Brett Tomko

An artist by training and education, Brett Tomko also painted corners as a pitcher.

Tomko’s major-league career is notable both for its longevity and its mediocrity. Over 14 seasons spanning 1997 to 2011, he accumulated 100 wins and 103 losses. He was the epitome of a journeyman, pitching for 10 clubs in the majors and 18 in the minors, as well as for one independent team and another in the Dominican Winter League.

The closest Tomko came to a World Series ring was in 2001, when he was a member of the 116-win Seattle Mariners. Ultimately, his struggles that season resulted in a demotion to Triple A amid the team’s historic run. He rejoined the parent club in September but was left off the playoff roster as the Mariners fell to the New York Yankees in the American League Championship Series.

Brett Daniel Tomko was born on April 7, 1973, in Euclid, Ohio, a suburb of Cleveland, to Donna (Dettman) and Jerry Tomko. Jerry, an Air Force veteran who worked for a credit card company, made sports news of his own almost three years to the day before his son was born. He was driving to pick up his wife when he heard a radio announcement about a contest to name the new National Basketball Association franchise in Cleveland. As he sat waiting for Donna, a name immediately came to mind: Cavaliers.1 The contest drew more than 11,000 entries, including such oddities as Good Gnus. The team’s owner narrowed a long list to five contenders, including Jays, Towers, Presidents, and Foresters. Of the 100 people who suggested Cavaliers, Tomko’s entry was selected the winner for his essay: “The name Cleveland Cavaliers represents a group of daring fearless men whose life’s pact was never surrender, no matter what the odds.”2

Brett’s family relocated to Southern California when he was three years old. From an early age, Brett demonstrated a creative mind. His older brother, Scott, later recalled that Brett once spent seven innings at an Angels game constructing a paper airplane.3 He enjoyed building with Legos and took art classes all four years of high school. He also developed a love of baseball, a passion his parents fully supported. His father coached Brett’s youth league team, and his mother, who worked a financial services job, endured a two-hour commute to watch Brett’s games.4

Tomko attended El Dorado High in Placentia, where he lettered in baseball and basketball.5 As a senior forward, he scored 55 points to lead the Golden Hawks to an 86–83 overtime victory over Compton, the third-highest individual scoring total in Orange County history.6 On the baseball diamond, he didn’t take up pitching until the end of his senior season in 1991. That year, he helped lead El Dorado to a 21–8 record, Empire League title, and CIF Division 1 quarterfinals appearance. His jersey number, 20, was later retired by the school.7

Tomko enrolled at Mount San Antonio College in Walnut, California, because his older brother played baseball there.8 After pitching two seasons for the Mounties, Brett was selected in the 20th round, 552nd overall, by the Los Angeles Dodgers. He didn’t sign, opting instead to accept a scholarship at Florida Southern College, a Division-II school in Lakeland, Florida. He took a summer job as a bartender, “slinging piña coladas instead of fastballs,” as the Los Angeles Times humorously noted.9

In his one season at Florida Southern, he led the Moccasins with a 15–2 record and 1.35 ERA across 126 1/3 innings.10 At 6-foot-4 and eventually filling out to 220 pounds, Tomko could be a dominating presence on the mound. The righty with a 95-mph fastball threw a five-hit shutout in the NCAA Division II World Series on his way to being named NCAA Division II Player and Pitcher of the Year. The Mocs, as they’re known, later retired his jersey number, 35, and the DII Pitcher of the Year award was renamed the Brett Tomko Award in 2014. The Reds selected him in the second round, 54th overall, in the June 1995 Amateur Draft, a fact he learned during a postgame interview in the championship series. According to Rod Nelson of SABR’s Scouts Committee, the 1998 Minor League Notebook listed scout Mike Mangan as having signed Tomko for a bonus of $200,000.

