Orioles Legend Ray Miller’s Lineage Continues as Part of Roy Hobbs World Series Win

Ray Miller was known for many things during his time as a major league manager and pitching coach.

Yes, he was the manager for the Baltimore Orioles for two seasons (1998-1999) and is a part of MLB history, as he didn’t include Cal Ripken Jr.’s name on the lineup card that broke the Iron Man’s streak at 2,632 consecutive games played.

He was also the Orioles Hall of Famer who helped five different pitchers reach 20 wins in a season during his tenure in Baltimore, including Jim Palmer in 1978.

While the vast majority of Miller’s pupils have retired from the game, one continues to pitch, using the lessons that Miller instilled in him to win championships.

Howard Elson is still basking in the glow of pitching Team Cambria to the age-75+ National Championship in the Roy Hobbs World Series in Fort Myers, Fla., last November.

Elson was named the Co-Most Valuable Player, giving up just one earned run in 16.0 innings on the mound and being the winning pitcher in three games, including both wins in the playoff doubleheader that pushed his team into the championship game.

One of the five pitches used by Elson in his pitch mix? A changeup rooted in a lesson given to him on a whim by Miller.

A Life-Changing Conversation with the Orioles Legend

“I had a sports talk show here in Pittsburgh on the flagship station of the Pirates, KDKA, so I had access to the Pirates clubhouse,” Elson recalled. “Ray Miller, who became manager of the Baltimore Orioles, was the pitching coach for the Pirates at the time. I was in my mid-40s. I went to him in the clubhouse, and I said, ‘Listen, I’m still pitching in adult senior baseball leagues and tournaments. Could you show me the circle change that you teach your guys? Because I follow your mantra, “Work fast, throw strikes, change speeds,” but don’t feel like I have a good enough changeup.’ He grabbed a baseball, put it in my hand, showed me how to hold it and said, ‘Don’t baby it. Throw it like a batting practice fastball and let the grip do the work.’

“I used that for years, and it was really an out pitch that Ray Miller taught me because I had access to the clubhouse. Now I’ll still use the circle change, but I’ll also use a splitter as my changeup. It depends what feels good in warm-ups and what’s working. They kind of do the same thing, but that’s the only ‘feel’ pitch, I think.”

Elson chuckles when he’s asked about Miller’s reaction to a radio host asking for pitching advice.

“He kind of smiled at first, and I’m not sure that he believed that I was really still playing,” Elson said. “But, after the smile, he was serious. He grabbed a ball and showed me what he needed to show me. And that’s true of almost everybody I have worked with on pitching advice through the years.

“When you tell people you’re still playing baseball, they’ll say, ‘You mean softball?’ My answer is ‘No, that’s for old men.’”

Age is certainly an afterthought for the 77-year-old Elson and his arm. He threw 12 innings in one day (entering in relief in the third inning of the first game of the semifinal doubleheader before throwing a seven-inning complete game in the second outing) to help his team get into the Roy Hobbs title game. He told the coach he could pitch again the next day, should his team need him in the championship.

“I just hoped that it wasn’t going to be too long between the first and second game of the doubleheader because you tend to stiffen up,” Elson smiled.

Elson is a throwback to the days when starting pitchers hurled as many innings as it took to help their teams. He’s also found a system that works for him to make sure his arm doesn’t feel the effects of too many pitches.

“I used to be the guy that would throw on a Saturday and then couldn’t pick up a ball until Wednesday. I was the guy that could only pitch once a week,” Elson explained. “I started an exercise program, not just minor cardio with a little running and things like that but mostly range of motion exercises with light weights. That got me to the point where, and I can’t explain it, for the last 10 years or so, I’ve been the guy that can throw every day and that can pitch complete games every other day. I get tired, but I don’t get sore.”

Lessons From the Past Shaping the Future

While Elson may be a throwback, he’s not stuck in the past. He sees the changes there have been in baseball since he got that advice from Miller inside the Pittsburgh clubhouse. As a member of the Society for American Baseball Research (SABR), Elson embraces the analytics (sometimes called sabermetrics) that have changed his favorite sport.

“That’s the biggest change in baseball. It has changed everything that you see on the field,” Elson said of the introduction and embrace of analytics. “The purists might say, ‘These math majors and these statistics nerds are the ones that are ruining the game. They’ve never put a glove on. They’ve never swung a bat.’ Well, that may be true, but they also love the game and understand that it lends itself, probably more than any other sport, to statistical analysis.

“Once you do the statistical analysis, you think that nobody thought this way of playing was valuable before. Then you remember that [Hall of Fame manager] Earl Weaver knew, decades ago, that the three-run home run was more valuable and efficient than chipping away constantly and having to get that third or fourth base hit to score just one run.

“So hitters now have changed their swing angle. It’s more Ted Williams than George Brett. It’s ultra Ted Williams, who wanted your swing angle to follow the angle of the ball. The batters now accentuate that to put the ball in the air and to hit more home runs, so it makes perfect sense.”

While basking in the World Series win, Elson isn’t ready to ride off into the sunset. He’s planning to be ready for the next tournament when a team in his age bracket needs a pitcher to help get them deep into the playoffs.

How long will he keep throwing that Miller-inspired changeup? As long as he can, a simple way to show just how much he not only loves playing the game, but also being a part of its rich history as well.

“Jim Bouton once famously said, ‘You spend a good deal of your life gripping a baseball, and it turns out, in the end, it was the other way around the whole time,’ Elson said. “That’s the quote on my Athletics Hall of Fame plaque at my alma mater, Queens College. I love it.”