As Toronto starter Mark Hendrickson strode to the mound last night and stretched out his 6-foot-9 frame to its full, intimidating height and dominated the Yankee lineup, one couldn’t help but think he would’ve made a good basketball player.
Turns out he was. Hendrickson, who pitched seven shutout innings in an 8-0 rain-shortened rout at the Stadium, spent four years in the NBA – including playing 22 games for the Nets. But after watching last night, it’s fairly obvious he made the right career choice.
“I was a lot better [last night] than I was [with the Nets]. I’m happy with the way I pitched. Maybe later [last night], or in the offseason, I’ll look back and say ‘wow, I pitched in Yankee Stadium.’ ” The left-hander was recalled from Single-A Dunedin yesterday, then went out and threw seven great innings, allowing just five hits and two walks to improve to 6-6. It’s something that probably seemed impossible just three years ago.
Hendrickson was a journeyman in the NBA, where he played sparingly for five seasons with four different teams. The Washington State University product played 114 career games, averaging 3.3 points and 2.8 rebounds. But by 2000, he was ready for a career change. Last August, he became the 10th man to play in the NBA and the majors.
It takes a special kind of perseverance. Hendrickson’s father, a Washington State Patrol officer, was killed in the line of duty when Mark was just five months old; his paternal grandfather got him into sports, before passing away while he was in junior high.
But Hendrickson has always shown aptitude for baseball and hoops. He was a two-time all-Pac-10 player at Washington State, and even though he played just one year of baseball, it was enough.
The Braves originally drafted him in the spring of 1992 but he refused to sign without the freedom to play basketball as well. Hendrickson would be drafted six straight years as teams banked on him tiring of basketball, but the NBA was his dream, and he was determined to pursue it.
The 76ers drafted him in the second round in 1996, and he played 29 games for them that season. The Blue Jays drafted him in 1997 and was the first team to acquiesce to his basketball schedule. He finally signed, and was allowed to play in the NBA.
He played 48 games for the Kings in 1997-98, and 22 for the Nets – six starts – in 1998-99. After playing just five games for the Nets the next season and 10 with the Cavs, he finally quit hoops. After just two full minor-league seasons, he’s worked his way into the rotation.
In his major-league debut last August, he gave up five runs in one-third-of-an inning, and in his first start this year, the Yanks battered him for 10 hits and seven runs in 12/3 innings. But last night the whipping stick was in other hands, as he smothered the Bombers.
According to the Elias Sports Bureau, Hendrickson joins Danny Ainge, Gene Conley, Dave DeBusschere, Dick Groat, Frankie Baumholtz, Cotton Nash, Ron Reed, Chuck Connors and Steve Hamilton in playing in both the NBA and the majors.
