Pitchers are supposed to miss bats, not seek them out.
But Jason Grimsley's circuitous route through the Jacobs Field ductwork to rescue Albert Belle's kidnapped bat in 1994 only hints at the path a 22-year career in baseball can take.
Grimsley, 38, was signed by the Diamondbacks over the winter to add experience to the bullpen, and "experience'' barely dents the surface.
"It is fun to sit back and reflect a little bit,'' Grimsley said Tuesday. "I was telling the guys to enjoy it while you are here, because you blink your eyes and it is going to be over.''
Grimsley lost his left big toe in a motorcycle accident when he was 12 — "I hit a stump, and the stump won,'' he said — but that has not seemed to be an impediment.
He won the first major-league game in which he appeared, beating Montreal on Sept. 8, 1989, to begin an odyssey that includes two World Series rings, 10 organizations and 533 major-league games.
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Grimsley has been a team guy throughout, not only when he dropped into the umpire's room on July 15, 1994, to remove Belle's bat, which umpires had confiscated after it shattered in the first inning and showed signs of cork.
"It ain't easy,'' he said of making it through the ducts.
A decade later, Grimsley served as Kansas City's player union representative during a sometimes contentious set of negotiations on a new collective bargaining agreement in 2002, taking the public heat while freeing his mostly younger teammates to concentrate on the game.
His most harrowing time came off the field, when a private plane crashed into his suburban Kansas City home in Jan. 21, 2004, killing all five aboard.
Grimsley was not at home. His misfiring truck had been diagnosed after dropping his two sons off at school. But his wife and daughter were in the basement. They escaped injury.
"The sliding glass doors on the patio were gone. There were holes in the house from parts of the plane,'' Grimsley said.
"It was just a blessing they were where they were. If they had been in the kitchen or the living room, I don't even want to think what would have happened."
Grimsley won a career-high seven games in his first season in relief, in 1999, and has made 432 relief appearances since.
He was 1-2 with a 5.73 ERA in 22 appearances with Baltimore in the second half last season, a year most remarkable because he pitched at all.
Grimsley returned to the mound only nine months and three days after undergoing Tommy John ligament replacement surgery. That is believed to be a recovery record.
The Diamondbacks liked the way veteran Tim Worrell settled down their bullpen the final two months of 2005, and they see Grimsley as a similarly stabilizing element.
"We had some issues in our bullpen, and we think we are deeper and more experienced there," Melvin said.
"Hopefully, I can have a positive effect," Grimsley said.
After making the Yankees as a nonroster invitee in the spring of 1999, Grimsley will always remember the 1999 World Series for the effect it had on him and his youngest son.
Pitching for the first time in 28 days, Grimsley threw two scoreless innings in the Yankees' 6-5, 10-inning victory over Atlanta in Game 3.
When he arrived in the clubhouse, Yankees manager Joe Torre bellowed: "Way to go, Jason Grimsley."
As he had been interviewed later, Grimsley hoisted his then 3-year-old son into his arms.
"He patted me on the face and said, 'Way to go, Daddy, way to go,' " Grimsley said. "That was one of the best moments I've ever had in my career."
