Porters Chapel Assistant coach Mike Grzanich sits on the bench wearing a Houston Astros baseball cap during basketball practice at PCA. Grzanich played in one game with the Astros before being sent to the minor leagues. After injuring his arm, he started a coaching career. (C. Todd ShermanThe Vicksburg Post)

The smell of hot dogs, dirt and stale peanuts drifted through the Astrodome as Houstons newest reliever strolled in from the bullpen.

Mike Grzanich had been waiting a lifetime for this moment, and took it all in while barely remembering any of it. He had been a major leaguer for about a week, but had yet to get into a game.

Finally, on May 15, 1998, he got the call from the bullpen. And then another telling him to stop throwing. Then another call to warm up, and another to stop. By the time he took the mound in the fifth inning, he was a bundle of nerves.

“My first 10 pitches were balls, and I swear that 11th was higher than the first 10, but he called it a strike,” Grzanich, now an assistant basketball coach at Porters Chapel Academy, said with a laugh.

Grzanich settled down, and got out of the inning after allowing two runs, a hit, the two walks and a strikeout of the opposing pitcher, Pittsburgh’s Jose Silva. The Pirates went on to win the game, 7-2, but Grzanich had experienced something most people only dream about.

“It was every kid’s dream,” Grzanich said. “When I was a little kid, that’s all I wanted to do, and I was fortunate to have my dream come true. It was the most exciting time of my life.”

Those first 10 pitches set the tone for the next couple of years for Grzanich, though. The former Illinois prep star and Jackson General was branded as having control problems by the Astros’ coaching staff. He never got a chance to pitch in the big leagues again, and two elbow surgeries in the next two years would leave his baseball career in doubt.

Growing up loving baseball

Grzanich (pronounced GURZ-nich) grew up in tiny Dunfermline, Ill., a town about 30 miles southwest of Peoria that is so small it seems to share a map dot with a neighboring community.

Six towns, including Dunfermline, sent 250 of their children to Lewistown High School, nearly 20 miles away. The low number of students made competing in some sports, like football, difficult.

“They wanted me to play football,” Grzanich said. “I went to one of the football games and three kids got sent to the hospital. I said you’re crazy.'”

Lewistown’s basketball team was a little better, and the baseball team, led by Grzanich, was king.

In three years as a starter, he helped Lewistown to two state playoff appearances. In Illinois, only the top eight schools make the playoffs.

Grzanich hit .448, with 18 home runs, 94 RBIs and 24 doubles in 82 career games, and he was even more dominant on the mound.

In 39 games, Grzanich went 29-3 with a 1.78 ERA and 258 strikeouts. He was Lewistown’s best pitcher as a sophomore, and went 11-0 in his junior year, a win total that is still among the best in Illinois high school history.

He was an all-state selection in 1991, and Lewistown retired his No. 5 jersey several years later.

“You follow baseball around here, you mention Mike Grzanich and everybody knows who you’re talking about,” said Ned Graham, Grzanich’s high school coach.

It was all good enough to earn a scholarship to Parkland Junior College in Champaign, Ill. A sore arm kept him on the bench his freshman year, but that was all right by him. He wasn’t staying long anyway.

His junior college coach took Grzanich to a tryout camp to which the the pitcher wasn’t invited. Neither thought anything would come of it. It was just to show him the process, and what to expect the following year when he would really be trying to gain the attention of scouts.

As it turned out, he was quite the party-crasher.

Out of the dozens of players there, Grzanich was the most impressive. He was the only one signed out of the tryout, and was drafted by the Houston Astros in the 19th round of the 1992 amateur draft.

“It helps to be in the right place at the right time, and that’s kind of what happened,” Grzanich said. “You never know what if’ and that’s something I never wanted to get left with. You’ve got to leave it all out there, because there’s no tomorrow. There’s no guarantees.”

In the minors, he found some extra pop on his fastball and was throwing 96 mph. He combined the speed with a knuckleball, and was on a steady course to the majors.

Grzanich moved up one level every year, from Rookie ball in Florida in 1994, to a stop in Jackson for the Double-A Generals in 1996.

While with the Generals, he met his future wife, found a home and crossed paths with his future boss. PCA head basketball coach Kevin Griffin, then a young pitcher in the Florida Marlins’ organization, played against Grzanich, although neither was sure exactly when.

“We found out we had played baseball against each other at some point in the last eight years,” Griffin said.

Grzanich’s main focus at the time, though, was on getting to the majors. He played for Triple-A New Orleans in 1997 and started the 1998 season there, and when Houston reliever Mike Magnante went on the disabled list early in the 1998 season Grzanich had his chance.