Tom Gilles

Cito Gaston had seen enough of Duane Ward.

The Toronto Blue Jays manager had replaced starter John Cerutti with Ward to open the seventh inning with the visitors nursing a 4-2 lead over the Milwaukee Brewers at County Stadium.

Four singles, two sacrifice flies, and an intentional walk later, Toronto was trailing 5-4. The

Brewers had runners at first and second with Glenn Braggs coming to the plate.

Ward was out. Tom Gilles was in.

It was June 8, 1990. The 27-year-old rookie right-hander had made his major-league debut the previous day against Minnesota in Toronto.

“I was called up on June 7 and we were in Skydome,” he later said. “We were up 10-2 and they put me in the last inning to get my feet wet. We were playing the Twins and the first two guys I faced got hits, but I broke both of their bats. So I had second and third and nobody out.”

“Then I struck out Al Newman. The next guy grounds out to short [with a run scoring], the next guy flies out, and I was out of the inning. I threw 12 pitches, 10 of them strikes.”1

On his second day of work in a Blue Jays uniform, he threw only two pitches.

Braggs ignored the first offering he faced from Gilles, a called strike on the outside corner to the right-handed batter.

He swung at the second pitch.

It bounced high off the dirt just in front of the plate and then bounced off the grass before Gilles, who had waved off catcher Greg Myers, gloved the ball halfway to home plate, spinning to throw to Fred McGriff at first base and end the inning.2

In the top of the eighth inning, George Bell hit a three-run homer for the Blue Jays.

Gaston then called on closer Tom Henke, who had a one-two-three inning.

In the top of the ninth, the Jays added another four runs on four singles and an error by

Milwaukee shortstop Bill Spiers.

Henke got out of the ninth without surrendering any runs.

With his two pitches, Gilles secured his first major-league win. And his last.

Days later, he was returned to the minors to make way for a fifth outfielder in Ken Williams, picked up on waivers from Detroit. The Blue Jays, who had been carrying 11 pitchers on a road trip, replaced a hurler with a position player. Despite the demotion, Gaston had words of praise for Gilles: “This last road trip has given us a chance to do this. Our starters have been going longer. I like Gilles. I think he’s going to be okay.”3

As it turned out, Gilles’s major-league career was at an end.

His two-pitch victory proved to be the only decision in a two-game, 14-pitch major-league career.

He kicked around the minors for a few seasons, tried a comeback with an independent team at age 32, then replaced the baseball uniform with regular workday clothes.

The baseball dream Gilles pursued was his from his earliest memory. It was also his father’s, whose own brief minor-league foray fed the ambitions of his two sons.

Thomas Bradford Gilles was born in Peoria, Illinois, on July 2, 1962, to Thomas Eugene and Norma Mae (Muzzarelli) Gilles. He was the first-born son of the couple’s four children, including Tonya, Mark, and Brenda.

Norma played drums in her high-school marching band, while also taking part in choir and theater, where she performed in the senior class production of Our Town.4 She was named Miss Farmington in her Illinois hometown. On February 20, 1960, six days after Valentine’s Day, she married Tom, who had served in the Korean War as a US Army sergeant. He had been a pitcher in the Philadelphia Phillies system, throwing for the Bradford (Pennsylvania) Phillies of the PONY League in 1954. He had at least one pinch-hit appearance the following season for the renamed Bradford Beagles of the also renamed New York-Pennsylvania League, a Class-D circuit. The growing family lived in a house across from the outfield of a neighborhood baseball diamond in Kickapoo, Illinois. Gilles worked on the line at the local Hiram Walker and Sons distillery for more than a quarter-century, and, after his parents died, owned Gilles Tavern, which was on the home-plate side of the same diamond.

The senior Gilles coached all four of his children in baseball and softball, and all four received Division 1 scholarships in those sports.5 In 1979 he coached the Peoria Karmelcorn softball team to a state and regional championship before finishing fifth in the nation. Illinois Central College later hired him as a hitting coach.

His eldest son was a standout athlete at Bergan High School, a Catholic school where Tom was named all-state in both baseball and basketball. In 1980, as a senior, Tom led the hoops Trojans to the state finals with a steal and a layup with seven seconds remaining for a 56-55 victory over rival Sterling-Newman.6

“Tom was a great all-round athlete,” said Jim Carlson, who was an assistant coach for the Bergan squad. “And he was like having another coach on the floor.”7

The guard was named to United Press International’s All-State team.8 The basketball coaches at Illinois Wesleyan University hoped to recruit him by suggesting the 6-foot-1, 185-pound athlete could be a two-sport star.9

In the end, Gilles accepted a baseball scholarship from Indiana State, though the basketball coaches there also urged him to join the team at the end of baseball season. The program was just two years removed from the Larry Bird years.

“I practiced with the basketball team for about three weeks,” Gilles later said. “But I felt a little uncomfortable because they had already been practicing while I was playing baseball. I had to make a decision where my future was. So I decided to focus on baseball.”10

Bone spurs developed in his pitching elbow, so the recruit was moved to shortstop. He pitched in relief a bit in his sophomore season but elbow pain forced a permanent move to the infield, where he played third base as a senior. In his final two campaigns, his Sycamores won the Missouri Valley Conference tournament.

