Late Life: The Chien-Ming Wang Story

What’s a Yankee?

Yankees is a baseball team, Yankees.

Oh.

Cool.

Cool.

-Hi. - Hello.

I was going to tell you, he’s Justin’s dad.

- Yeah? -Yeah.

See?

-Oh, my God. -

My mom told me... Uh, us that you’re famous.

My mom told me that.

Before, not now.

-Oh. -

Cool.

Think about the Yankees,

you think about all that money in that big payroll,

and who gets the ball in Game One?

Chien-Ming Wang,

who has been, without a doubt,

the best starter down the stretch for the New York Yankees.

That sinker goes down,

a lot of hitters talk about hitting it, and it feels like a bowling ball.

What a description

of a tough sinker from Wang.

One of the best sinkers during his era.

One, two, pitch.

-Ordonez strikes out. -

He was fun to watch

for a couple of years, and it was exciting.

-He's struck him out. -

He’s a great pitcher.

A lot of the guys who come here, they can’t stand on that mound.

And they’re great any place else, but they come in and stand there,

he had that.

He won 19 games two years in a row,

and he was like the next great pitcher for the Yankees.

Wang rounds third, he scores.

It is a two run base hit and Wang got hurt running the bases.

Wang is bent over at home plate,

and the Yankees will have to go to the bullpen.

He can barely walk.

Too early.

He hurt himself and never came back from it.

He seemed like he had it...

and it wasn’t there.

It was sad.

He’s not pitched in the Major Leagues since 2013,

when he made six appearances with the Blue Jays,

and has not been the same guy since.

Right after Spring Training,

he was the first ever Yankee starting pitcher

at the new Yankee Stadium.

Now, it was an exhibition game, it wasn’t a regular season game.

That was the first game the Yankees played in their new home,

and he was the starting pitcher on the mound.

That’s something nobody can take away from him.

That’s right.

That’s a pretty cool experience.

This is my sixth team in the past two years.

The last time I was in the Majors was two years ago.

My sinker does not have the late life

like it used to,

the velocity is slower now at 86 or 87 mph.

Here’s the one off pitch,

and there’s a drive to the gap in right center field.

That’s got some steam.

I just want to continue to pitch

and see if I could get my groove back.

One run, two hits,

and nobody left on base.

It’s tough to see good guys struggle,

especially from what he was to what he is now.

He was throwing low to mid-90 sinkers,

and probably throwing it 90% of the time, it was nuts.

Drive to right field, it’s in, it’s a hit,

this is going to score two runs.

Navarro scores,

all the way around third into score is Parmelee

in a double and it’s three to one.

Chien-Ming Wang now has given up four hits.

Throws home...

swings and bloops one to left,

that’s going to drop in and will score another run.

I... I wish he never got hurt. He would've been...

He would've been... He would’ve been

still here with the Yankees, tell you the truth.

Yeah, definitely.

The day he got released by the Triple-A Braves,

I hear he’s very calm, and...

Um, but yet, you know, that day

I could sense in the voice in his phone call

that he could have tears in his eyes,

and he’s never been released in mid-season.

So I just tell him, uh,

"Hey, don’t worry, do you want to continue to pitch?"

You know, you’ve had a great career,

if you don’t want to pitch anymore,

you can go home, and you’ve already done so much.

And he just tell me that, hey, you know,

keep looking for teams for him, um,

he wants to continue to pitch.

And at that time, all the other 29 Major League teams,

their Triple-A rotations are full, too.

There were two teams, San Diego Padres and New York Mets,

but they decided to pass on Chien-Ming.

And I explained to him that

if he wants to go home to Florida and rest,

and, you know, wait for a Major League team

to come up with a spot in the Triple-A roster, he could do that.

But the risk is, if he goes home,

he would have to restart up the throwing program again

once a spot opens.

I struggle with the thoughts of calling it a career.

If I ended this...

at least I could return to Taiwan,

and spend some time with my parents.

I’m getting older, too, sometimes I do think about this.

They are in Taiwan, and it’s just the two of them there.

We talked to Chien-Ming about, you know, what he wants to do

and totally respect him.

I know... You know, he’s had a storied career,

and I told him that, "Hey, you know, after all you’ve been through,

if you want to hang it up...

You’ve had such a, you know, unbelievable career already,

you know, and it’s such a good example to little kids like my son...

You know...

We love you and...

You know, you can..."

Sorry...

Even if there’s no opportunities

in the affiliated organizations,

you still need to stay in shape.

Alan found an Independent League team.

The level is in between Double-A and Triple-A

with a lot of good players playing there.

I told him whatever the team is, I’ll go.

I’m running out of options.

This has got to be the lowest point,

there’s not even a Minor League spot.

So, I have to go to the Independent League.

What I worry about is,

whether I’ll ever make it back into the MLB system.

He is well aware of how much time he has left.

After all, he is a pitcher of a certain age.

You want to support him,

sure, give it all you’ve got and keep going.

But on the other hand, you feel sorry for him

because...

he’s no longer the same pitcher.

The only thing that remains is his spirit.

Okay, Kolby, let's see where your brother is.

Justin.

I totally understand

the heart and soul of ballplayers is on the fields.

Watching him struggle these past few years,

I am really torn, too.

I want him to keep playing, but I don’t want him

to miss out on our family this much.

They all got their backs up against the wall.

Is the way they view it. Um...

And it’s true, their... Their worlds get crushed a little bit.

You know, they’re inside of an organization,

feeling really good about themselves,

then all of a sudden...

they get released.

There’s 1,400 free agents out there

all the time, and there’s only 200 spots in this league.

A lot of them had been to the Major Leagues.

I think 80 of the 200 players last year in the league

all had Major League experience.

So this is a league where guys who’ve been to the Major Leagues,

they’re back here for whatever reason, whether it was injury,

their age might have caught up with them,

weeded them out of the Major League system they were in

because of the youth movement coming in with the younger players.

But their backs are against the wall,

and the... and the thing is, to put up the numbers,

to get out of here, and to be seen by Major League scouts

and to get back, they have to perform.

Come, get it. Ready.

And Chien-Ming was one of the guys

that felt like his quickest way back in Major League Baseball

was through the Atlantic League and through Southern Maryland.

- Chien-Ming. - How are you?

Good, how are you?

No, I get released.

-You got released? -Yeah.

Oh, I don’t know, no team, now...

Yeah.

Can I go see you?

-And I take you to dinner. -

Okay, I see you in a little bit.

All right.