Steve Ellsworth

Two weeks after being shelled in his debut, Steve Ellsworth was credited with his first big-league win. The 27-year-old right-hander was on the mound for the Boston Red Sox, and the team he bested was the same one that had sent him to the showers after just two-plus innings. Going seven strong at Tiger Stadium, on April 21, 1988, Ellsworth allowed three runs as the team his father once pitched for cruised past Detroit by a count of 12-3.

It turned out to be his only big-league win.

Steven Clark Ellsworth was born in Chicago on July 30, 1960, to Dick and Jean Ellsworth, the former of whom was then a 20-year-old rookie left-hander with the Cubs. Dick Ellsworth would go on to play for four other teams – including the Red Sox – in a career that spanned 13 seasons. The family remained in Chicago until the father was traded to the Philadelphia Phillies in December 1966, then moved to Dick and Jean’s hometown of Fresno. It was there that the second-generation hurler became a two-sport star, excelling in both baseball and basketball. The latter was his primary passion.

“Basketball was by far my favorite sport,” explained Ellsworth, who eventually grew to be 6-feet-8. “I wanted to play college basketball, and I had a few offers, but then during baseball season I pitched a no-hitter and people started paying attention. Next time out, I pitched a one-hitter. I knew that I wasn’t going to play in the NBA, and people were saying I could play professional baseball, so that’s what I did.”1

His early memories of watching his father face big-league hitters are cloudy. Ellsworth knows that he attended games at Wrigley Field, and he assumes that he did so in Philadelphia. But it wasn’t until the family patriarch was dealt to Boston prior to the 1968 season – and later to Cleveland and Milwaukee – that the memories are clear. Ellsworth recalled how his father would occasionally take him to the ballpark, and how he would get to stand in the outfield and shag fly balls during batting practice. Come game time, he would join his mother and sister in the stands.

Being the son of a big leaguer had its perks. Ellsworth remembered his father introducing him to Elston Howard, who gave him a catcher’s mitt, and to Frank Howard, an experience that was “for a kid, a little bit scary.” Howard was a gentle giant, but at 6-feet-7 and built like a mountain, he was intimidating for an impressionable youngster.

Meeting Carl Yastrzemski and Ken Harrelson was a different story. At the time of the 2021 interview, Ellsworth still had signed pictures of both, and it was Boston’s all-time leader in hits and games played that made him the envy of his peers.

“Yaz pretty much owned the town at that time – he was everybody’s hero – so I remember meeting him and thinking it was pretty cool,” recalled Ellsworth. “At the same time, it was my normal life. It was a bigger deal to the neighborhood kids in Boston. They’d be like, ‘Wow. You know Yaz!?’ I was like, ‘Yeah, my dad plays on the same team as him.’”

The son went on to have legendary teammates of his own. The tall right-hander’s lone big-league season was in 1988, a year that the Red Sox roster included, among others, Wade Boggs, Roger Clemens, and Jim Rice.

Ellsworth attended Fresno City College and Cal State Northridge. He was drafted three times while a collegian. In 1980 the Minnesota Twins selected him in the seventh round of the January draft, and in 1981 the Cleveland Indians took him in the third round of the secondary-phase June draft. Wanting to continue his education, he bypassed both opportunities to sign. When the Red Sox subsequently selected him in the June 1981 draft, he decided the time was ripe to go pro. Joe Stephenson, who scouted for the Red Sox for close to five decades, signed the promising young pitcher.

Finishing school remained a priority. For each of the next four years, Ellsworth returned to the classroom for the fall semester upon the completion of the minor-league season. In 1985 he graduated from Cal State Northridge with a degree in business administration.

Ellsworth’s professional baseball career got off a bumpy start. He was assigned to the Elmira Pioneers in the Class-A New York-Penn League, and a handful of batters into his first appearance he experienced pain in his pitching elbow. His 1981 season was over after just one inning.

