Maroth loses out on the fun
DETROIT -- He has taken one for the baseball gods, first enduring an embarrassing 21-loss season with the Tigers in 2003, then overcoming elbow surgery earlier this season after busting out to a 5-2 start with a 3.56 ERA, returning in September only to be left off the postseason roster.
His rehab was longer and tougher than expected, and he couldn't find a role when he returned. He couldn't bump Nate Robertson, Kenny Rogers, Justin Verlander, or Jeremy Bonderman out of the four-man rotation, and he wasn't a fit to replace anybody in a deep bullpen.
Yes, the baseball gods owe Mike Maroth big-time.
Tigers skipper Jim Leyland always recognized the pain of it all.
He has commented how tough it was to leave Maroth off the postseason roster. His heart told him it wasn't right, but as he looked at his staff and the combinations, his head told him there was no way.
The pain for Maroth, the poster child of the 119-loss Tigers of 2003, was pitching so well to start the season. He was part of Detroit's feel-good story. He went 11-13 (4.31 ERA) in '04, pitching a one-hitter against the Yankees, and 14-14 (with a 4.74 ERA) in '05. The lefthander pitched more than 600 innings from 2003-05 and was expected to be part of the Tigers' solution.
Maroth was a third-round pick of the Red Sox in the 1998 draft out of the University of Central Florida, and made six starts (2-3, 2.90 ERA) for the Single A Lowell Spinners that year. He won 14 games in three minor league stops in '99 after being traded to the Tigers for Bryce Florie.
After posting a .408 winning percentage in his first three major league seasons, Maroth entered 2006 as Leyland's No. 3 starter, behind Rogers and Bonderman. Maroth helped the Tigers get off to a fast start, but his season ground to a halt May 25, when he surrendered six runs in one-third of an inning against Kansas City. He underwent surgery a few days later to remove bone chips in his pitching elbow.
"It's been tough and it's been fun at the same time," said Maroth. "Tough because I can't pitch and help the team on the field, and fun because I'm here experiencing it with my teammates, so it's kind of bittersweet."
On game days, Maroth puts on his uniform, does his work, then watches the game from the dugout. As the Tigers prepared for Game 4 of the World Series last night against the Cardinals, Maroth seemed resigned to his fate.
"I'm just here to support them and encourage them and just be a teammate," said Maroth, who pitched 5 2/3 innings in four relief appearances (9.52 ERA) in September after returning from surgery. "I'm not mad. I want to pitch. It's been frustrating. I didn't come back the way I thought I would. It was just disappointing."
Maroth, 29, is a fighter. In 2003, former Tigers manager Alan Trammell tried to keep Maroth from becoming baseball's first 20-game loser since Oakland's Brian Kingman in 1980. Trammell managed to convince rookie Bonderman to shut it down at 6-19. But the manager couldn't convince Maroth.
Maroth lost No. 20, then No. 21. But in his 33d start, with the Tigers in danger of matching the 1962 Mets for the most losses in a season, Maroth beat the Twins, 9-4, on the final day of the season.
Tigers fans roared at
Three years later, those same fans are applauding a World Series participant.
Craig Monroe, Ramon Santiago, Carlos Guillen, and Brandon Inge put that season behind them. There was never a number attached to their participation on that team.
But after that game, Maroth said he felt as if he had won 20 games. "I really believe what matters is the way you finish," he said. "I see hope. We've heard so much about this city and its diehard fans and we got a taste of it. They could have heckled us, or not even come out. But they came out and supported us and we fed off that."
Other Tigers pitchers haven't forgotten that performance. "We think about Mike every time we go out on the mound," Bonderman said. "We know he should be out there with us. He deserves to be out there with us."
For now, Maroth is just soaking in the experience.
"I'm completely healthy," he said. "My arm feels good and I'm ready to go. It just didn't work out that I would be ready for the playoffs.
"Hopefully, I can pick up where I left off and start the same way I did this season and continue that through a whole year. I'm not missing out on the experience. I'm here for that. I'm missing out on being on the field."
Which is something he will never get back.
Nick Cafardo can be reached at cafardo@globe.com. 
