THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Friday, June 7, 1996 TAG: 9606070584
SECTION: SPORTS PAGE: C2 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY VICKI L. FRIEDMAN, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: NORFOLK LENGTH: 76 lines
Silver Bullets catcher Pam Schaffrath characterizes teammate Pam Davis, who earlier this week pitched for a sanctioned major league farm club, in just one word.
``Determined,'' is her synopsis.
Here are two more.
In demand.
Davis, who pitched one inning of relief for the Double-A Jacksonville Suns on Tuesday night, earned the win and the instantaneous fame that comes with history in the making. She is believed to be the first woman to pitch for a major league farm club under the current structure of the minor league system.
In 48 hours time, she has fielded more than 100 interview requests, filmed a spot on CNN and tonight, she'll be answering Jay Leno's questions.
``The whole way to the ballpark in Jacksonville I was doing interviews in the car,'' says Davis, who had a couple of minutes to spare after a local TV interview and before a radio interview. ``Ever since the game that's all I've done.''
The righthander led the Silver Bullets starters with two wins, 24 strikeouts and a 3.64 ERA heading into Thursday night's exhibition against the Australian Olympic squad at Harbor Park.
Thursday's game won't be one she will want to remember. She allowed eight runs and eight hits in just one-third of an inning of work.
But that won't stop her from her travels.
Before 8 this morning, she'll hop a plane for the West Coast, as she tries to stay ahead of the chaotic pace of the last few days.
``Her schedule is regimented by the hour,'' Silver Bullets public relations manager Nirva Milord says with a sigh.
All thanks to one inning of work that started with a leadoff double. Davis wasn't fazed. ``I knew right then and there I had to bear down,'' she says. Two groundouts and a strikeout later, she was done.
``I kept thinking I have to treat this like any other game,'' she says. ``If I started thinking about making history, that's when I'd get in trouble. I was nervous in the bullpen, but on the mound I was more relaxed that I thought I would be.''
It all started out as a dream, one Davis thought she had realized by playing for the Silver Bullets, the traveling women's professional team in its third year. She started wishing for that chance at 8 years old, growing up in Mayfield Heights, Ohio, but the more realistic option seemed to be gymnastics and that's the direction she took.
``Gymnastics was my thing and baseball was my side sport,'' says Davis, 5-foot-6 and 135 pounds.
When Davis was 15, a drunken driver struck her mother's car. Davis spent the next year caring for her mom and returning to tumbling after such a long lapse wasn't an option. Neither, really, was softball. Davis played for a year with the University of South Florida, but didn't enjoy it.
``When I went to play at USF, that wasn't my passion,'' she says. ``I had grown up playing baseball and I totally missed it.''
She's in her second season with the Silver Bullets, - at 21, Davis is the youngest on the team - and her statistics have improved dramatically just a little more than a month into the season. A year ago, she was 2-7 with a 5.94. ERA. Now she's earned two of the team's three wins and finding consistency every time she steps on the mound. Pitching coach John Niekro says Davis always showed good mechanics and a variety of pitches, but last year she threw a tad wild at times.
``This year in the games she has pitched she has found the control,'' he says. ``She still needs to get a little stronger, but this year she can throw where she wants to.''
Davis attributes that to a winter of hard work and a year of experience with Colorado. And Tuesday's minor-league experience, albeit short-lived, didn't hurt, either.
``My ultimate dream would be to play in the major leagues,'' she says. ``And if not me, I'd like to see another girl do it.'' ILLUSTRATION: MIKE HEFFNER/The Virginian-Pilot
Silver Bullets pitcher Pam Davis shares a laugh with teammate Kim
Braatz in the dugout prior to Thursday's exhibition game at Harbor
Park. Davis was roughed up for eight runs on eight hits in one-third
of an inning. by CNB