The Reds assigned him to the single-A Charleston (West Virginia) Alley Cats of the South Atlantic League to begin his professional career. In nine games, including seven starts, he authored a 4–2 record and 1.84 ERA. From there, he progressed quickly through the Reds’ minor-league system. In his second pro season, Tomko’s ledger included an 11–7 record and 164 strikeouts in 157 2/3 innings for the double-A Chattanooga Lookouts. A year later, Baseball America named him the Reds’ top prospect. He started the 1997 season in Triple A with the Indianapolis Indians of the American Association and earned a call-up by posting a 6–3 record and 2.95 ERA in 61 innings.

Tomko lost his major-league debut against the Philadelphia Phillies at Cinergy Field on May 27, 1997, despite yielding only two runs in six innings. The decisive blow in the Phillies’ 2–1 victory was a fourth-inning solo home run off the bat of Rico Brogna. As Tomko’s career progressed, surrendering home runs became one of his greatest challenges.

Tomko earned his first career win in his next start, a June 6 contest against the New York Mets. The righty pitched six innings of one-run ball, struck out seven, and helped his own cause by driving in the go-ahead run in the Reds’ 5–2 victory. He finished the season 11–7 with a 3.43 ERA and tied for seventh in the NL Rookie of the Year voting. The Phillies’ Scott Rolen won the award unanimously, earning all 28 first-place votes.

In his sophomore campaign, Tomko emerged as a workhorse for Cincinnati, logging 210 2/3 innings over 34 starts while posting a 13–12 record and career-high 162 strikeouts. Some tension developed, however, between the hurler and manager Jack McKeon. It began during spring training when Tomko skipped a start because of shoulder tendonitis on the advice of the team physician. McKeon perceived his young hurler as being soft, and the two exchanged barbs in the press. “We never sat down and talked about it,” Tomko later recalled. “We were never adults about it. I know he’s the manager, and I respect that. But he attacked my character, and he attacked me as a person. And I have a big problem with that.”11

A poor start to Tomko’s third season (0–1 with a 7.76 ERA through five starts) stemmed from his inability to locate his fastball and resulted in a demotion to Triple A in late April. The Reds’ brass hoped the demotion would serve as a wake-up call. It certainly made the 26-year-old hurler angry. Looking back a year later, Tomko described walking into the Indianapolis clubhouse and saying to himself, “What the hell am I doing here?”12

“I had been in the big leagues for two years straight, and now I’m in a Triple-A uniform,” said Tomko. “What am I doing? I don’t belong here. I wanted to make my stay very brief. It [ticked] me off, and I tried to use it for motivation.”13 His time in Indianapolis was indeed brief. Steve Avery developed a blister on his throwing hand, forcing the Reds to recall Tomko a couple weeks later. In his first start back, he enjoyed the best outing of his career up to that point, tossing 8 2/3 scoreless innings against the San Diego Padres. Tomko struggled again in August, however. This time, he was banished to the bullpen. For the season, he appeared in 33 games (26 starts), posting a 5–7 record and 4.92 ERA in 172 innings. His 31 home runs allowed were the ninth-most in the National League.

On February 10, 2000, the Reds included Tomko in a blockbuster trade with the Mariners for Ken Griffey Jr. Seattle also acquired Mike Cameron, Antonio Pérez, and minor leaguer Jake Meyer in the deal. As the Daily Herald reported, the relationship between Tomko and McKeon was a big reason why he was traded to the Mariners.14

Tomko used the trade and his feud with McKeon as motivation. During the offseason, he hired a personal trainer and went on a nutritional program. His exercise routine involved four and a half hours of working out, six days a week. On his “day off,” he rode his mountain bike for three hours. “My total intention was to make the people in Cincinnati say, ‘Wow! See what he’s done,” Tomko told the Seattle Times. “Now my intention is to show them they made a mistake.”15

A sore ankle in spring training slowed Tomko and delayed his Mariners debut until April 22, 2000. He was 4–2 with a 5.24 ERA when a shoulder injury sidelined him for three weeks in June. Upon his return, he was relegated to the bullpen. He compiled a 7–5 record and 4.68 ERA in 32 appearances, including eight starts. The Mariners’ 91 wins that season earned them a playoff berth as the AL Wild Card winner. In the opening game of the American League Division Series in Chicago on October 3, Seattle starter Freddy García was chased in the fourth inning after allowing six hits, three walks, and four earned runs. Manager Lou Piniella called on Tomko with the bases loaded, only one out, and Seattle trailing, 4–3. Tomko retired José Valentin on a fly ball to center and the dangerous Frank Thomas on a fly to right to get out of the jam.

