Brett Tomko was a sketch artist who made his living trying to paint corners as a pitcher.
Twenty years ago, on Dec. 15, 2002, the Cardinals acquired Tomko from the Padres for reliever Luther Hackman and a player to be named (minor-league pitcher Mike Wodnicki).
A right-hander, Tomko was a durable, but hittable, member of the Cardinals’ starting rotation in 2003, earning 13 wins despite some rough outings.
Arts and crafts
In 1970, three years before Brett was born, his father Jerry entered a contest to name the new Cleveland NBA franchise. His suggestion, Cavaliers, was selected from more than 11,000 entries submitted, The Cleveland Plain Dealer reported. His prize for naming the team was a pair of season tickets for the club’s first year.
When Brett was 3, he moved with the family from Euclid, Ohio, to Placentia, Calif., near Anaheim, and developed skills in baseball and in art.
An art communications major at Florida Southern College, Tomko had a 15-2 record for the baseball team in 1995 and was named NCAA Division II player of the year, pitching a shutout in the national championship game.
When not playing baseball, he’d sometimes spend his nights at the campus art studio. “I’d stay until 4 in the morning, drawing and painting,” he recalled to the Dayton Daily News. “It relaxes me totally.”
He said to the Tampa Tribune, “I’ve always taken art courses. It’s come easy to me, like majoring in baseball.”
The Reds chose Tomko in the second round of the 1995 June amateur draft. After he reached the majors with them in May 1997, art remained a part of his life. “Tomko always carries with him a sketch pad and charcoals,” The Cincinnati Post reported. On road trips, he visited art museums. “I am the biggest nerd in major league baseball,” Tomko told Peter Gammons of the Boston Globe.
Before long, Tomko “dazzled teammates with his charcoal drawings,” Jeff Horrigan of The Cincinnati Post reported. Hal McCoy of the Dayton Daily News wrote, “Tomko drew beautifully in charcoal.”
(On April 15, 2007, the 60th anniversary of Jackie Robinson integrating the big leagues, each fan attending the Dodgers game that day received a copy of Tomko’s drawing of Robinson, the Los Angeles Times reported.)
Traveling man
Tomko had 11 wins for the Reds his rookie season and 13 the next year. In April 1999, the Dayton Daily News reported, the Reds could have acquired Jim Edmonds from the Angels for Tomko but refused to part with him. (The next year, Edmonds was traded to the Cardinals.)
In February 2000, the Mariners made the Reds an offer they couldn’t refuse, sending them Ken Griffey Jr. for a package of players, including Tomko. The Mariners used him primarily as a reliever before shipping him to the Padres in December 2001.
Tomko was 10-10 with a 4.49 ERA in 32 starts for the 2002 Padres, but Cardinals manager Tony La Russa and pitching coach Dave Duncan noticed he was developing an effective sinkerball. “When he was in Cincinnati, he would just rear back and fire,” La Russa told the St. Louis Post-Dispatch. “We saw that he has really started to move the ball around and pitch.”
Shopping for pitching at the baseball winter meetings in December 2002, the Cardinals talked to the Giants about a trade of second baseman Fernando Vina for either starting pitchers Russ Ortiz or Livan Hernandez, the Post-Dispatch reported, but the Giants instead opted to sign free-agent second baseman Ray Durham.
Turning to the Padres, the Cardinals discussed swapping Vina for Tomko and another pitcher, Kevin Jarvis, before scaling back the framework of the deal, according to the Post-Dispatch.
The Cardinals projected Tomko, 29, to join a starting rotation with Matt Morris, Woody Williams, Garrett Stephenson and Jason Simontacchi.
“He’s a guy who we’re getting in the prime of his career,” La Russa said to the Post-Dispatch.
Skeptics noted that Tomko was joining his fourth team in five years and only once posted an ERA below 4.44, but Dave Duncan told the newspaper, “He’s a low-ball pitcher, gets a lot of ground balls, and we have a good defense. I think he has pitched in some other places where the defense wasn’t so good and he had to suffer through that and paid a penalty for it.”
After seeing Tomko pitch in spring training with the Cardinals, Duncan said to the Post-Dispatch, “I feel good about everything about him. I like the way he’s throwing. I like the way he goes about his business, his willingness to work, his drive to win. All the ingredients are there.”
Like he had elsewhere, Tomko continued his art work while with the Cardinals. Among his projects was a portrait of teammate Woody Williams.
“The moments when Tomko has a charcoal pencil in his hand are among the most relaxing he can imagine,” Stu Durando wrote in the Post-Dispatch.
Good, bad, ugly
Tomko’s 2003 season with the Cardinals was a mix of gems and duds. He pitched complete games in wins against the Marlins (Boxscore) and Rockies (Boxscore). He also gave up nine runs in a game three times _ versus the Rockies (Boxscore), Red Sox (Boxscore) and Yankees (Boxscore).
Tomko finished the season with a 13-9 record and ranked second on the club in wins, but he gave up more hits (252) and more earned runs (119) than any pitcher in the National League. He allowed 35 home runs and batters hit .305 against him, helping account for a 5.28 ERA. Video
At times, Tomko impressed as much with his bat as he did with his arm. He hit .286 with nine RBI for the Cardinals.
Granted free agency after the season, Tomko signed with the Giants _ the fifth of 10 clubs he pitched for in 14 seasons. The others: Dodgers, Royals, Yankees, Athletics and Rangers.
Tomko finished with a career mark of 100-103. His 13 wins for the Cardinals tied his single-season career high.