Joe Strong

Joe Strong’s journey to the major leagues resembled one of those animated maps in old adventure movies, the sort with lines and arrows madly crisscrossing the world. His 16-year trek took him through seven US cities and five different countries on two continents. When he finally toed the rubber in a major-league game – on May 11, 2000, at the age of 37 years and 245 days – he became one of the oldest players ever to make his major-league debut.

Strong – in his prime a 6-foot, 200-pound right-hander – was born Joseph Benjamin Strong IV on September 9, 1962, in Fairfield, California, the son of Joseph B. Strong III, a baker, and Mandy Lou (Blount) Strong, who at one point worked for an ambulance company; census records show that Strong’s parents divorced in 1971. His mother died in 1994.1 His father died in 2008.2

Growing up, Strong was extremely active in sports, playing Little League and Pony League baseball. At St. Patrick’s High School in Vallejo, California (now St. Patrick – St. Vincent High School), he played three sports, baseball, basketball, and football. After graduating in 1981, he spent two years at Contra Costa College, where he played baseball and was second-team Camino Norte all-league in 1982.3 The next season, he earned first-team all-league honors, when he was 8-4 with a 2.29 ERA, on a team that went 14-16-1.4 The following year, 1984, he enrolled at the University of California-Riverside, then an NCAA Division II school in the California Collegiate Athletic Association, and was one of two players on the team to earn All-Conference honors.

In the June draft that year, on the recommendation of scout Dick Weincek, the Oakland A’s chose Strong in the 15th round, the 376th pick overall, and assigned him to Medford in the Class-A Northwest League. Managed by Dennis Rogers, the team was the defending league champion. Strong made his professional debut on June 21, pitching the ninth inning of a 6-0 win over the Bend Phillies. He recorded his first professional win on July 4, when he came into a tie game against the Bellingham Mariners in the seventh inning and threw three shutout frames while Medford was scoring three runs.5 In all, he appeared in 20 games that season (nine as a starter) and ended with a 5-6 record, a 3.88 ERA, and 66 strikeouts against 36 walks in 72 innings. Medford ended up winning its division but lost the one-game league championship game to the Tri-Cities Triplets of the Texas Rangers organization.

Strong spent two more seasons in the Oakland system, principally as a reliever. In 1985 he was at Modesto in the Class-A California League on a team that featured, among other future major leaguers, several players who would be key pieces of Oakland’s 1989 World Series champions, including Mark McGwire, Mike Gallego, and Walt Weiss. Appearing in 42 games – second most among the team’s pitcher’s – Strong went 7-7 with a 5.06 ERA and 82 strikeouts in 110⅓ innings. He started the 1986 season back at Modesto, but in August, after he’d put up a 2-2 record with a 3.42 ERA in 36 games (all in relief), the A’s promoted him to Huntsville of the Double-A Southern League, where he appeared in six games in relief, finishing at 1-1 with a 5.40 ERA. At the end of the season, Oakland released him.

For 1987, Strong went to spring training with the independent league San Bernardino Spirit, but while he initially made the roster, in early April the Spirit released him before Opening Day.6

He spent that year in Seattle, staying in shape playing ball in a semipro beer league.7 The following season, Strong latched on with the Reno Silver Sox, an independent co-op team in the Class-A California League, “assembled at nearly the last minute with a combination of unwanted free agents and castoffs from major league organizations.”8 Managed by one-time major-league infielder Nate Oliver, the team came about after the San Diego Padres ended an 11-season affiliation in Reno at the end of the previous season, and a nonprofit organization, the Washoe Youth Foundation, decided to try to keep professional baseball in the city.9 To help fill its roster, the Silver Sox held a tryout camp on March 12-13, which drew 80 hopeful players, including Strong. Less than three weeks later – on April 8 – he got the nod as starting pitcher for the team’s opener, on the road against the Fresno Suns, and went 5⅓ innings, allowing four runs on six hits and two walks, leaving with the game tied at 4-4, on the way to a Reno 7-4 loss. Reno finished the season a league-worst 39-103. As for Strong, who made the California League All-Star team – he appeared in 31 games (24 as a starter) and finished 4-13, with a 4.79 ERA and 107 strikeouts in a team-leading 161⅔ innings.

Strong was back with Reno for 1989, where new manager Eli Grba used him exclusively in relief. He appeared in 53 games, compiling an 8-1 record and 18 saves (second best in the league), with a 3.58 ERA, and 79 strikeouts in 73 innings, earning yet another selection to the California League All-Star team.

For the next three seasons, Strong played in Taiwan, for the Wei Chuan Dragons of the Chinese Professional Baseball League (CPBL), where he was one of the circuit’s top pitchers. In 1990 his 1.92 ERA led the league, while his 16 wins ranked second. The following year, he tied for the league lead in victories, with 15, and ranked fifth in strikeouts (116). In 1992 he tied for the league lead in strikeouts (131) and ranked in the top 10 in wins (12) and ERA (3.15).