“I don’t know that you dream about coming into a game with the bases loaded and [one] out,” Tomko said, “but when you’re in that situation, you know you need to get outs.”16 He then pitched a scoreless fifth and sixth, his only blemishes a single, a walk, and a wild pitch.

Seattle tied the score in the top of the seventh. Meanwhile, Tomko was followed by José Paniagua, Arthur Rhodes, José Mesa and Kazuhiro Sasaki, all of whom kept Chicago off the scoresheet. Mesa got the victory after the Mariners scored three in the top of the 10th.

“We had to ask a lot of our relievers today, and they gave us a lot,” Piniella said after the game. “They gave us the chance to win.”17

The Mariners swept the favored White Sox in three games only to lose in six games to the New York Yankees in the American League Champion Series. Tomko appeared in two games as a long reliever during the ALCS, yielding four earned runs in five innings.

During his time in Seattle and throughout his career, Tomko used art to relieve stress. On road trips, he carried charcoals and sketched in his free time. “Some people golf, some fish,” he said in 2000. “I sit down with my pad and pencils, and hours disappear. Get back to the hotel after pitching a game and draw and before I know it, it’s 4:00 a.m.”18

In 2001, the artistic hurler was one of few players on the Mariners to struggle. After registering a 2–1 record and a 5.97 ERA, he was demoted on May 20 to Triple-A Tacoma, where he added a sinker to his repertoire under the tutelage of pitching coach Chris Bosio. Tomko threw a no-hitter for the Rainiers in a 7–0 road victory against the Oklahoma RedHawks, issuing only a two-out walk in the first inning while striking out six. He retired the final 25 batters he faced. “You’d think someone watching this game would want this guy,” said Bosio after the game. “He’s opening eyes in Seattle.”19

Despite the no-hitter, Tomko couldn’t crack the Mariners’ outstanding roster again until rosters expanded in September. He finished the big-league season with a 3–1 mark and 5.19 ERA. Seattle won 116 games, tying the 1906 Cubs for the most in a single season, but Seattle was knocked out of the postseason by the Yankees in the ALCS. Tomko was left off the Mariners’ playoff roster.

On December 11, 2001, Tomko was traded to the San Diego Padres as part of a six-player deal. The Padres sent Alex Arias, Ben Davis, and Wascar Serrano to Seattle for Tomko, Tom Lampkin, Ramón Vázquez, and cash. Tomko was thrilled by the opportunity to pitch close to his home in Scripps Ranch, a suburb of San Diego. The righty proved to be a workhorse for the last-place Padres in 2002, pitching 204 1/3 innings and going 10–10 over a team-leading 32 starts.

Tomko earned $1.1 million in 2002 and was eligible for arbitration in 2003. With the emergence of Óliver Pérez and Jake Peavy and the expected return of Adam Eaton from an injury, Tomko projected as San Diego’s number five starter. Padres GM Kevin Towers, working under payroll limitations, did not want to risk having to pay his number five starter $3 million through arbitration. Therefore, Tomko was on the move again. The Padres sent him to the St. Louis Cardinals for swingman Luther Hackman and a player to be named later (minor leaguer Mike Wodnicki). “I’ve got mixed emotions,” Tomko said at the time. “I’m excited to be going to a team like the Cardinals and play in that atmosphere, but I’m kind of bummed to be leaving home.”20

Although he threw more than 200 innings for St. Louis in 2003, Tomko gave up a league-high 252 hits and 119 earned runs while compiling a 13–9 record and 5.28 ERA. Batters hit .305 off him, and he surrendered 35 home runs—second most in the NL. He had three outings that season in which he was touched for nine runs. The Cardinals released him after the conclusion of the season.