Gilles passed the first cut in tryouts for the US Olympic team in 1984 only to have the lingering elbow injury end his attempt.

The same issue left him in the 1984 draft until the New York Yankees picked him in the 47th round. His bonus: A measly $1,000.11

Gilles played first and third base in in the New York farm system with the Sarasota (Florida) Yankees and the Oneonta (New York) Yankees, under manager Buck Showalter, over two seasons before being released.

“After that, I went to seven tryout camps and nobody signed me,” he said.12

After surgery on his elbow, which caused him to miss the 1986 season, Gilles decided to return to pitching. He was signed as a free agent by the Kansas City Royals. He pitched just three innings in one game for the Appleton (Wisconsin) Foxes before being released.

Minnesota picked him for the 1988 season, which he spent with the Kenosha (Wisconsin) Twins before being promoted to Double-A Orlando. Despite going 9-3 that season with two complete games in 14 starts, he was released.

Toronto signed the then 26-year-old as a free agent and assigned him to the Knoxville (Tennessee) Blue Jays, where his 5-1 mark over 12 games (just four starts) earned him a promotion to Triple-A Syracuse.

By then, his repertoire included a slider, a changeup, and a knuckleball he called a “knuckle Johnson.”13

On June 3, 1990, Gilles pitched for the Chiefs in an exhibition game in Syracuse against the parent club. The manager clearly liked what he saw,14 as Gilles switched places on the Blue Jays roster with demoted right-hander Steve Cummings.15 At the time of his promotion, Gilles was 2-1 with a 1.95 earned-run average.

To recap:

On Monday Gilles had pitched in an exhibition game.

On Thursday he made his major-league debut.

On Friday he got his first major-league victory.

Twelve days after his promotion, he was returned to Syracuse.

The Blue Jays organization released him at the end of the season.

Gilles attempted a comeback with the unaffiliated Reno (Nevada) Silver Sox in 1991, but he went 1-5 as he surrendered nine home runs in just 46⅔ innings.

His major-league career consisted of 14 pitches to six batters in 1⅓ innings over two games.

He surrendered one earned run. He struck out one and walked none.

In the minors over five seasons, he went 22-16 with a 3.46 earned-run average. In 372 innings, he walked 101 and struck out 189.

Three years later, in 1994, Gilles tried one final time, pitching in Minnesota for the independent Duluth-Superior Dukes of the Northern League. His only decision in six appearances was a loss, as he gave up five earned runs in his only start after fielding a bunt and throwing wildly to third base.16

A younger brother, Mark Elliott Gilles, also pitched professional baseball for four seasons in the low minors for Cleveland. He went 39-26 without ever playing above Double A. His final season was 1989.

After his baseball career ended, Tom Gilles returned to the Peoria area, where he was a baseball and softball instructor for 16 years before becoming a vitamin supplements distributor.17

In 2018 he was inducted into the Greater Peoria Sports Hall of Fame.

“How many guys get drafted in the 47th round as an infielder and ended up pitching in the big leagues?” he once asked. “I doubt you’ll find anybody.”18

How did he regard his brief foray in the majors?

“It was like getting to the top of the mountain,” he said in 1997, “and someone pushes you off.”19

Photo credit

Tom Gilles, courtesy of the Toronto Blue Jays.

Notes

1 Dave Reynolds, “GPSHOF: Tom Gilles Still Savors His Most Memorable Cup of Coffee,” Peoria (Illinois) Journal Star, March 24, 2018. www.pjstar.com/story/sports/2018/03/24/gpshof-tom-gilles-still-savors/12913119007/. Accessed December 23, 2022.

2 Tom Gilles: The Road to Success. [April 29, 2020] Facebook [fan page]. Accessed December 31, 2022, from www.facebook.com/profile.php?id=100035569916347.

3 Larry Millson, “Williams Has No Illusions About Role with Blue Jays.” Toronto Globe and Mail, June 20, 1990: C14.

4 “Farmington Seniors Will Give ‘Our Town,’” Galesburg (Illinois) Register-Mail, March 17, 1954: 8.

5 Thomas Gilles [paid obituary], Peoria Journal Star. www.legacy.com/us/obituaries/pjstar/name/thomas-gilles-obituary?id=26071411. Accessed December 24, 2022.

6 Associated Press, “Bergan edges Sterling Newman,” Bloomington (Illinois) Pantagraph, March 12, 1980: 37.

7 Reynolds.

8 “UPI All-state,” Moline (Illinois) Dispatch, March 4, 1980: 10.

9 Jim Barnhart, “Big Men at a Premium in State – or Anywhere,” Bloomington Pantagraph, March 16, 1980: 21.

10 Reynolds.

11 Reynolds.

12 Reynolds.

13 Phil Luciano, “Kickapoo Family Shared Dreams of Baseball Fields,” St. Louis Post-Dispatch, November 24, 1997: 98.

14 Tom Slater, “Jays Shuffle Pitching Corps,” Toronto Star, June 7, 1990: E3.

15 Larry Millson, “Twins a Big Hit, Crush Blue Jays with Puckett Power,” Toronto Globe and Mail, June 7, 1990: A21.

16 “Explorers Get Tie for First with 8-7 Win Over Dukes,” Sioux City (Iowa) Journal, June 22, 1994: 15.

17 Reynolds.

18 Reynolds.

19 Luciano.