In November 1992 Strong and a team of CPBL All-Stars faced a traveling contingent of San Diego Padres minor leaguers in an exhibition game; after Strong held his opponents to six hits, the Padres asked him to spring training as a nonroster invitee and afterward signed him to a contract and assigned him to the Las Vegas Stars in the Pacific Coast League. Reportedly the team wanted him to get his arm in condition for long relief.10 Just as he had reached his highest level of professional ball to that point, however, he developed a sore elbow. In July, when he stood 1-3 with a 5.67 ERA, the Padres sent him on a two-week rehab assignment to the Rancho Cucamonga Quakes of the California League, where, in 10 innings over seven relief appearances, he went 1-0 with a 2.70 ERA and 13 strikeouts. When he finished that assignment, he closed out the season at Wichita of the Double-A Texas League, where in four games (three as a starter), he went 1-0 with a 6.75 ERA; his sole victory came in six innings of one-hit, shutout ball.

When the season ended, Strong decided to return to Wei Chuan, along with a friend and former teammate, Milt Harper, with whom Strong had played at both Reno in 1989 and Wei Chuan in 1991. But on the day they planned to sign their contracts, Harper died in a fall from a 14th-floor window of his apartment building in what was initially ruled a suicide; police later suspected homicide, and investigated the building owner (also a teammate of Harper’s and Strong’s), but he was later cleared. Police were unable to discover the cause of the fall.

Strong came home, where, a sportswriter later noted, he struggled for two months with survivor’s guilt over his friend’s death before finally deciding to return to baseball in some fashion, saying he would dedicate his season to Harper’s memory.11 He landed back in the California League, with the independent San Bernardino Spirit, for whom he was the Opening Day starter, as well as the starter for the home opener, going five innings in each game, although he didn’t gain a decision in either game. In the third inning of his third start, he had to leave the game when he injured his arm.12 After missing six weeks, he returned in mid-June but in July suffered another injury that led to his missing the remainder of the season. At the time, he and the team were talking with a club in Taiwan about their acquiring Strong’s contract, but because of the persistence of the injury, that never came to pass.13 

For 1995, Strong appeared set to pitch for the Sonoma County Crushers of the Western League but instead took an opportunity to join the Chicago Cubs as a replacement player during the Major League Players Association strike that year.14 Details of his performance during spring training appear scarce – the writer found only one reference to an appearance in a Cactus League

game, on March 24, when he allowed three runs on three hits in two innings against the California Angels.15 However, he clearly impressed the Cubs sufficiently that as late as March 29 – four days before the season was scheduled to begin – Chicago cited him as a key piece of their bullpen, assuming the strike remained unresolved.16 However, two days later, the strike was over and Strong ended up playing with the independent Surrey Glaciers, also of the Western League. Hurling 131 innings for a team that finished next to last, he had a stellar season, making the All-Star team and posting an 8-9 record that concealed his effectiveness; his 2.75 ERA ranked fourth among hurlers with at least 70 innings pitched, and his 129 strikeouts tied for second best.

Surrey folded after that season, and in a reassignment draft of Glaciers players, the rights to Strong’s contract went to the Grays Harbor Gulls of Aberdeen, Washington.17 Strong, however, ended up back overseas, pitching for the China Times of the Chinese Professional Baseball League, where he went 4-4 with a 4.00 ERA in 11 starts.

In 1997, at the age of 34, Strong temporarily left baseball to work in a Seattle Sears warehouse as a forklift operator. He kept in shape by lifting weights “stone-cold hard” and playing catch in the aisles; by the time the year was up, his fastball was in the mid-90s.18

He decided to give baseball yet another shot, and for 1998 was back in Asia, pitching for the Hyundai Unicorns (Korean Baseball Organization), going 6-5 in 65 innings, with a 2.95 ERA and 54 strikeouts. The next year, he latched on with the Tampa Bay Devil Rays organization, splitting time between three teams, the Triple-A Durham Bulls, the Double-A Orlando Rays, and the Mexico City Tigers of the Mexican League (on loan from the Tampa Bay organization). His combined record was 2-6, with a 6.00 ERA and 56 strikeouts in 66 innings. At the end of the year, Tampa Bay released him, but Strong persisted, pitching for the Obregon Yaquis in the Mexican Winter League. 