In November 2003, Tomko married San Diego-native Julia Schultz, an actress and former Playboy Playmate of the Month (February 1998). Schultz’s acting credits include Baywatch, Nutty Professor II: The Klumps, and Rush Hour 2.

Later that offseason, the San Francisco Giants signed Tomko to a one-year contract worth $1.2 million with a team option for 2005. Over the next two seasons, the righty remained a reliable innings-eater, though he continued to have middling results (a 19–22 record and 4.26 ERA). A highlight of his Giants tenure came on August 26, 2004, when he threw one of his two career shutouts, a four-hitter against the Florida Marlins.

In December 2005, Tomko’s ability to take the ball every fifth day earned him a two-year contract with the Los Angeles Dodgers worth $8.7 million. The Dodgers were his sixth major-league team and fifth in six years. Early in the season, Tomko pitched with the burden of his mother’s breast cancer diagnosis. A weight was lifted when she was found to be cancer-free following surgery.21 To raise awareness of the disease, Tomko handed out pink wristbands for his teammates to wear on Mother’s Day. “Usually, I’m the kind of guy who stays in the background,” he said. “But not this time.”22

Through his first 15 starts in 2006, Tomko went 6–6 with a 5.12 ERA before landing on the disabled list with a strained oblique. When he returned from the injury in late July, he was relegated to the bullpen, where he remained for the remainder of the season. He made two appearances in the NLDS for the Dodgers, who were swept by the New York Mets in three games.

Tomko began the 2007 campaign as the Dodgers’ fifth starter and suffered through the worst season of his career. He was bumped from the rotation in mid-May and designated for assignment on August 24 after going 2–11 with a 5.80 ERA in 33 games, including 15 starts. One of his few bright moments that season came on April 15, when his illustration of Jackie Robinson was distributed free to fans at Dodger Stadium to mark the 60th anniversary of Robinson breaking the major-league color barrier.

The Padres, in the thick of the playoff hunt, signed Tomko for the September stretch. He pitched decently in his second tour of duty with the club, going 2–1 with a 4.61 ERA in seven outings. San Diego ultimately missed the playoffs, finishing one game behind the Colorado Rockies in the NL Wild Card race.

Tomko bounced around the majors over the next several seasons. He went to the Kansas City Royals, back to the Padres for a third time, then to the New York Yankees, the Oakland Athletics, and, finally, the Texas Rangers in 2011 after spending the full 2010 season in the minor leagues.

In 2012, the Reds released Tomko after he went 0-6 for their Triple-A affiliate, the Louisville Bats. The Arizona Diamondbacks snagged the hurler and assigned him to their Double-A team. Ten days later, he was moved up to the Triple-A Reno Aces in time to help them win the 2012 Pacific Coast League (PCL) championship.

The next year, the forty-year-old Tomko pitched for the independent York (Pennsylvania) Revolution. Part of his motivation for hanging on was to provide his three-year-old twin sons, Jack and Ty, memories of him playing baseball. “To bring them on the field or bring them in the clubhouse and take pictures, that’s awesome,” Tomko said at the time. “To experience this time in York together as a family, I might tear up right now talking about it. Ultimately the goal is to pitch again in the big leagues, but we’re here to have fun, and if my sons remember this, that would be worth way more than any big-league salary.”23

Tomko then pitched for Leones del Escogido in the Dominican Winter League and returned to affiliated ball in 2014, pitching for a pair of PCL clubs—the Omaha Storm Chasers and Colorado Springs Sky Sox. His professional baseball career ended after that season at the age of 41. Covering 20 seasons, he had thrown nearly 2,800 innings and accumulated a record of 159–152, pitching for 30 different professional teams. He struck out over 2,000 batters and surrendered 371 home runs.

