity is pretty damn good for a kid that young," didn't tell Monroe about his strategy "because I didn't exactly know what would happen."

During his time on the roster, Monroe said he did receive support and valuable advice from Gossage and Forster, who taught him how to get Rod Carew out - "You should throw it right down the middle. He doesn't know what to do."

Monroe would prove effective in late inning emergency relief, stopping the bleeding caused by shaky Sox starters.

The final inning of Monroe's Sept. 21 relief appearance against the Twins is preserved on YouTube, with Harry Caray calling the action on WSNS from a mostly empty Comiskey Park.

Monroe, who entered in the sixth with the Sox down 12-6, appears confident as he rubs the baseball and pounds it in his mitt prior to bending over toward the mound, straightening up and rocking into a big windup and striking out Mike Cubbage on a high fastball.

He gives up only one run in the ninth, getting out of a jam by inducing Carew to ground to Spencer, who tosses to Monroe covering first base.

Recapping the 13-6 Twins victory in the WSNS booth, Caray tells the viewers, "Larry Monroe, in four innings of relief, allowed only one run and permitted two hits in the four innings that he pitched. Really did well. Again, that's the second straight strong relief outing by the handsome youngster from Mount Prospect."

Monroe would get another chance to start in his final appearance of the season on Sept. 30 against the Angels at Anaheim Stadium.

He went 5 innings and gave up 3 earned runs, as the Sox fell 7-3.

In eight games, he was 0-1 with a 4.15 ERA. But the future was bright, as Sox GM Roland Hemond crowed to sports writer Bob Verdi, "He's a tremendous prospect, very mature, and a terrific competitor."

Part 3: From the mound to the front office.