There, he ran into Tim Schmidt, a former coach at California-Riverside, who was then working as a scout for the Florida Marlins. As Schmidt later recounted, in a brief pregame chat, Strong told him that he was throwing in the mid-90s, a fact that Schmidt doubted, telling him, “Come on. I coached you.”19 However, when Strong later got into the game in relief, Schmidt took notice: “The first pitch was 94 MPH. Next one was 95, then 96. I’m the only scout in the stands, and I’m sitting there thinking, ‘God almighty.’”20

Schmidt recommended Strong to the Marlins, who signed him and sent him to the Calgary
Cannons of the Pacific Coast League, where Strong had immediate impact, coming in as a reliever on Opening Day, entering the game in the seventh inning after starter Jason Grilli had no-hit the Las Vegas Stars through six. Strong pushed the no-hitter into the ninth, throwing two perfect innings, striking out two.21 (The no-hitter came to an end in the ninth when reliever Ryan Creek allowed three runs on two hits and two walks, but closed out the 7-3 victory.)

On May 11, with Strong at 1-1 with three saves, a 4.67 ERA and 19 strikeouts over 17⅓ innings in 10 games, the Marlins (who had two injured hurlers) called him up to the major leagues.22 Wearing number 50, he made his debut that same day, at home against Atlanta, coming on with two outs in the seventh inning, with a runner on second and the Marlins leading 5-4. Coincidentally, he was relieving Grilli, who had made his debut that same day as the starter. The first batter Strong faced was one-time All-Star Wally Joyner, who was just shy of three months older than Strong, but in his 15th major-league season. On a 3-and-2 pitch, Joyner flied out to short left field to end the inning. Strong went one more inning, walking Quilvio Veras leading off the eighth, but then inducing Andruw Jones to ground into a double play before closing out the inning on a groundout by Chipper Jones. 

With the game, he became the oldest player in 40 years to make his debut, since the Pirates’ Diomedes Olivo made his initial appearance in the major leagues at age 41 in 1960. As of 2022, Strong was the 32nd oldest player to make his debut in the major leagues.

Initially, Strong seemed nearly untouchable: Over four appearances during his first week, he pitched 3⅔ scoreless innings, allowing only two hits and three walks but no runs, recording his first strikeout (of the Padres Damian Jackson in a 6-2 Marlins loss on May 18).

Then he showed that he was not, after all, invincible. In his fifth game, in 2⅓ innings on May 20 against the Los Angeles Dodgers, he surrendered four runs on two hits and two walks, including a Gary Sheffield grand slam. In that game, he also had his first major-league plate appearance, when he struck out against Carlos Pérez in the sixth inning. On May 25, with his ERA at 5.63, the Marlins sent him back to Calgary.

Strong vowed to return, saying, “I know I’ll be back. It’s like giving a dog his first taste of meat or giving a vampire his first taste of blood.”23

A week later, he was back, when reliever Dan Miceli went on the disabled list; Strong was effective in his first three appearances after returning, allowing only one run on three hits and three walks over six innings, while striking out six. On June 13 he marked his first major-league decision, a loss, against Philadelphia, when he came on in the seventh inning with the Marlins leading 2-1 and gave up three runs on three hits in a third of an inning.

However, he bounced back, earning his first major-league save four days later when he recorded the final out in a Marlins 4-3 road victory against Pittsburgh, striking out Jason Kendall with runners on first and third in the bottom of the 11th.

A week later, on June 24, Strong earned his first major-league win, when he came into a home game against the Chicago Cubs with two outs and a runner on first in the top of the eighth with the Marlins trailing 3-2. He gave up a run-scoring double to the first hitter he faced, José Nieves, but then retired Glenallen Hill on a groundout to end the inning. In the bottom of the eighth, the Marlins scored five runs, and when reliever Antonio Alfonseca retired the Cubs in order in the ninth, Strong had his victory.

After that, however, Strong saw little action over the next three weeks, managing only three appearances between his win and July 16, and his rustiness showed, as he gave up six runs on eight hits and two walks in 2⅓ innings, pushing his season’s ERA to 7.58. On July 19, when Miceli came off the disabled list, the Marlins sent Strong back to Calgary. He faulted himself: “I probably should have thrown more often between games I pitched. I spent a lot of time sitting in the bullpen watching the game instead of throwing.”24

Strong returned to the Marlins when the team expanded its roster in September, and appeared in one more game that year, throwing a scoreless two-thirds of an inning against Houston on September 5. His final stats for his major-league season: 18 games, 19⅔ innings, 26 hits, 16 runs (all earned), 12 walks, and 18 strikeouts, with a record of 1-1 with one save, and a 7.32 ERA. For Calgary, he appeared in 29 games, throwing 44⅔ innings, allowing 21 runs (all but one earned), on 44 hits and 20 walks, with 33 strikeouts, with a 2-1 record with nine saves, and a 4.03 ERA.

Strong went to spring training with the Marlins in 2001, but the team ended up sending him to Calgary among its final roster moves just before the start of the season. Florida ended up recalling him less than two weeks later, and he appeared in four games in April, pitching effectively, allowing only a single earned run on three hits and three walks in six innings, with four strikeouts. Despite that, the team sent him back to Calgary on May 6 to make room on the roster for starter A.J. Burnett, who was coming off the disabled list.