Tomko wasn’t done pitching, however. In 2016 and 2017, he played with the Kansas City Stars, a team of former major leaguers that competed in the National Baseball Congress World Series. In retirement, he also participated in Reds fantasy camps and tossed two scoreless innings in the 2019 Baseball Hall of Fame Classic at Doubleday Field in Cooperstown, New York. The latter was a bucket-list trip. “I’d heard so much about Cooperstown,” he said at the time. “I think as players we forget how privileged we are to get to play baseball—to get to play baseball for a long time. Walking into the Plaque Gallery, it’s so cool to see everyone who came before you, everyone who paved the way. I think every baseball player should come here just to see that, just to get the perspective of how awesome it is for us to get to play this game.”24

Beginning in 2022, Tomko began working for USA Baseball’s Athlete Development Program as a pitching coach, a role he maintained as of 2025.

Throughout Brett Tomko’s career, his mother telephoned him before every start to say, “Have a good game, honey.”25 She also made a habit of wearing pajamas in the colors of his team. One thing is certain: Donna Tomko owned a lot of pajamas over the years.

Last revised: April 1, 2026

SOURCES

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author also consulted Retrosheet.org and Baseball-reference.com.

NOTES

1 Bill Lubinger, “For the name of Cavaliers, originator to get his fame,” Plain Dealer (Cleveland, Ohio), March 11, 2010: 1.

2 Bill Nichols, “Cavaliers wins by a landslide,” Plain Dealer, April 5, 1970: 47.

3 Stu Durando, “Portrait of a Starter,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, May 9, 2003: 53.

4 Bill Plaschke, “Think-pink week,” Los Angeles Times, May 12, 2006: 44.

5 Coincidentally, Tomko’s future big-league teammate Bret Boone graduated from El Dorado in 1987.

6 “Boys athlete of the week,” Los Angeles Times, January 1, 1991.

7 “Hawks Baseball Retired Jerseys,” https://eldoradobaseball.com/alumni, accessed January 9, 2026.

8 Durando, “Portrait of a Starter.”

9 Chris Foster, “Ex-El Dorado pitcher hears a number he likes,” Los Angeles Times, June 3, 1995: 184

10 https://fscmocs.com/honors/hall-of-fame/brett-tomko/71, accessed January 14, 2026.

11 Scott M. Johnson, “M’s Tomko Can’t Buy, Earn a Compliment,” Daily Herald (Everett, Washington), March 26, 2000: 23.

12 Johnson, “M’s Tomko Can’t Buy.”

13 Johnson, “M’s Tomko Can’t Buy.”

14 Johnson, “M’s Tomko Can’t Buy.”

15 Bob Finnigan, “Tomko crafts with baseballs, charcoals,” Seattle Times, February 27, 2000: D1.

16 Larry LaRue, “Oh, what relief,” News Tribune (Tacoma, Washington), October 4, 2000: 32.

17 LaRue, “Oh, what relief.”

18 Finnigan, “Tomko crafts with baseballs.”

19 Andrew Gilman, “Rainiers’ Tomko hurls no-hitter in Oklahoma,” News Tribune, July 4, 2001: 25.

20 Shaun O’Neill, “Penny-pinching Padres move Tomko to Cards,” North County Times (Oceanside, California), December 16, 2002: 19.

21 Ben Bolch, “A special Mother’s Day for Tomko,” Los Angeles Times, May 13, 2007: 63.

22 Plaschke, “Think-pink week.”

23 Paul Braverman, “Remembering 2013: What is Brett Tomko doing here?” https://blogtoblogchamps.wordpress.com/2013/11/12/remembering-2013-what-is-brett-tomko-doing-here/, accessed January 10, 2026.

24 Isabelle Minasian, “Tomko savors chance to experience Cooperstown,” National Baseball Hall of Fame, https://baseballhall.org/discover/brett-tomko-savors-chance-to-experience-cooperstown, accessed January 10, 2026.

25 Plaschke, “Think-pink week.”