Ellsworth went into the offseason with a doctor having found no meaningful structural damage, but something was clearly amiss. Come spring training, his arm began barking again. It then got worse in extended spring training, where his teammates included Mark Fidrych, who was trying to make a comeback with the Red Sox. Six years earlier, Fidrych had been a national sensation with the Tigers, only to have an arm injury torpedo what might have been a brilliant career.

Ellsworth’s own career was put on hold. Surgery was in order, causing him to miss the entire 1982 season. What followed wasn’t much better. He spent much of the 1983 campaign pitching through discomfort, and at times, through pain, at low-A Winter Haven. Moreover, the results were ugly. Working as a starter, and on a pitch count that rarely gave him an opportunity to qualify for a win, Ellsworth finished 1-11 with a 7.56 ERA over 83⅓ innings. In his own words, “It was a nightmare. I hated every minute of it.”

To some degree, he expected it. Knowing that a full recovery from elbow surgery takes time, Red Sox team physician Arthur Pappas told Ellsworth in spring training that he should expect a disastrous season.2 That Pappas’s prediction came to fruition didn’t deter the determined hurler from moving forward. Ellsworth later told the Hartford Courant’s Steve Fainaru, “The last thing I wanted to do was end my career 1-11 in Class A ball.”3

Things improved markedly in 1984. Not only was his arm feeling better, his manager, a former pitcher named Bill Slack, had his back.

“I think he saved my career,” explained Ellsworth. “He told me to tell him how I felt, and how often I could pitch. I did really well and they ended up moving me up to Double A. He treated me with respect. Not that the other guys didn’t, but he gave me confidence.”

Ellsworth went 13-8 with a 3.29 ERA for Slack at Winston-Salem, then split two decisions while logging a 2.95 ERA in three starts with New Britain.

His 1985 season was relatively nondescript – returning to New Britain, he went 7-8 with a 4.26 ERA over 20 starts – but that was followed by a 1986 breakthrough in which he emerged as a potential big-league performer. Ellsworth dominated Double A to the tune of a 1.97 ERA over nine starts, earning a promotion to Triple-A Pawtucket. There he fashioned a 3.36 ERA while winning six of eight decisions. 

In 1987 Ellsworth’s performance was more workmanlike than noteworthy. Taking the mound 27 times, all but once as a starter, he went 11-8 with a 4.29 ERA for the Pawtucket Red Sox. Then came the most meaningful year of his life in baseball. Buoyed by a strong spring, he began the 1988 season in Boston. On April 7, 1988, he made his big-league debut.

He wasn’t expecting to be on the mound that day.

“We had just gotten into town,” explained Ellsworth. “Todd Benzinger and I were going to be roommates and had basically stayed up all night, getting moved into an apartment. When you’re a starting pitcher, you’re on a five-day life – you pitch every fifth day – and it was my day-three, which would have been my day to throw on the side. I figured that not getting much sleep wouldn’t matter. All I’d have to do is throw in the bullpen.”

Ellsworth’s role wasn’t entirely clear at the start of the season. Boston manager John McNamara had recently told reporters that he wasn’t sure if the rookie right-hander would be utilized as a starter or as a reliever.4

Upon arriving at Fenway Park, Ellsworth was told that Oil Can Boyd wasn’t going to be able to pitch as planned. Instead, Ellsworth would be getting the start. Things didn’t go well. Taking the mound on little sleep and short rest, Ellsworth lasted just two-plus innings, giving up eight hits, including a pair of home runs to Matt Nokes, and five earned runs. One of the few highlights was his first career strikeout, which came against future Hall of Fame shortstop Alan Trammell. The final score was Detroit 11, Boston 6. Ellsworth was tagged with the loss. “I just gave them too many good pitches to hit,” he said afterward. “I have no excuses. I just got hit today. My arm felt fine but I just couldn’t get going.”5

Ellsworth’s second outing was a loss in which he pitched well. On April 16, the right-hander held the Texas Rangers to just one run over seven innings, but his teammates couldn’t dent the scoreboard. One of the four hits Ellsworth surrendered was a home run into the Fenway Park bullpen by Larry Parrish, who finished the season in a Red Sox uniform. The final score was 2-0.