That marked the end of Strong’s major-league tenure. His final numbers: 23 games, 26⅓ innings pitched, a 1-1 record, with one save, and a 5.81 ERA, with 22 strikeouts and 15 walks. His final strikeout came in his next-to-last game, on April 23, against Arizona, when he fanned Matt Williams. That game also saw his second, and last, career plate appearance in the major leagues, when he struck out against Randy Johnson in the sixth inning.

Strong finished the season with Calgary, going 6-3 in 59 innings over 46 games, with 48 strikeouts and 18 walks, and a 6.25 ERA. In October the Marlins made him a free-agent and the latched on with the Milwaukee Brewers organization just before the 2002 season. They sent him to Indianapolis of the International League. However, on June 6, after Strong had appeared in 19⅓ innings over 15 games, with a record of 0-0 and one save, and an ERA of 4.19, the team released him. He finished out the season with the Bridgeport of the independent Atlantic League, where he went 7-0 with a 1.04 ERA in 34⅔ innings over 30 games, recording 35 strikeouts against 14 walks.

Strong’s professional career lasted two more seasons. In 2003 he pitched for Reynoso in the Mexican League, compiling a 6-4 record with a 2.71 ERA, throwing 66⅓ innings 46 games, and recording 44 strikeouts against 28 walks. In 2004, he closed out his professional career 20 years after it began, with the Camden Riversharks of the independent Atlantic League, where he was the team’s closer, finishing second in the league with 15 saves, while going 3-0 with a 2.20 ERA. 

After leaving professional ball, Strong worked as a coach and instructor. In late 2022 he was listed as the principal owner of Evergreen Sport Center of Federal Way, Washington.

Sources

In addition to sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted ancestry.com, baseball-reference.com, retrosheet.org, and sabr.org/bioproject.

Notes

1 “Mandy L. Strong-Satcherwhite: Highland Resident,” San Bernardino County (California) Sun, November 29, 1994: 21.

2 Joseph Benjamin Strong III Obituary, https://www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/timesheraldonline/name/joseph-strong-obituary?id=23230062. Accessed April 27, 2022.

3 “For the Record,” Sacramento Bee, May 18, 1982: C4.

4 “Cubs Named to All-CNC Baseball,” Santa Rosa (California) Press Democrat, June 1, 1983: 4D.

5 “Spokane Loses in 17-innings,” Tri-City Herald (Kennewick, Washington), July 5, 1984: 26.

6 David Bristow, “Four Players Join Spirit; 2 Others Cut,” San Bernardino County Sun, April 6, 1987: C7.

7 Mike Berardino, “Strong Commitment,” South Florida Sun Sentinel (Fort Lauderdale, Florida), May 16, 2000: 6C.

8 John Schumacher, “And on the Eighth Day, the Reno Silver Sox Won,” Reno Gazette-Journal, April 17, 1988: 3B.

9 Don Cox, “Silver Sox Open Season in Fresno,” Reno Gazette-Journal, April 8, 1988: 19.

10 Doug Padilla, “Playing in Pain,” San Bernardino County Sun, April 12, 1994: 12.

11 Padilla, “Playing in Pain.”

12 Pete Marshall, “Spirit Gets the Hits, Quakes Get the Win.” San Bernardino County Sun, April 18, 1994: C2.

13 Doug Padilla, “Cervantes Good Night Almost Lost in 8-4 Loss,” San Bernardino County Sun, August 26, 1994: C2.

14 Dave Williams, “Crushers Name Coaches,” Santa Rosa Press Democrat, March 9, 1995:C5.

15 “Baseball,” Naples (Florida) Daily News, March 25, 1995: 2C.

16 Joseph Reaves, “Cubs Rotation All ‘Right,’ but Bullpen a Big Concern,” Chicago Tribune, March 29, 1995: 4-3.

17 Jeff Morrow, “Posse Picks Up Two Players from Surrey in Dispersal Draft,” Tri-City Herald, January 9, 1996: C3.

18 Israel Gutierez, “Dad Enjoys Improbable Journey,” Palm Beach Post, May 14, 2000: 43.

19 Berardino, “Strong Commitment.”

20 Berardino.

21 Fred Collins, “Grilli Takes Twinkle Out of Stars,” Calgary Herald, April 8, 2000: F-1.

22 Joe Capozzi, “Marlins Make Pitching Moves,” Palm Beach Post, May 12, 2000: 5C.

23 “What’s Up in Sports,” Louisville Courier-Journal, May 27, 2000: E-2.

24 Chuck Otterson, “Miceli’s Return Exiles Strong,” Palm Beach Post, July 20, 2000: 5C.