Mark Buehrle: thrives on a fast-paced rhythm: since 2001, White Sox pitcher has been one of top winners among majors' left-handers

Baseball Digest, July, 2005 by Doug Padilla

CALL MARK BUEHRLE A HILLBILLY, country or a redneck if you must. He really doesn't mind.

Hey, this is a guy who proposed to his girlfriend last off-season while sitting in a tree stand hunting for deer on his 1,200-acre property in rural Missouri.

Just don't call Buehrle if you're asking him to bring attention to himself.

"My buddies were joking around about one day going on 'The Late Show With David Letterman,' and I said I don't know if I could ever do that," Buehrle said. "First off, I'm too shy for that. But then they said, 'That's how you become big-time.' Well, that's exactly why I wouldn't want to do that. I like just kind of being under the radar and taking care of business."

Give Buehrle lemonade and a porch swing, Jack Daniels from the bottle and gravy for his biscuits. Don't force him to self-promote. How is this for down to earth? Buehrle drove a car with a cracked engine block for most of his major league career before spoiling himself with a luxury car last season.

Then there is the contradictory side to the White Sox left-hander. As quiet and unassuming as he is, Buehrle is at his best in a stadium full of people, on a raised bump in the middle of the infield, dictating his own pace--fast --to hitters.

"I get a kick out of Buehrle," Sox pitching coach Don Cooper said. "Sometimes in the bullpen before the game, things aren't clicking the right way, and he'll look at me like, 'Are you watching this? How bad is this?' But it's the same old stuff. It doesn't matter. When he goes out there, everything will be fine."

It usually turns out fine because Buehrle quickly establishes a rhythm, then builds off his success. He is one of the fastest-working pitchers in the majors and last April 16, he pitched a complete game against the Seattle Mariners taking only one hour and 39 minutes to finish. He won the game, 2-1, throwing only 106 pitches.

But pitching isn't the only thing the laid-back star does fast. Because of his shyness, Buehrle often races through question-and-answer sessions with reporters. If he wasn't so proficient at throwing cut fastballs, he probably could have success as an auctioneer.

Whatever else he did, he would have a hard time duplicating his prowess as a major league pitcher. Buehrle never has won fewer than 14 games in his four full seasons with the White Sox. He not only leads the majors in quality starts during the last two seasons (47), he leads during the last three seasons (70), too.

Still, the fame, fortune and ability to get a table at the most crowded restaurants that comes with his type of success simply goes against everything Buehrle is about. He said he was recognized only three times last off-season in and around his home just outside of St. Louis--and not even that many raised an eyebrow.

If a fellow passenger on an airplane tries asking Buehrle what he does for a living, most of the time he says he's a businessman. Now he often puts his fiancee, Jamie Streck, between himself and other passengers while flying.

"I'm not the talking type," he said apologetically. "I don't like sitting on the plane."

His sprawling property, on which he hunts deer and wild turkey, is his safe haven, far from his attention-getting job.

Yet, for all the time he spends seeking his privacy, his career path tends to get him noticed. If Buehrle was really into being left alone, he could ask to be a middle reliever or high school baseball coach. Instead, he cherishes his streak of Opening Day starts, which reached four last April 4 against the Cleveland Indians.

He figures he might grow to regret finishing with 14 victories in 2003 because one more would have him entering this season with 15 or more four years in a row. But he is satisfied with his decision to give Esteban Loaiza his last start in 2003 so Loaiza could tie the record for victories by a Mexican-born pitcher with 21.

All of the success, from his 74 victories in four-plus seasons to his status as staff workhorse and his league-leading 245.1 innings last season, only increase Buehrle's time in the spotlight.

"I would still like to win 20 games in a year," he said. "As long as I go out and do what I've done and try to be consistent and give this team a chance to win every time I get the ball, that's all I can do. Ultimately, I would like to get to 20 wins. As long as this team gets to the playoffs and I do my job, that's fine with me."

This might be the season he hits 20, and his engagement might play a big role.

"I didn't go out nearly as much, and it seemed like I worked more in the off-season," Buehrle said. "Back home with my buddies, we'd go out all the time and have a few drinks, kind of chase the ladies around, I guess you might say. Now that I'm engaged, I'm staying home watching movies."

And as for that engagement, Buehrle said there was a method to the madness, much like throwing a breaking ball on a full count to a fastball hitter.

"We kind of joked about it when I first met her because she knew how big of a hunter I was," Buehrle said. "She always said she could see me proposing to somebody, whenever I got engaged, and doing it in a tree stand. So I had to do it in a tree stand.