TROY — Tri-City ValleyCats pitching coach Brooks Carey roomed with future Hall of Famer Cal Ripken Jr. and took part in the longest game in professional baseball history during his memorable minor league career.
One thing Carey didn’t do was make it to The Show. He reached as high as Triple-A Rochester in 1981 as a lefty starter in the Baltimore Orioles’ system before shoulder problems derailed his career.
When: 6:30 p.m. Tuesday
Where: Joseph L. Bruno Stadium, Troy
“I was a hair from being called up to the big leagues,” Carey recalled. “The mistake I made, I took a lot of medication I probably shouldn’t have taken to get the pain out of my shoulder and then I threw a ton of innings in my career.”
Carey, 67, acknowledged it was difficult coming that close.
“I got over it — about two years ago,” he said.
Carey passes along his knowledge, even the painful lessons, to his pitchers in his first year with the ValleyCats. Carey spent the previous four seasons as manager of the New Jersey Jackals, Tri-City’s Frontier League rival, before resigning last October.
Carey was home with his wife in the Tampa, Fla., area and realized his baseball career could be over. Then he got a call last December from ValleyCats manager Pete Incaviglia, looking to replace pitching coach Joe Gannon, who wasn’t returning for family reasons.
“It took me about three minutes and my wife heard me talking about a job somewhere, and she goes, ‘Take it!’ ” Carey said. “She only had me for three months and that was enough.”
Carey added he and Incaviglia “get along great” as old-school baseball men who don’t rely heavily on analytics.
“Brooksy’s been great,” Incaviglia said. “He’s done a fantastic job with the pitchers. He really cares about his players and has a lot…
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