ALTOONA, Pa. — Before there was the Nightmare and Mark the Shark or even Grilled Cheese, it was The Hammer who held down the ninth inning for the Pirates.
The Hammer, of course, was the nickname of former closer Joel Hanrahan after he was acquired via trade from the Nationals in 2009. Now, nearly 10 years after becoming a Pirate for the first time, Hanrahan is in his third season as a pitching coach within the Pittsburgh organization, his first with Double-A Altoona.
It might have been with the Pirates' organization that he got his start in coaching, but it was with Detroit that the idea of potentially coaching crossed his mind.
"The time that I started thinking about it was when I was rehabbing with the Tigers down in Florida in 2014," Hanrahan said. "I was down there rehabbing and seeing the young guys from the GCL, the Gulf Coast League, seeing them and seeing how excited they were."
The time spent rehabbing helped Hanrahan bring back a love for the game and also realize he has a lot of knowledge to share after a professional career than spanned 15 seasons, seven of which were spent in the big leagues.
"You look, if there's boxes of what someone's done in the big leagues, I've checked them all," Hanrahan said. "I figured I had some good insight I could drop with the guys and really help with their mental state. It's kind of funny, full circle playing in Erie — they have two or three guys on the team who were in the GCL when I was rehabbing."
All it took was a simple phone call for Hanrahan to rejoin the organization and begin his coaching career.
"I called Neal Huntington one day and told him I was interested. I talked to him after having surgery, realistically what's it going to be like for a guy like myself to come back and get a job playing after being out for three years and two Tommy Johns," Hanrahan said.
Hanrahan, 37, a former second-round pick of the Dodgers in the 2000 MLB Draft, realized the writing was on the wall as far as his career went as he transitioned into coaching for the first time in 2016.
"The adjustment for me was really easy because I know that I can't pitch anymore," Hanrahan said. "I know I'm athletic enough to do some things with the guys on the field, but I know I can't get on the bump and let it eat or my arm is going to kill me."
Knowing his limits and the wear and tear his arm had accrued throughout his career helped make the transition easy for the two-time all-star, but there have still been challenges along the way.
"The hardest part for me is sometimes I feel like I care more than they do, which I know isn't true, but that's been the hardest transition for me, reading these guys' personalities and getting the most out of them" Hanrahan said.
Hanrahan channels some of his former pitching coaches when it comes to how he approaches the art of coaching and it's worked for the former reliever as he's climbed the organizational ladder over the past three years.
"I use the guys I had as coaches: Marty Reid, who's now the Braves' bullpen coach; the late Kenny Howell; those guys, all they did was build you up mentally and made you feel like you had the best stuff that day, that nobody could get a hit off you." Hanrahan said. "That's kind of the mentality I take with the guys out there: Your stuff is good, you belong here. When you're on your game, nobody can stop you. And your stuff is there today, let's get after it."
The grind of baseball is something Hanrahan embraces but also tries to teach his pitchers about daily through his experiences and knowledge of what it takes. For Hanrahan, the grind is just a tad bit different now.
"People talk about the grind — it's always a grind. For me it was never a grind; this is what I want to do, this is what I love doing," Hanrahan said. "It's more of a grind for me now because I'm old and fat. It wasn't a grind for me when I was playing. I try to remind the guys, ‘This your job, this is your career. It's not summer ball, it's not college ball. The choices you make off the field impact how you're going to perform that next day. If you see me out, I can eat 20 chicken wings for dinner, it's not going to affect my performance tomorrow. If you go out and eat 20 chicken wings and have three beers, it's going to affect your performance.’ These guys are very knowledgeable about what's going in their bodies off the field, their sleep routines."
After spending the better part of seven seasons in the majors, Hanrahan has a lot of different experiences he can draw upon.
"Being with these guys here, the one I use the most is my 2009 season, the year I got traded to Pittsburgh. Started off the year in Washington, just everything sucked," Hanrahan recalled. "I could've thrown 105 up there and it was getting hit. There was nothing I could do right that year, and then getting traded over to Pittsburgh and the way the season changed for me. I use that season a lot to go back and teach with these guys: It’s outing to outing, it's day to day, last month is over with you can't go back and change it, you can't change it in one game, it's a long season and every outing counts."
Only three years into his coaching career, Hanrahan has his goals set similarly to what they were as a player: Get back to the majors.
"I'd like to be a big-league pitching coach somewhere. I think that's the ultimate goal," he said. "When I first got into it, it wasn't really my dream to be a pitching coach in the big leagues but being here for a couple years now, it's something I want to do. Do that for about six, seven, eight years then maybe coach my kid in high school or something."
CURVE'S TOP HITTERS
Jerrick Suiter, 1B -- Suiter is hitting .324 over his past 10 games. The 26-year-old is 11-for-34 over that time with two home runs, six RBIs and three walks.
Mitchell Tolman, 2B -- Tolman was 2-for-2 with two doubles, two walks and three RBIs in Altoona's victory against Portland Sunday. He is hitting .248 on the season.
CURVE'S TOP PITCHERS
Top starting performance: Sean Brady vs. Portland on May 26: 7.0 innings pitched, two runs on three hits, five strikeouts and no walks. Brady is 2-4 with a 6.57 ERA.
Top reliever: Beau Sulser. Sulser threw four shutout innings in relief Saturday against Portland, allowing one hit while striking out two and walking one. The righty brought his ERA down to a paltry 0.61.
THE ROSTER MOVES/INJURY UPDATE
Here are the roster moves over the past week:
5/25: RHP Pedro Vasquez promoted to Triple-A Indianapolis. OF Ryan Peurifoy assigned to Altoona.
5/27: LHP Cam Vieaux promoted to Triple-A Indianapolis. RHP Scooter Hightower placed on temporary inactive list. RHP Austin Coley assigned to Altoona. RHP Ryan Valdes promoted to Altoona.
THE RESULTS/SCHEDULE
It was a brutal week for Altoona in the standings as they went 1-5 through their first six games before notching their first win of the 11-game road trip Sunday with a 7-2 victory against Portland. In those losses the Curve amassed a total of six runs before their seven run outburst against the Sea Dogs.
In their Memorial Day matinee against Portland, Altoona fell 7-3 to Portland. The Curve had tied the game in the top of the ninth inning before Tate Matheny, son of former St. Louis Cardinals manager Mike Matheny, launched a walkoff grand slam to give the Sea Dogs the victory.
The Curve head to Trenton for a three-game series before returning home Friday to take on New Hampshire.
ALTOONA FUN THING
With Mitch Keller getting promoted to the majors and starting Monday night, it was Altoona's Cam Vieaux who took Keller's roster spot in Indianapolis. Both Vieaux and Keller had nine wins for the Curve in 2018 with Vieaux ultimately being named Pitcher of the Year. Taking Vieaux's spot in the rotation was Ausin Coley who got the starting nod Monday against Portland. Coley was the 2017 Co-Pitcher of the Year for the Curve.