Ellsworth’s lone win came in his third-ever outing, on April 21. As was the case when he made his debut, he wasn’t expecting to be on the mound. It wasn’t until that morning that he learned he would once again be facing the Tigers. The second time proved to be the charm. Ellsworth recalls not having his best stuff that afternoon, but it didn’t matter. Making good pitches when he needed to, he scattered six hits over seven innings as the Red Sox rolled to a 12-3 win. He told the Boston Globe, “I’m glad I finally got this game, especially against this team. You could say they owned me the last two times out. This will help me confidence-wise.”6

Notable among the six hits surrendered by Ellsworth was a home run off the bat of Matt Nokes, who had twice victimized the rookie in his debut. The left-handed-hitting Detroit catcher went deep three times in five career at-bats against him. “For whatever reason, some guys just have your number,” Ellsworth mused three decades later.

That he finished with just the lone victory wasn’t indicative of how well he pitched during his brief Boston tenure. His fourth outing was a case in point. For the second time in two weeks, he was on the wrong end of a 2-0 score. The Kansas City Royals dented the rookie right-hander for just one earned run in 6⅔ innings.

Ellsworth’s eight outings in a Boston uniform were split between two stints. Having had mixed results, and with Bob Stanley coming off the disabled list, Ellsworth was demoted to Pawtucket on May 20. The following spring, he would tell a reporter for United Press International that he’d expected to be sent back down, adding that Dwight Evans had told him, “Making it here is the easy part. Staying here, that’s the hard part.”7

Ellsworth was called back up to the big leagues six weeks after the demotion and made his next to last Red Sox appearance. On July 1 – three days after being summoned as a precautionary measure, lest Roger Clemens couldn’t make a scheduled start –  he entered the game in the second inning after the Kansas City Royals had scored six times off Bruce Hurst.8

His lone relief appearance also resulted in a tough-luck loss. Ellsworth allowed a pair of runs, one scoring on a groundout, over 4⅓ solid innings. Seven games into his big-league career, Ellsworth had a 1-5 record, and it easily could have been 3-3. Looking back, he couldn’t help but wonder what might have happened had he been on the winning end a few more times.

“I’ve thought about that a lot over the years,” acknowledged Ellsworth. “There were a couple of games where I had no business winning, but there were a couple of others that could have gone my way. I remember pitching a pretty good game against Texas where we ended up losing. From a mental standpoint, when you start out the year 3-1 or 4-2, you feel more confident each time you go out there. When you start out 0-3 or 0-4, you’re thinking, ‘Can we erase that and have a do-over?’”

There are no do-overs in baseball, nor was there another opportunity for Ellsworth with a big-league club. Demoted right before the All-Star break, the tall right-hander spent the rest of the season in the minors.

Being back in Pawtucket meant that he missed out on Morgan Magic. Right around the time he was sent back to Triple A, the Red Sox fired manager John McNamara and replaced him with Joe Morgan. What followed was 19 Boston wins in 20 games, and ultimately a playoff berth. Ellsworth could only enjoy it from a distance.

One of Ellsworth’s best outings of the season came after his late-May demotion. His first outing after returning to the PawSox was memorable, yet at the same time disappointing.

“We were in Oklahoma City and I had a no-hitter until two outs in the ninth inning,” recalled Ellsworth. “Tom O’Malley, a left-handed hitter that always seemed to get the best of me, hit a home run. The next guy struck out.”

Ellsworth was named the International League’s Pitcher of the Week for May 22-28 following his near-no-hitter. After the outing, the Los Angeles Times wrote of the former Cal State Northridge hurler, “If Steve Ellsworth had pitched for the Boston Red Sox the way he did for their Triple-A affiliate, he might be still be in the major leagues.”9

Ellsworth’s 1988 season also included the onset of a shoulder ailment. He felt something after delivering a pitch – he didn’t recall exactly when it happened – and the discomfort lingered for the rest of the year. Hoping to return to the big leagues, he opted to “not make a big deal out of it.” He simply continued to pitch.

