NOW batting, Scott Karl. Karl enjoys being on
other end of a pitchAbout time, too, said the Milwaukee Brewers' left-hander, who was on the mound the last time the University of Hawaii baseball team won the Western Athletic Conference championship. If you can't remember when, I don't blame you. It has been awhile -- 1992.
For the first time since high school, Karl gets to bat on a regular basis as the Brewers switched from the DH-infected American League to the National League this season. He's no longer the Scott Karl who throws left, bats never.
He batted in interleague games against the Chicago Cubs and Houston Astros last year, going 0-for-4. But that didn't really count, according to Karl.
Never mind that Karl's 1-for-12 this season. He's enjoying every turn at the plate. His lone hit was a single to right against Montreal.
"I was happy to hit again," Karl said in a telephone interview from Phoenix, where the Brewers are playing the Arizona Diamondbacks.
"It's the baseball I remember as a kid growing up. I feel like I'm part of the game now. In the American League, I just pitched and that was all. There's also more strategy involved.
"I'm not very good at it yet. I'm sure I'll get better."
Not that the Brewers are paying him big bucks for his hitting. They re-signed Karl to a three-year, $7-million deal a week before last Christmas.
UNLIKE last year, Karl's off to a good start this season. He suffered his first loss Monday night to the St. Louis Cardinals and is 4-1 with a 3.58 earned run average. Had he won Monday, Karl would have been the first lefty in Brewers' history to start the season 5-0.
"That's all stats. I'm not into that anymore after the miserable start I had last season," said Karl, who was 2-8 before the All-Star break in 1997. "I got caught up with all that stuff. Not anymore."
Karl bounced back to finish the season 10-13, winning eight in a row at the point. And he has picked up where he left off.
Prior to Monday night, the Brewers were 7-0 in games that Karl started.
"The team's assured of at least 30 victories," a Milwaukee sportswriter joked.
Besides getting a chance to hit, Karl's also glad that Milwaukee's back in the National League.
"Milwaukee's a National League city and we're a National League kind of a team," he said. "We don't have the big home run hitters like the teams in the American League. We win with pitching and defense. Scrap out a few runs."
Karl's looking forward to June 1, when the Atlanta Braves return to Milwaukee Country Stadium.
But getting back to his batting . . ."I like it," Karl said. "I used to bat cleanup in high school. I batted around .380 and had a few home runs now and then."
That was at Carlsbad (Calif.) High School.
WINDING up at the University of Hawaii was kind of a fluke, according to Karl.
"I wanted to go to a Pac-10 school, but I broke my ankle my senior year," he said.
As a result, there were no scholarship offers -- except from Hawaii.
"I don't regret it. It turned out to be the best thing that could have happened to me," said Karl, drafted in the sixth round by Milwaukee after his junior year.
Karl posted a 30-13 won-lost record with the Rainbows, going 14-3 in his final season in 1992 as UH won the WAC championship.
His only regret is that colleges use the designated-hitter rule, so pitchers rarely get to bat. In three years with the Rainbows, Karl batted only once.
That was in his freshman year, when the Rainbows exhausted the bench in a 14-inning loss to California. He struck out.