Ellsworth’s arm felt good when he reported to spring training in 1989. He pitched often that spring, possibly because he was being showcased. The righty recalled rumors that the Red Sox were trying to include him in a trade, and how a couple of teams were looking at him. No deal came to fruition, and he began the season back in Pawtucket. Then the shoulder issue returned.

“A few games into that year, what I’d felt the summer before came back,” said Ellsworth. “My shoulder started hurting, and then hurting quite a bit. At that point I was 28 years old, turning 29, and the only way I was possibly going to make it back was to pitch. So I went out there and was in pain every time I took the mound.”

The writing was on the wall. Ellsworth realized that his career was on borrowed time. Later that season, the fears came to fruition.

“I was pitching in Pawtucket and my arm was absolutely killing me,” recalled Ellsworth. “When the manager came out to get me, I told him, ‘I’ve got nothing left. I can’t throw another pitch.’ I went into the clubhouse, and when the trainer came over, I told him, ‘That was probably the last game I will ever pitch in.’”

When Ellsworth went to see the team doctor a few days later, his shoulder was so inflamed that they couldn’t even do a full exam. Surgery followed, but not the hoped-for recovery. Ellsworth tried to come back, but his velocity – up to 90 MPH per a May 1988 Peter Gammons article – had dropped to the low 80s.10 His playing days were over.

“The day you get released is rough,” said Ellsworth. “Even if you’re expecting it, it’s a rough day. You’ve pretty much dedicated your whole life to something, and now it’s over. You drive away from the ballpark, realizing that you’re no longer part of that team. You see the guys out on the field and think, ‘I’m no longer welcome. It’s over.’”

Recently married with a college degree in his back pocket, he was ready for the next chapter in his life. Released in April 1990, Ellsworth was back in California by that June, with he and his wife, Molly, both gainfully employed. After leaving baseball, Ellsworth joined a real estate brokerage, and as of 2023 had been at the same brokerage firm for 33 years. He and his wife raised three sons, all of whom have college degrees. His mother died in 2019, while his father died in October 2022.

That Ellsworth followed in his father’s footsteps remains a point of pride. At the same time, it’s not lost on the second-generation hurler that his career was comparably unremarkable. Dick Ellsworth pitched in 407 games from 1958 to 1971 and was credited with 115 wins. Steve appeared in eight games and had just the one win.

“A few years ago I was at a gathering and someone brought up that my dad and I were the first father-son duo to win games for the Red Sox,” Ellsworth recalled. “I was like, ‘Yeah, but I mean, I only won one game.’ Not that it wasn’t meaningful to me. The veteran guys got the ball and wrote, ‘First major league win’ on it. I still have the ball. At the time, I wasn’t expecting it to be my only win.”

Sources

In addition to the sources cited in the Notes, the author consulted Baseball-Reference.com and Retrosheet.org. Thanks to Rod Nelson of SABR’s Scouts and Scouting Research Committee.

Notes

1 Author interview with Steve Ellsworth on April 27, 2021. Unless otherwise indicated, all direct quotations come from this interview.

2 Lewiston (Maine) Sun-Journal, April 10, 1988.

3 Steve Fainaru, “Ellsworth Follows Dad’s Footsteps to Mound,” Hartford Courant, April 1, 1988: D4.

4 Fainaru.

5 Rich Thompson, “Rookie Rough-Up for Ellsworth,” Boston Herald. April 8, 1988: 126.

6 Dan Shaughnessy, “Burks’ Fine Start Is Worth the Weights,” Boston Globe, April 22, 1988: 48.

7 United Press International March 1, 1989. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1989/03/01/Steve-Ellsworth-has-made-a-short-trip-back-to/3560604731600/. Accessed November 22, 2022.

8 “Baseball Central,” UPI Archives, June 28, 1988. https://www.upi.com/Archives/1988/06/28/Baseball-Central/6450583473600/. Accessed December 12, 2022.

9 “Ellsworth Builds Case for Recall,” Los Angeles Times, May 28, 1988: BV21.

10 “Baseball,” Peter Gammons, Sports Illustrated, May 2, 1988.